Secondary runway 10/34 will come up at the Darlington County Jetport, as decided by the Darlington County Council.
At Monday’s meeting, the council approved hiring Hartsville-based Dawkins Concrete to tear up runway 34.
“We approved the bid that (The LPA GROUP) recommended we needed,” councilwoman Anne Warr said. “We came to the agreement that we would tear up that end of the runway, and the pilots out at the airport seemed to be satisfied with that because part of (LPA’s) recommendation was to extend part of another runway to make up for the loss of turning space.”
Dawkins Concrete’s bid was $23,515 to tear up runway 34. Part of the LPA’s recommendation was to widen runway 23 while simultaneously getting rid of runway 10/34 so there would be ample turn space for planes.
Council also made what some county residents would deem a positive decision by voting against finalizing an ordinance that would require any person appointed to serve on a county board or commission to be a Darlington County resident.
If the ordinance had passed, it would have meant that people such as Brandon Nolan, chairman of the Darlington County Fire Board, would have to resign and would leave many positions on many boards vacant.
“My house is two miles down from Society Hill fire station,” he said. “I live on the Chesterfield County/Darlington County line, but the fire board requires seven of Society Hill’s 11 firefighters to be at meetings.”
Nolan said just about every firefighter at the Society Hill station, with the exception of one, lives outside Darlington County limits. He said passing the ordinance would have had a drastic effect on that station, along with others.
“All of this came up because we didn’t have full disclosure of information of people serving on boards,” councilman Marvin Le Flowers said. “I think that with council, before we recommend a person onto a board, we need to have addresses and information, and we need to be able to answer questions about the people we nominate (if asked).”
Councilman Alex “Buz” Shaw said he voted against the ordinance because it was unfair.
“It shouldn’t be passed because people like this young man will lose their jobs, and he brings an asset as a firefighter,” he said. “It’s not fair to say that a person has to live here to serve here.”
In other news, the Council had first reading of an Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination (IDDE) Ordinance that, if approved, would establish standards for polluting discharge to the county’s storm drain system, state bodies of water and anything that degrades the county’s water quality.
The IDDE ordinance is intended to cover the third of six Minimum Control Measures in the overall Stormwater Management Plan. The plan is state-mandated for the county to adopt and implement.
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