Darlington City Council gets fitness talk

DARLINGTON — Darlington City Council got a fitness talk from Capt. Danny Watson of the city’s police department Tuesday night.

Watson is trying to get the city to buy into a wellness and physical fitness program where employees would exercise three times a week for 30 minutes.

He said he has the names of 108 employees who are interested.

“Nothing replaces eating well and exercise,” said Watson, who rides and bikes and jogs more than 100 miles each week. “Adopting a healthy lifestyle is what this project is all about.”

And as an incentive for employees to join, he suggested each be given one day off a year “to show people here we care about them.”

Council accepted Watson’s presentation as information and placed it on the agenda for its October meeting.

Assistant City Manager Howard Garland said he’s ready to bid out the Carnegie Library project.

Council voted unanimously to allow Garland to bid the project out.

Council gave considerable discussion to health insurance considerations concerning the next executive director of the Greater Darlington Chamber of Commerce.

Mayor Tony Watkins said one of the major problems is there has been no insurance benefits for past executive directors. He suggested various ways the city could help, but the consensus of council was that more information is needed, and no vote was taken on the matter.

The council, however, has a work session tentatively scheduled for Sept. 9 or Sept. 16 to discuss Phase II of the downtown revitalization process.  It was suggested the chamber make a presentation at that work session.  A motion to this effect was made and passed unanimously.

In other action, council:
• Appointed members to the Historic Landmarks Commission
• Appointed members to the Zoning Board of Appeals
• Received a report from Downtown Darlington Revitalization Association Director Tony DiLeo.