May 2016 Council Highlights

Council held a public hearing to gain input from our residents on the 2016-17 fiscal year budget. The current City operating budget is just over $60 million. The proposed budget will increase by 3% to just over 62 million. This increase will be covered by our current revenue sources, where we expect an increase of 2%. Therefore, City residents should not expect to see a tax increase in the upcoming year.

Council also held a public hearing to receive comments from the public on the Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluations Report. This is a report on how the City utilized it’s Entitlement Funds in 2015-16 in the amount of $285,929. The City is required to spend these funds on low to moderate areas, housing and to clean up slum and blight. The 2015-16 funds were primarily used to support programs for housing repair and demolition, youth employment, YMCA Youth Services, Wateree Aids Task Force and United Ministries.

Council has approved a resolution to hire a company named Tetra Tech, out of Maitland, Florida. Their flood recovery assistance team is experienced with helping community recover. They will assist the City with providing technical assistance, project formulation and disaster grant application assistance associated with the October 2015 flood. The City’s initial loss estimates were well over $7 million with a list that continues to grow from the aftermath of the flood. It’s important that we use agencies such as this to help recover the expenses the City incurs. Our goal is to find full funding through available resources, so the costs do not have to be passed down to our residents.

Council approved a request to have 4.65 acres, located at 2120 Thomas Sumter Highway, rezoned from General Commercial and Agricultural Conservation to General Commercial. The proposed use of the property is for Palmetto Storage, a mini-warehouse.

OTHER NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS:

In addition to the 16 city streets we previously announced, there are 24 new State streets that have recently gone under contracted to be resurfaced within the City this year:

Did you know? RTA's buses are now trackable. You can get up-to-the-minute locations on your bus arrival and pick-up locations with RouteShout at RouteShout.com or download the app for Android and iOS devices. The app let’s you choose “Locate Me” to find your closet bus pick-up location and more. Once you download to app search for ‘Santee Wateree Regional Transportation Authority’.

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