Florence County seeks grants for McCall Farms expansion, Lake City sidewalks

FLORENCE — Florence County Council has voted to apply for a grant of nearly $580,000 to help McCall Farms cover the estimated cost of a recently announced expansion in Effingham.

The farming, canning and distribution company specializing in vegetables and fruit announced Wednesday that it plans to add a 150,000-square-foot warehouse. Last month, it finished constructing a 10,000-square-foot office building.

Council voted Thursday to apply for the Business Development Grant from the state Community Development Block Grant program.

The county’s match for the grant will be made in the form of a fee-in-lieu-of-property-tax agreement with McCall Farms, which distributes produce from a family farm in Effingham and contracted farms in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida.

Council also voted to apply for a grant to extend sidewalks and place piping into ditches along Morris Street in Lake City. The street runs near J. Paul Truluck Elementary and Ron McNair Middle schools as well as Ward Memorial Stadium.

“This is a very worthwhile grant (that) will place sidewalks on a very dangerous road where hundreds of schoolchildren walk every day in a 55-mile-per-hour zone,” said council Chairman K.G. “Rusty” Smith, whose district includes Lake City.

The county is seeking a $127,523 Enhancement Outreach Grant from the South Carolina Department of Transportation, which will administer the project with a total estimated cost of $159,404.

Lake City and Florence County each would provide a $15,940 match for the grant.

After five months of review, an ordinance to require repairs or removal of structures determined to be unsafe met council’s approval Thursday.

The ordinance has since been changed to state that a county code official can take action whenever he or she receives a written complaint of an unsafe structure, not just from a law enforcement officer or property owner within 1,500 feet of the building in question.

The building code had stated that the code official and county could take action only when a building is a hazard to someone in the public right-of-way or on someone else’s property, then Florence County Planning Director Bill Hoge said in October.

The updated ordinance provides as long as six months, including a potential extension, for corrections after a notice is served regarding an unsafe structure. It also allows for an appeals process and an optional abatement agreement to establish a time frame for corrections.

Council members also approved bids for heavy equipment and a storage building at the county Law Enforcement Center in Effingham, but not without a great deal of discussion first.

Councilman Ken Ard said he wasn’t opposed to accepting the recommended bid for a motor grader, used to maintain dirt roads, but was curious why the county had received only one compliant bid.

County Public Works Director Carlie Gregg said the $221,189 bid by Blanchard Machinery Co. of Florence was for a motor grader that’s operated simply by two joysticks. Flint Equipment Co. of West Columbia, whose bid was nearly $17,300 lower, was not compliant because the configuration of its motor grader’s controls was much more complicated, Gregg said.

Gregg also said the resale value of a motor grader after 10 years is nearly two-thirds of the original cost.

Smith suggested including a “buyback clause,” as the county previously did, to determine the resale value when receiving bids for heavy equipment.

Councilman James Schofield offered words of caution before council approved the $25,200 bid by Tungsten Corp. of Conway for the Law Enforcement Center storage building.

“The low bid, in this (economic) environment, isn’t always where we should be,” he said.

The highest of six compliant bids for the project was $50,761.

He said his company, Carolina SupplyHouse, doesn’t bid on projects such as this, but he’s seen contractors buy pipe from his business and perform sewer work for less than the cost of the pipe. The contractors could later seek change orders for a higher project price tag, and “taxpayers pay for that,” he said.

County Administrator Richard Starks said the county can rely on a full legal agreement for such projects and that it’s hard to turn down the lowest bid when it’s backed by a bonding company. He also said the county doesn’t pay contractors up front.

Smith added that council would have to approve any requested change orders.

Schofield also said he had reservations about land where the county hopes to develop an industrial park. Council voted unanimously Thursday to execute a $5,000 option for about 1,500 acres on Interstate 95 south of Timmonsville, but Schofield said he wanted more information from economic development officials before casting any further votes.

In other business, council approved second readings of ordinances to: