By Stan Welch
Pelzer Town Council met with a bare quorum for the last time Monday night. A special municipal election Tuesday will fill the other two seats on the Council. It will decide a new mayor and one seat on council. The midterm resignation of Councilwoman Olene Bear and the death of Mayor Roger Scott left the two seats open.
Council moved quickly through the agenda. Town Clerk Cheryl Boudreau reported that fifty work orders had been completed in June. She also reported that the deputies on patrol had made 84 traffic stops, answered 36 calls for service and made five arrests.
Mayor Pro Tem Ragland explained that the town had received a bid for repairing the lights on the ballfields. The bid, from The Lighting Company and Electric Construction, LLC was for less than the fourteen thousand dollars the town had budgeted for the project, and the bid was approved. Senator Gambrell and County Councilwoman Cindy Wilson both provided funding for the project.
Ragland then stated that a bid of four thousand dollars had been received from Lunch Box Creative to spearhead the branding of the town. That amount was less than half what the town had budgeted. The bid was approved but the project will not proceed until public input has been received.
Ragland then reported that Bill Smythe, the new owner of the building at the end of the strip mall on Main Street, had agreed to allow the painting of a mural on his building as part of the promotion of the town. Councilman Eddie Waits asked that Smythe be approached concerning a commitment as to the life of the mural. “I’d hate to spend that money ($5000) and the building be sold a couple of years later, and the mural painted over.” Ragland agreed that such a commitment would be a good idea.
Ragland explained that 124 new street lights had been installed but that there were still areas of the town that are dark and unsafe. “We would like the public to help us identify the areas that need additional lighting.”
The Council also voted to seek bids on the repair and capping of the gym’s chimney, and the connecting of the sewer lines from the ballfield concession stand to either the Pelzer line, which would involve going under Highway 20, or to the West Pelzer line near the rescue squad.
