Hartsville must find funding to continue with Comprehensive 2020 Plan

By: | SCNow
Published: June 20, 2008

Funding issues will have to be solved if Hartsville is to continue to proceed with projects listed in the Comprehensive 2020 Plan.

That was the conclusion of a group of Hartsville city staff and three planning commission members who met Tuesday to review the city’s progress on the plan.

“We have a vision,” City Manager James L. Pennington said, “and the vision is the Comp 2020 Plan. The question is: where do we go with it?”

However, Pennington summarized the current dilemma. “This is the year of the budget,” talking about funding issues the city council faces.

The Comprehensive 2020 Plan gives the city the opportunity to improve, but funding issues must be addressed.

Department heads, members of the planning commission and Byerly Foundation Executive Director Richard Puffer had a roundtable discussion on the progress so far and where they would like to go.

Parks and Leisure Director Phil Gardner said his list for Comprehensive 2020 is nearly completed.

The staff listed such things as improvements to Byerly Park, the new cooperative effort with Clemson University on the Butler High School renovation project and several improvements in public works.

However, a lack of funding seemed to be a common theme.

Among things the city has planned for 2020 that need funding are: expanding the sanitary sewer system, renovating or clearing dilapidated housing, adding more affordable housing, adding and upgrading services for a “Clean Community” and various improvements on roads and streets.

Improvements at the Hartsville Airport were also earmarked.

And the issue of annexation emerged several times.

Pennington has remarked several times in the past that Hartsville, having a population under 10,000, offers the same services of a city of 30,000 to 40,000 people.

This is because the city serves those in the greater Hartsville area as well as city residents.

The city is consistently attempting to upgrade services to its residents, but a small tax base is proving difficult to overcome.

Department leaders said their projects are moving forward; however, they are only moving incrementally because of funding issues.

Puffer said the Byerly Foundation and the “Selling Hartsville” initiative are wiling to help the city in any way possible to improve economic development.

“These are the most exciting times in Hartsville in my 30-some years here,” Puffer said to start the meeting. Puffer’s reference was to the “tipping point” the city faces.

Puffer believes the city could run exceptionally well in the future with the right actions. “That’s why I said this is the most exciting time,” he said, “because this could go very well.”

The staff agreed that several ad hoc committees needed to be created in order to find funding and continue with projects listed in the Comprehensive 2020 Plan.

The committees will examine opportunities for increased funding.