Six hopefuls vie for Florence City Council seats

Three Republicans and three Democrats will be on their respective parties’ ballots during the June 10 primaries for two at-large Florence City Council seats.
The two candidates from each party who receive the most votes will face one another in November’s general election.
The candidates recently spoke with the Morning News about their goals and accomplishments as well as the challenges facing the city.
Republicans
Bobby Holland (incumbent)
Bobby Holland, a councilman for the past 13 years, said the council has saved residents about $63 million in property taxes through a local option sales tax since the mid-1990s.
Holland, 64, also said the council has “had the foresight” to start buying downtown properties for revitalization and plans to help surrounding areas meet their water needs with the city’s surface water treatment plant on the Great Pee Dee River.
Holland said the city faces a challenge, however, as the demand for services increases without a stream of property tax revenue from homeowners.
Florence also needs to create a teen center for at-risk youths, he said. Also, the city can’t redevelop downtown by itself, Holland said.
“We need to get some private investors in to help bring that revitalization downtown,” he said.

Rick Woodard (incumbent)
Rick Woodard also has served 13 years on city council. Like Holland, he cited the elimination of city property taxes and the upgradable surface water treatment plant as major accomplishments.
Woodard, 47, also lauded a greenspace project that spans from ScienceSouth’s Freedom Florence site past the Stockade and includes a path to the Drs. Bruce & Lee Foundation Library.
Florence can decrease criminal activity, including gangs, through measures to “beef up” the police force and keep children interested in education and out of trouble, Woodard said.
“Hopefully you’ll give (the children) tools so that gangs look less attractive to them,” he said.
The city also hopes to use such sources as federal HOPE VI grants to rebuild communities as proud, self-sufficient and cohesive neighborhoods, Woodard said. The citizens can then “take back their area” and crime will drop, he said.
Downtown redevelopment will continue to be a challenge, although “there’s a ton of positive things going on” as plans from the past decade begin to take shape, Woodard said.
In response to concerns over where he lives, Woodard said he lives in Florence, while a house in Wilmington, N.C., is his wife’s home.
“If I wasn’t a legal resident of my community, I wouldn’t be on city council right now,” he said.
Woodard said that although he visits his wife some weekends, he lives at 700 S. Cashua Drive, Unit 18. The title of that residence is in his name as well as his parents’.
Woodard runs Woodard Insurance Agency LLC, and is licensed to sell real estate in North Carolina and South Carolina, but his businesses and licenses are tied to his Florence residence.

Glynn Willis
Glynn Willis is serving his final month on the Florence County/Municipal Planning Commission before he will begin serving on the city’s re-established planning commission in July.
Willis, 58, said he’s running for city council on a platform of continued openness to the community and wants to hold town hall meetings in the evenings.
Florence must make long-term plans to improve its quality of life even though the city is growing and its infrastructure needs are stretched, Willis said. In addition, he aims for the city to improve its appearance by updating an obsolete sign ordinance and toughening the rules on property maintenance.
Willis said that decreasing crime and combating gangs are important goals of his. He also wants to help city officials take businesses associated with crime to court and, as a last resort, revoke their licenses.
Democrats
Thurmond Becote
Thurmond Becote is serving his first term on the Florence School District 1 Board of Trustees. But Becote, 54, said he’s running for city council because he wants to create “diverse thinking” among city council members.
“The at-large seat covers the entire spectrum of the city,” he said.
Areas of town, particularly in north and east Florence, have vacant houses and streets needing repairs, Becote said.
“I feel that everybody’s entitled to equal services because everybody pays taxes,” he said.
The city should provide more funding and police officers to stop gangs, which are a problem in all neighborhoods, he said.
Becote said the council faces a lack of public participation because it holds its meetings at 1 p.m. Mondays, when many people are at work. But the candidate said he hopes to help bring what he called a divided city together and help residents work hard for the common cause of improving Florence.
He also said Florence should become a “green” city that conserves energy and runs its schools and facilities more efficiently.

Steve Powers
Steve Powers said an at-large councilman should keep the lines of communication with citizens open through monthly town hall meetings.
“I feel like a lot of the citizens think they’re being left out,” he said.
Powers, 52, serves as president of the Florence Downtown Merchants Association and is in his second term as vice chairman of Florence’s Design Review Board.
If elected as a councilman, he hopes to improve communication between the city and county councils, he said.
“If we can do that, the citizens of Florence will only benefit,” he said.
Powers said one of his priorities would be to combat gang activity by providing positive alternatives such as the Boys & Girls Club.
His other public safety concerns include traffic traveling too fast through neighborhoods. He said city council can initiate a solution to the problem by pushing for S.C. Department of Transportation traffic studies of city streets.
He said that while downtown redevelopment might seem slow to some people, the Design Review Board has approved $52.5 million in certificates of appropriateness for projects since June 2005.
“There is no quick fix if we’re going to do it right,” he said.
Along with revitalization, however, comes the high cost of improving downtown’s aging, cracking and leaking water and sewer lines — some at least 60 years old, he said.
“What’s underground comes with it,” he said.

Octavia Williams-Blake
Octavia Williams-Blake said that if she’s elected, she wants the citizens of Florence to feel like she truly represents the entire city.
Williams-Blake, 35, said she would seek to develop a comprehensive plan for the redevelopment of Florence and a vision for the city’s downtown that merchants and residents can all be comfortable with, she said.
One of her top goals, she said, would be for Florence to receive All-America City status. That would give the citizens something to be proud of and might help companies choose the city as a home for their business.
Williams-Blake said she wants to promote a “sense of shared responsibility” among the community that will make Florence a better place to live.
“Being the first woman on city council in over 50 years may be a challenge for some, but it’s an opportunity for me,” she said.