Williamsburg County makes access to government services easy

KINGSTREE — With several projects in the works, and one nearing completion, the government of Williamsburg County is reaching out to offer residents better access to government services as well as local education, senior citizen activities and a number of other projects.

One venture that is scheduled for completion this spring is the One-Stop Shop Partnership Center at the old Chavis Elementary School building near Heming-
way. The property, which is being leased to the county by the Williamsburg County School District, has been undergoing renovations for the past few months and will house a number of government offices as well as other agencies from around the area.

“We have identified 11 county departments that will be locating in the facility,” Williamsburg County Supervisor Stanley S. Pasley said at a recent meeting of the county council.

Among those departments are the county auditor, a satellite office for the county supervisor as well as one for county council, the development board, sheriff’s office, tax collector, magistrate, recreation and Veterans Affairs.

By having these offices located in the eastern part of Williamsburg County, a number of residents will no longer have to make the drive to Kingstree to take care of certain county matters.

Other agencies are slated to locate in the building, too. Though the list was still in the process of being finalized, county officials said they had received commitments from several of prospective agencies: the Department of Social Services, Job Corps, Waccamaw Regional Planning Council, S.C. Employment Security, Telamon Youth Build, Vocational Rehabilitation, Waccamaw EOC, Williamsburg Technical College, Vital Aging, Williamsburg County School District, RALI and 5 Star Learning.

The renovation of the Chavis building has impressed a number of the interested agencies, Pasley said. The building, which was originally built as a segregated high school in the 1920s, served as a middle school then an elementary school before it stopped housing students in 2007 when the new Hemingway Elementary School was built. For the last two years it’s housed primarily the Williamsburg County School Adult Education program as well as some community events.

“We’re excited,” Pasley said. “We’re on target to potentially open the facility between he first of April and the 15 of April.

“We’re about to make this dream and this vision a reality for the citizens, particularly in the eastern part of Williamsburg County, in Hemingway and the surrounding communities. This is a long time desire on their part and we’re about to make it a reality.”

Another project the county is ramping up involves the renovation of existing county facilities as well as the building of new one.

On Aug. 12, Pasley presented a preliminary proposal to the Williamsburg County Council Finance Committee for the renovation and construction of government facilities within the county. Dubbed the Williamsburg County Government Capital Improvement Plan, Pasley outlined what would be a five-year project to revitalize the county’s government facilities.

With a price tag of nearly $15 million, the project would tackle, among many other projects, the building of a Public Service Administration Building and renovation of the historic county courthouse.

Pasley announced at a March 4 meeting of the Williamsburg County Council the U.S. Department of Agriculture informed his office that a Letter of Intent had been issued to construct a new Public Service Administration Building and to renovate the historic courthouse.

“It is a jewel,” Pasley said, speaking of the courthouse when the project was first presented in August. “There has not been anything done with that courthouse in about 64 years.”

The Robert Mills design was built in 1823 and stands as one the only works of the nationally known architect in South Carolina, let alone the East Coast. Early estimates placed the courthouse renovation at near $3 million and, should things go as planned, be completed sometime near the end of 2012.

As specifics of the county’s Capital Improvement Plan continue to come in, operating in order from the first of four major projects, plans to finalize the building of a new public administration facility continue to progress. If everything goes according to plan, the supervisor’s presentation calls for the new building to be followed by the courthouse and complex renovation, a new Emergency Operations and 911 Center, construction of a new Department of Social Services Building and work for new sheriff’s offices and county detention center.

It is hoped all four phases will be finished by January 2013.

“This could happen quicker, depending upon our situation,” Pasley told the committee in August. “But this is how we tried to project it out based upon what we know our abilities are at this particular time and what we’ve identified as the funding sources available to us.”

As of the most recent meeting on the project March 3, Pasley said he and his staff were continuing to work on acquiring stimulus funds for the capital projects, exploring a number of other financial options. Pre-applications have been submitted to the USDA-Rural Development for the Public Service Administration Building, Courthouse Renovation, EOC/911 Center and the DSS Building.