Sellers citizens eagerly await development

Citizens sitting inside the Town Hall in Sellers ticked off a litany of improvements needed in the small town, during a public hearing Monday night.

Soliciting public input on community needs and priorities for development is part of the process of participating in the South Carolina Community Development Block Grant program, Mayor Louvenia Wright said. Pee Dee Regional Council of Government community development grants specialist Kimberly M. Evans took note of concerns regarding housing, public facilities and economic development.

“We got a letter from DHEC telling us of the current conditions that Sellers has,” Evans said, adding that the mayor said the town’s water infrastructure needs improvement. According to a letter read during the meeting, the town’s wastewater treatment system is at a malfunctioning state of disrepair, representing an urgent and compelling infrastructure need.

The system has completely failed and is discharging raw sewage into the storm water ditches that run through the town and that raw sewage is also on the surface of the land in a field. Some residents have reported that some homes are having trouble with sewage. Mayor Wright told the citizens to contact the Grand Strand Water and Sewer Company.

“We can’t have anymore new business or houses built, really, until that problem is solved,” Town Clerk Annie Jones said. Other concerns include the town’s need for workforce-training opportunities at a community center in need of upgrades. Sellers residents overwhelmingly approved the city’s referendum to move sewer services from the city to Grand Strand Water & Sewer Authority in June 2007.

According to the notice of public hearing, the town will provide the results of its needs assessment and the activities, which might be undertaken to meet identified needs, including the estimated amount proposed to be used for activities that will benefit persons of low and moderate income.

To get funding during this grant cycle, applications are due April 20, for community infrastructure, Evans said. “The town of Sellers have been trying to get this type of grant for awhile,” she said, adding that needs assessment hearing gathers the needs of citizens in hopes of finding a project that will serve their needs as well as future projects.

“Sellers is moving slowly, but we are going to move,” Mayor Wright said of the efforts to make improvements.