Burgess sworn in as Lake City associate municipal judge

LAKE CITY — Dr. Kenneth L. Burgess Sr. was sworn in as an associate municipal judge during the most recent meeting of Lake City City Council.

Burgess received a bachelor’s in agricultural education from North Carolina A&T University and a master’s in secondary education from Cambridge College, according to his resume. He was awarded an educational specialist degree in K-12 educational leadership and a doctor of education degree in K-12 educational leadership from University of Sarasota.

Burgess serves as an assistant principal at Kingstree Junior High School, and before that he was an assistant principal at North Charleston High School. He also has served as an assistant principal at Darlington High School.

His term as associate municipal judge will expire Sept. 8, 2011.

Meanwhile, council members decided to retract the appointment of Belinda Timmons because of a conflict with the county. Timmons was going to serve as an associate municipal judge alongside Burgess.

Timmons has served since March 2006 as Florence County’s summary court judge. Prior to that, she worked as a delinquent tax analyst in the Florence County treasurer’s office.

Christopher R. Nowlin is Lake City’s municipal judge.

In other business, council members went in to executive session, after which Lake City Mayor Lovith Anderson Jr. said no decisions were made and added that the session was for informational purposes only.

Council members also approved the first reading of an ordinance to annex property on the east side of Matthews Road.

During council members’ reports, Jason Springs said a community meeting to address crime will take place at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 29 in the courtroom of the Lake City Municipal Complex.

Springs said this year’s South Carolina Tobacco Festival had a great turnout and that he hopes for a successful event next year. He also said he visited the new Railway restaurant and The History Store, which was recently remodeled. He encourages citizens to visit new businesses in Lake City and show support, he said.

Wilbur B. Brown, President of Brown & Co. Inc., a real-estate company based in Lake City, gave council members information he received at a recent meeting in Columbia regarding building inspections, codes and permits. Recently, he said, Anderson appointed a committee to study building inspections and codes for Lake City.

During public comments, Milton Smalls of the U.S. Census Bureau gave information on the 2010 Census. Smalls said census forms will be distributed during mid-March.