Pelzer Mayor Chase Smithwick gave a “State of Pelzer” address to citizens last Tuesday (June 30). Approximately 40 people attended the event which was held at the Pelzer Gym.
Smithwick provided information on a variety of issues and topics, many of which he campaigned on prior to being elected mayor.
Among them, financial issues and challenges, delinquent audits and followup on grants, lack of oversight on spending and transparency by the town.
He provided updates on 18 specific items that have been addressed since he and three new council members took office.
Mayor Smithwick then talked about “Our Vision” and current projects including the Monkey Park, Bill Hopkins Sports Complex, Recreation, Lagoon & Overlook Park and Conservation. He also mentioned River Access, the importance of having a Town Square along with other related items.
He also provided an update on the Community Building, Hospital Building and drainage issues.
Before getting into the details of his address, Mayor Smithwick said he wanted to provide “transparency, accountability and education” with the information he intended to present and “meeting expectations”.
He began with what he and three new councilmembers encountered when they took office in January of this year.
“What We Walked Into” – Mayor Smithwick presented a list of 13 items including no budget passed, delinquent audits, reporting issues with ARPA and FEMA grants, lapsed insurance and under insured town assets, meeting inconsistencies, lack of grant application, revenue challenges, overspending and paying for duplicate services, no financial oversight, no transparency, no long term planning, drainage issues throughout the town and legal/property issues.
“There was no budget passed”, he said. “You have to have a budget, you can’t use funds without funds being there.” “We passed a budget,” Smithwick said, with the help of a good team including the Appalachian Council of Governments, Municipal Association of SC and Town Clerk Heather Graham. A budget was passed in January and Council recently approved the 2026-27 budget.
Required yearly audits had not been done for the past three years. Smithwick said audits for 2023-25 have now been completed.
Smithwick provided brief details on each of the 13 items in his list. (Details to be reported in Part Two article in The Journal next week)
“What We’ve Done” – Next he presented information on 18 things that have been accomplished since taking office in January.
Included are – passing a budget in January, passing a new fiscal year budget (2026-27), providing a budget comparison, audits caught up, state reporting corrected, FEMA and ARPA grant compliance, insurance restored reflecting actual values, more than 16 grant applications completed, AARP grant and other awards, cost savings of approximately $6,000, $10,000 in sponsorships/donations brought in to help with projects, events, a Sharepoint, website updated, more transparency, project and spending tracker software and purchase order resolution.
He also added that an assistant clerk had been hired to help with getting things updated and there is now a new division of duties for the clerk and assistant clerk.
The Anderson County Hazard Mitigation Plan was adopted, town records are now available in digital and paper formats and meeting is now being recorded and have an improved format.
Next on the agenda was addressing current projects and the future.
“Our Vision & Current Projects”
Included are improvements to the Monkey Park and Bill Hopkins Sports Complex, providing more recreation with trails and improvements, the Lagoon and Overlook Park, Conservation and establishing a Town Square.
Also working with business Entrepreneurs, establishing a Farmers Market, creating Foot Traffic, increasing Saluda River access, SCDNR partnership, Walkability, Streetscapes, Arts and Culture.
He also provided updates on the Community Building, Hospital Building and drainage issues.
“Our Roadmap”
Mayor Smithwick also touched on a Four-Year plan (“I’m Here Phase), an Eight-Year plan (“I May Be Here” Phase) and a Lifetime Plan, (“Building a vision that outlives any one mayor”)
“Why This Matters”
Smithwick closed with a lenghthy summary . . . “Why This Matters” which provided interesting statistics and explained the Mayor’s vision and reasons for wanting to lead Pelzer into the future. His closing comments will be published in The Journal next week along with additional details on the items mentioned this week.
