Lake City council addresses signage, safety in monthly meeting

The Lake City Council began their February meeting Monday, Feb. 13 by welcoming Curtis “Curt” Hancock, a firefighter / engineer, to the city Fire Department.

During the regular session, transportation, signage and safety were all concerns during the meeting as various city employees and community members gave reports and answered questions about the status of community projects.

Greg Moore, president of the greater Lake City Chamber of Commerce made a second request for council to consider adding “Welcome to Lake City” signage at the Matthews Road boundary.

“We believe this is the most visible corridor coming past the Lake City area,” said Moore.

Moore also asked the council to consider having a stop light installed at the intersection of Morris Street and Main Street.

“It’s a major part of the city and it seems like accidents happen there all the time,” he said.

Mayor Lovith Anderson, Jr., said the city is currently working on signage for Matthews Road and that a request to the department of transportation for a study to have a light installed on Highway 52 at the Piggly Wiggly has been submitted. That request had been made to the council at a previous meeting by an employee at the store concerned with the increased traffic and accidents on the highway.

“We do listen when people make requests,” said Anderson.

Moore also announced the 100^th year celebration for the Chamber will begin at the end of February and that the chamber has many projects in the works.

Moore said the chamber boards views the train depot, which houses the chamber’s offices as “the centerpiece of Lake City and architecturally the most important building in Lake City.”

Moore said the board takes their “job as stewards of that building extremely serious,” and announced plans to pursue restoring the building to its original condition and expanding chamber operations to include a tourist information center.

“This is a very, very exciting time to be a member of the Greater Lake City Chamber Of Commerce,” said Moore, “we have a lot of great things going on right now.”

Peter Gaskins provided an update on the fledgling public transportation system; LakeTran.

Gaskins said the bus transported about 700 passengers in January; an average of 35 to 40 riders per day with the largest drop off areas being Wal Mart, grocery stores and the hospital.

“Quite a few of these passengers were senior citizens and even some were students from Florence Darlington Technical College,” said Gaskins.

He quoted the Pee Dee Regional Transportation Authority as being “at this point very satisfied with LakeTran.”

Gaskins said that there should be some adjustments to the route after the initial 90-day period and that Graham Road will be included in the future.

Gloria Tisdale, mayor pro tem, questioned why Graham Road was left out of the original route but Gaskins said he believed the original concern was to keep the route within an hour.

Tisdale also asked why the vehicle was switched from a trolley to the current bus. That change was made in consideration of the riders according to Anderson. Anderson said the seats were a concern as the trolley has hard wooden seats.

In March the Lake City Water Department will be including brochures about the bus with water bills to address concerns about people not knowing how or where to catch the bus.

Though the system is off to a promising start, several council members expressed the need to get more people riding.

Gaskins said “we need to do better and we will,” about the ridership numbers.

“This is a flag/stop system,” said Anderson, “If they can see the bus they can wave their hands and as long as they are in a safe stopping zone [the bus driver] will stop and pick them up.”

Mamie Elmore, a spokes person for Smoke Free Florence for churches, introduced a group of students who had the opportunity to learn how to be peer educators during at Jan. 21 training program.

“Their job is to be a mouthpiece for their peers; their job is to educate them on the impact of smoking,” said Elmore.

The students gave a presentation to the council about tobacco based on their experience.

“We didn’t write the script for them,” said Elmore, “this is what came out of their training.”

In other business, the council unanimously approved beginning on the application process for the city to become a Certified Local Government.

Doing so “puts [the city] in line for grants,” said Anderson. The mayor explained that there are currently about 15 to 20 towns already certified and that means those towns are ahead of Lake City in receiving grant funds.

“When we start looking at our historic district in regards to being able to get grant money to go into that area, this is one of the tools that will be in our tool box to help with assistance,” said Anderson.

Tisdale expressed two safety concerns in the city: the dilapidated store on Main Street that is currently accessible to the public and a ditch in Kennedy Park that is continuously filled with water.

Anderson said the city is currently working with the owner of the Main Street Building to get it signed over to allow the city to convert the area in to a breeze way that will allow access to parking behind the buildings.