City of Folly Beach – Sandspur

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Another reminder, beginning July 1st, yard debris cannot be placed in plastic bags due to a directive from Charleston County. Charleston County is prohibiting the use due to County personnel having to remove the plastic from yard waste that is composted which is labor intensive. The City is looking at several options. When the City can find an option that is best for our community, I will let you know.

Our new Director of Public Safety’s first day is Tuesday, March 29th. We are excited about his acceptance and are looking forward to the Chief joining our team. As I stated in the prior letter, the city will have a “Meet and Greet” for the public to meet the new Chief. Be on the lookout for the date and time, we will make sure the notice is put in several places so you won’t miss it.

I also talked about Ordinance No. 06-11 which caused quite a bit of consternation for owners of rental property. The prior ordinance read that owners of rental properties could not pull a permit or perform work on said properties; it had to be done by Residential Specialty Contractors, even work of a non-structural nature. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Our Building Official, Eric Lutz had a teleconference, which lasted over an hour, with one of the officials from the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulations (LLR). After going over the ordinance and telling the gentleman from LLR what problems he had encountered from members of the public, the Building Official was advised he could have some discretion administering this section of the code. With that being said, Ordinance No. 06-11 has now been amended to allow owners of rental properties to pull permits and conduct the following work as an exception to Title 40, Chapter 59, Section 40-59-260 of the Code of Laws of South Carolina:

1)Floor Covering
2)Painting/Caulking & Wall Papering
3)Drywall Repairs
4)Replacing Screens/Screen Doors
5)Pressure Washing and
6)Routine Interior and Exterior Cleaning.

If you have any questions, call Eric Lutz at 513-1838 or contact him at the following
e-mail addresselutz@cityoffollybeach.com.

City Council and I adopted amended Rules and Regulations for Folly River Park on March 22. The prior rules were adopted several years ago and were seriously outdated. The new amended version will be in effect on July 1, 2011. You may pick a get a copy from City Hall or download it from the web site. Also, adopted was a new ordinance pertaining to individuals or organizations who wish to use public property such as the beach, streets, parks, and/or community center or any other public building for special events, i.e., festivals, parties, parades, etc. The ordinance gives the process which has to be followed in order for an event to be approved by City Council.

With 80° weather returning, the beach crowd is beginning it trek to Folly. Public Safety will have one of the PSOs or someone trained to operate the red light to control the traffic and hopefully it will help as much as it did last year. We continue to look for individuals who would like to be part of the civilian beach patrol to assist with picking up trash from the beach and educate our visitors. If you are interested in either volunteering or working part-time, please pick up an application from City Hall or go to the city’s web site, www.cityoffollybeach.com and download an application.

Remember our community is what we make it so let’s do our part and make it all it can be. If you have any concerns or questions, please call me at 513-1835 or e-mail me at tgoodwin@cityoffollybeach.com.

Sincerely,
Tim Goodwin
Mayor

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Charleston County has announced the end to plastic leaf bags. Beginning July 1, 2011, plastic bags for yard waste will be banned. Presently, the yard waste arriving at Bees Ferry Land Fill in plastic bags has to be prohibited. Charleston County personnel currently are removing the plastic from the yard waste that is composted and this has proven to be labor intensive and very costly. Once in effect, it will be up to Folly Beach and other municipalities to decide how to handle the change. Using paper yard bags, which can be purchased at home improvement stores, will be more expensive and may not work for several reasons. However, I will keep you advised as to how Folly will handle this change before the County’s June 30th deadline.

I am proud to announce the City has a new Director of Public Safety, Chief Dennis Brown. He comes to us from Wilton, Maine and is well qualified and highly recommended. He served six years as a police chief and one year as Director of Public Safety, as well as, several years as a policeman. He will be reporting to work on or about the 1st of April, 2011. The City of Folly Beach is fortunate to have a man of Chief Brown’s caliber. His philosophy falls right in line with the city’s regarding community policing. Community policing is where the City of Folly Beach is headed and Chief Brown, with his experience in this area, will take us there. I am planning a “meet and greet” for Chief Brown when he is sworn in as our new Director of Public Safety.

The City introduced Ordinance No. 06-11 at its City Council meeting of February 22nd which caused some heartburn for owners of rental property. Even though it has my name as the person who introduced the ordinance, the ordinance was brought forth because Title 40, Chapter 59, Section 40-59-260 of the Code of Laws of South Carolina mandates it. In other words, municipalities have no say in these types of ordinances. The ordinance requires a building permit be obtained for all construction, new, remodeling, and repairs, which includes docks, retaining-walls, sea walls, fences, pools, and septic tank installations and repairs. In order to obtain a building permit, the applicant must either be the owner of the property or a South Carolina State License Contractor. If the permit is for the owner of the property, the proposed building must be for the owner’s use and occupancy and the owner cannot rent or sell it. If it is rented or sold within two years of the construction being completed, the law will presume the owner built it for that purpose, which will be in violation of State Law. The only way this law can be modified is by our delegation in Columbia, South Carolina. Our representatives are Chip Campsen and Peter McCoy. If you would like their contact information, please e-mail Toni at tconnor@cityoffollybeach.com.

