Daniel Prince
Carlisle clean-up day scheduled for March 24th
The Carlisle Town Council met for their regular meeting last night at the Carlisle Town Hall. Mayor Mary Ferguson-Glenn presented the results of DHEC’s sanitary survey, which was conducted back in November. She said DHEC is usually prompt in getting the results back to the town, but this time Town Administrator Shannon McBride had to contact them to get them to send the results. Glenn said the town’s water system was rated overall satisfactory, which she said was a great improvement over where they were with the previous survey. She said one of DHEC’s main concerns continues to be the amount of unaccounted water. There should be no more than 10% loss, and the town loses more than that. Glenn said short of bring back the rural infrastructure people to come and look at the system again, she feels they have done all they can to find losses. Mayor Glenn said the key is to be consistent in maintaining the satisfactory report and be prompt in handling situations with the water system when they come up. She noted the town is looking to replace water meters with a radio read system using some of the town’s American Rescue Plan Act funds, but due to supply chain issues, despite the fact they were ordered last May, the town isn’t expected to receive them until April at the earliest.
She reminded the council that the Municipal Association had recommended that the town use property tax liens in order to recover taxes owed on properties. She said the recommendation came about after a property was sold that had taxes still owed on it, and the new owner had to pay the taxes, which the person was not happy about. Placing a lien on the property would have ensured the money was paid by the seller prior to the sale.
She reminded any council members that chose to take medical insurance needed to sign a document stating they would commit to paying the premiums. Per the state, council members are considered full-time employees and have to be offered insurance, though they don’t have to take it.
In new business, the council voted unanimously to allow the mayor to explore the cost of having David Berry overhaul the town’s website, which she said needs to be done. She said the town’s Reach Alert system is not reaching everyone it should. The system allows the town to call or send texts to alert citizens of announcements and/or emergency situations in the town, but Glenn said many of the calls aren’t going through. Council Maxine Booker-Spencer volunteered to get trained on the system and to go through it, updating numbers and seeing if the completion rate can be improved.
Council also voted unanimously to allow Mayor Glenn to pursue contracting out maintenance on the town’s playground, baseball field, and Town Hall grounds. They have been looking to hire a maintenance person for the town for more than a year, but no one qualified has applied.
Mayor Glenn told council to help spread the word about the town’s cleanup day, which is scheduled for Friday, March 24, at 8 a.m. The county will be bringing people in to help with the cleanup effort, and Glenn said she wanted as many council members and citizens as possible to be involved in helping with the cleanup day. She also mentioned that Union County Public Transportation will be expanding services to the town one day a month. It will be scheduled for the first Monday of each month, starting Monday, March 6. We’ll have more on the expansion tomorrow.