Lake City City Council OKs December blue laws exemption

LAKE CITY — Lake City stores can open at 10 a.m. on Sundays for the remainder of December now that Lake City City Council has passed an suspension to the state’s blue laws that restrict Sunday business hours.

City attorney James Epps said the Greater Lake City Chamber of Commerce recommended the action, which passed Dec. 8 with six council members in favor and councilman Billy Brown abstaining.

It was the first time Lake City’s council has approved such a measure, city attorney James Epps said.

During the holiday season, cities and counties can make exceptions to the state’s blue laws, Epps said. Florence County passed a similar ordinance in November.

Neither the city’s nor the county’s ordinance affect the Sunday sales of alcohol, which is regulated under a separate state law.

Also at the Dec. 8 meeting, council gave final approval to two ordinances that re-establish the city’s building inspections department and create a city Board of Building Code Appeals.

The ordinances both passed 6-1 during council’s Dec. 8 meeting, and councilman Jason Springs cast the dissenting vote against each.

Springs said last month that the city sent Florence County a letter dated Sept. 21 stating that in 30 days, the city would no longer have the county providing its building inspections.

The county had provided building inspections at no cost to the city, but the county did collect building permit fees from within the city.

Lake City’s new fees for building inspections are identical to those set by Florence County.

Lake City Fire Chief Tony Singletary has taken on the city building inspector’s duties with no additional compensation, Mayor Lovith Anderson Jr. said last month. Next year’s city budget will include training costs for Singletary, the mayor said.

Singletary took over as Lake City’s building inspector for three years after Ronnie McKnight, who trained him, died in 1998, Singletary said last month.

Council voted in September 2007 to approve a one-year agreement for the county to provide inspections while the city had a 30-day option to discontinue the services.

City attorney James Epps said at last month’s council meeting that he understood that the agreement had expired, and Mayor Lovith Anderson Jr. said it had expired a year ago.

Springs said last month that he felt like the decision to re-establish the city’s building inspections department had “already been made.”

Anderson said the city decided to re-establish its building inspections department after receiving complaints from contractors. Springs said the purpose of the codes is to protect homeowners from substandard workmanship not necessarily by contractors, but by subcontractors.

He said Singletary, the fire chief, faces enough extra duties and is “stretched thin” already. Springs also said he’s concerned with the liability of having an uncertified person doing inspections.

Singletary said last month that he would be “grandfathered in” for at least a year because of his 12 years’ experience with building inspections for the city.

Council also approved a $20,000 bid by Lane Roofing Co. of Lake City for the repair of the Lake City Fire Department’s roof, which is leaking. The bid was the only one the city received after re-bidding the project amid council members’ concerns over whether the previous low bidder was bonded.

The previous low bid was $12,000, and that bidder didn’t submit a second bid when the city sought new bids for the project.

“At this point, the roof is not getting any better” amid recent rainfall and the upcoming springtime storms, Anderson said.

“The sooner we get that taken care of, the better off we’ll be,” he added.

Lane Roofing Co.’s bid was in line with the other original bids, excluding the $12,000 low bid, Assistant City Administrator John H. Whittleton Jr. said.

Council voted 6-1 to accept the bid. Councilwoman Sondra Fleming-Crosby, who said the city should seek additional bids, cast the dissenting vote.

Council members also voted to change the method by which it secures city fund deposits worth more than the $250,000 insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

They voted unanimously to go to the “pooling” method, which under state law offers the benefit of having the funds monitored daily by the state treasurer’s office while they are in the bank, Epps said. The city had been using the “dedicated method,” which secured the funds through government bonds but required the city to monitor the money, Epps said.

Council approved bills including the emergency purchase worth $4,804 to Tencarva Machinery Co. for replacement of the rotating assembly that failed recently at the town’s main sewer pump station, on Church Street.

Councilman Bill Sebnick asked Lake City Police Chief Billy Brown whether golf carts are legal to drive on the streets of Lake City. Brown said the carts are legal if the drivers have permits from the S.C. Department of Motor Vehicles to drive them. Golf cart drivers, however, can’t cross major highways, he said.

Brown also said they must carry insurance and that if they don’t have insurance or permit, they would be cited just like any motorist driving a car.

Sebnick also mentioned that he sees vendors occasionally at the intersection of Main Street and Ron McNair Boulevard and asked whether such vendors have to get business licenses.

Lake City Finance Director Belinda Rodgers said the vendors are exempt from business licenses if they sell produce they’ve grown, but if they buy and resell items, they must have a license.

“We just have to take them at their word,” she said.

Brown, the police chief, said he and his officers usually can tell which vendors grow their own produce.

Brown also said that any residents who plan to travel out of town and want police officers to check on their property should call the police department at (843) 374-5411.

After emerging from a 12-minute executive session, council voted to enter a one-year, $1,000-a-month agreement for T-Mobile South to lease space on the city’s checkerboard-painted water tank.

During citizen comments, Carl McFadden, who lives in the Deep River Street area, asked the city to remove dirt that covers about two feet of either side of the road on several streets in his neighborhood. He said doing so on Johnson, Lattimore, Wilmont, McClam and other streets would help water drain more easily after a great deal of recent rainfall.

Anderson said the city is already receiving some assistance in the area from Florence County jail inmates, who are cleaning ditches while no snakes are out because of the cold weather.

Anderson also said local officials have submitted a list of 16 Lake City roads in need of federal stimulus funds for paving. S.C. Department of Transportation commissioner Marvin Stevenson responded in a letter, however, that only three of the roads — Acline, Fairview and Cedar streets — would qualify for the stimulus funding, none of which is currently available.

Epps concluded the Dec. 8 meeting with his memories of the late R.R. “Rack” Whitlock, who preceded him as city attorney and “took (him) under his wing” in 1969.

“They don’t teach you how to be a city attorney in law school,” Epps said.

Epps said he soon became assistant city attorney for a monthly retainer of $25.

Epps also read a tribute he wrote to Whitlock after the attorney’s death, in 1975. The tribute was published in the Lake City News & Post.

PROPOSED LAKE CITY BUILDING PERMIT FEES
Based on project’s total cost valuation by owner or contractor

• One cent to $1,000 — $15
  
• $1,001 to $50,000 — $15 for the first $1,000, plus $5 for each additional $1,000 up to and including $50,000
  
• $50,001 to $100,000 — $260 for the first $50,000, plus $4 for each additional $1,000 up to and including $100,000
  
• $100,001 to $500,000 — $460 for the first $100,000, plus $3 for each additional $1,000 up to and including $500,000
  
• $500,001 and above — $1,660 for the first $500,000, plus $2 for each additional $1,000

OTHER FEES

• House moving — $100
  
• Appeal for code-related issue to Board of Building Code Appeals — $100 with documentation of issue
  
• Building permit re-inspection — $25

PROPOSED BOARD OF BUILDING CODE APPEALS

• Would consist of three to nine members appointed by Lake City City Council to staggered terms of three years
  
• Would elect a chairperson and vice-chairperson to serve one-year terms
  
• Would appoint a secretary who is a member of Lake City staff and who will serve a one-year term

— SOURCE: City of Lake City