By David Meade
Williamston Town Council held a budget work session last Thursday May 26 in preparation of finalizing their 2016-17 budget. Mayor Mack Durham, along with Councilmembers and Department Heads went through each department discussing various details of the budget. Most of the discussion was related to Parks and Recreation and the Hospitality Tax fund.
Mayor Durham said he planned to continue the area recreation program with subsidies from the county and other two municipalities. He said he had sent a formal letter to Pelzer, West Pelzer and Anderson County about his proposal to continue to offer a recreation program for the area. Durham said he is requesting $5000 from the county to help fund recreation for children who live in the county and who are outside the municipalities.
Durham said he would like to keep recreation as a community program and continue to build relationships with the other municipalities and the county to cover the expense of offering a recreation program.
Under the current budget, Williamston is funding $7,500, which is the same amount the town was paying for a part time director for the program in the past.
The town also provides some labor in upkeep and striping of the fields.
Councilman Rockey Burgess indicated that he thought the county should be providing additional funding for the kids who live outside of Williamston and the other two towns.
“I can’t believe the county wouldn’t pitch in more when you look at the number of kids,” he said.
Durham said the request for funding was last minute for the county and the other two towns
“It is a last minute request. They are working on their budgets too,” he said. “We are showing our willingness to participate and it opens the door to provide recreation in our area.”
Durham said Williamston will have the same expense for the recreation program that it has had for years. He said the town is also taking “a defined look at who is participating.”
“It will be a more transparent program under one entity,” he said.
The additional funding being requested from the county, Pelzer and West Pelzer will cover the added expense for the director to continue in the program. The expense had been covered by Pelzer until recently.
Durham said the town will have to look at future improvement of recreation facilities, probably next year.
“Recreation is important for quality of life,” he said. “I want to keep our town family friendly. I am planning a meeting with the county over the summer. Partnerships and relationships are very important to move forward.”
“It is more important to me to have these type relationships develope. We are a bigger part of the picture,” Durham said.
On the Hospitality Tax budget Durham said he is putting more structure in that fund by having formal applications be made for any requests for funding.
He said in the future the town will require a summary of how the money is spent.
Each of the eighteen requests was briefly discussed. The total hospitality fund budget is $185,000.
Durham said the town has $70,000 of Hospitality Tax funds in “Restricted Reserves”. “We can use it only if all of this year’s funding is spent,” he said.
Durham said he is recommending that $30,000 be earmarked for the depot improvement project and $40,000 for Master Plan and Envision Williamston (Main Street) recommendations.
Envision Williamston requests include an electronic message board, Main Street Challenge program, artwork/mural project, banners as part of the Walmart strategy and funding for a Hands On Williamston Day Yall (HOWDY) cleanup day.
Durham said he was recommending that a larger Gateway project funding request not be considered for this year.
There was some discussion about water and sewer rates.
The town has absobed at least two increases in water rates and is expecting another increase by the AJRWS in July.
Mayor Durham said the town does need to consider covering the increases but will “hold the line as long as we can.”
The Anderson Joint Regional Water System is plannning significant opeartional expenses as they plan for needed upgrades to the system which provides water to Williamston and other water companies in Anderson County.
Additional details on the budget including hospitality tax funding requests and Main Street budget requests will be in the June 8 issue of The Journal.
Council is expected to hold second reading on the 2016-17 budget at their next meeting on Monday, June 13 at 6:30 p.m.
A public hearing on the budget is also scheduled for the meeting.