I had the pleasure of attending a gathering for one of our special senior citizens, Mrs. Margaret Park Sheedy. On February 15th, Mrs. Sheedy celebrated her 100th birthday. Over the years, Mrs. Sheedy has contributed her time as the organist for St. John the Baptist Cathedral and until recently the organist for Our Lady of Good Counsel; she performed at the Gaillard Auditorium and the Dock Street Theater; and also served as a volunteer for the Red Cross, MUSC, St. Francis and Roper Hospitals.

The City Administrator and I met with Senator Campsen recently and was delighted to hear that the TRAC proposal is not going anywhere. Senator Campsen feels there is too large a concentration of individuals and agencies who oppose TRAC’s proposal. However, he said he would stay vigilant, as we will, and make sure it is not brought forth at a different time.

City Council will be holding work sessions every month. If there is some subject you would like to see discussed at work sessions, please let me or one of the council members know or you can e-mail Toni at the above e-mail address. We are working diligently to get e-mails programmed so we can begin sending out various surveys to find how you feel about certain issues. I can serve you better and council can serve you better if we know and understand how you feel about matters that affect your quality of life.

If you have any concerns or questions, please call me at 513-1835 or e-mail me at tgoodwin@cityoffollybeach.com.

Sincerely,
Tim Goodwin
Mayor

Dear Friends and Neighbors:

City Council and I have made the decision to return to two meetings a month instead of having one meeting and a work session each month. This change is effective beginning the month of February. Meetings will be held on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month beginning at 7:00 p.m. with work sessions being held one hour prior to the meeting at 6:00 p.m., when needed. There are work sessions scheduled for both meetings in February.

In the next few weeks, you will be receiving a letter giving you the history of the renourishment (Mitigation Project) of our beach. You will also receive a sample letter for you to sign and send to your congressmen and congresswomen asking them to support the Mitigation Project. I hope you will join our effort and sign this letter as every contact made increases our chance of success. Currently the project protects approximately 300 properties worth about $300,000,000. As most of you know the majority of the erosion on Folly is caused by the jetties which were constructed in the Charleston Harbor and completed in 1898 by the Corps of Engineers. The jetties were constructed to keep sand from accumulating and interfering with the ships’ mobility in and out of Charleston Harbor. However, Charleston’s gain was Folly Beach’s loss. This brought about the 50-year agreement between the City of Folly Beach and the Corps whereby they pay 85% of the cost of the Mitigation Project.

The relocation of the sewer force main is going to start in the near future. This construction project will affect the Folly River Park but not in a major way. There will be a fence around the project which allows the use to continue with minimal disturbance. The relocation was necessary because utility lines are not going to be allowed to hang from any bridges being built now and in the future.

For those of you who would like to have an annual calendar of Council meetings, Planning meetings, and other Boards and Commission meetings, go the city’s web site or pick the calendars up from City Hall.

In December the bid was awarded to Just for Fun for the West 5th Street Park. This project will begin soon and when completed will have two toddler bucket swings, regular swings with a minimum of two seats, and a climbing structure with a slide for our young citizens to enjoy.

City Council has quite a few issues to address over the coming months so be sure to review the Meeting agenda before each meeting in case there is something you would like to bring to Council’s attention.

If you have any concerns or questions, please call me at 513-1835 or e-mail me at tgoodwin@cityoffollybeach.com.

Sincerely,

Tim Goodwin
Mayor

Read more articles and Mayor announcements.

Dear Friends and Neighbors:

Summer is over and now we need to focus on hurricanes, renourishment, construction of the new bridges, parking, and other equally important matters. We have been watching hurricanes come and go since June and are thankful, so far, the hurricanes are going away from Folly instead of coming toward us. All of you have either read, or heard from someone, about the City’s new “Community Alerting System – Outbound 911.” This is a notification system which the city will use to notify you of important events such as weather emergencies, emergency evacuations, local security and crime alerts, water main breaks, power outages, amber alerts. The City will also be able to use this system to advise you when you can return to Folly if there is a hurricane and the form of identification needed. Later on when we have the e-mail addresses of the majority of Folly Beach citizens, the city will be able to send surveys so we will know how you feel about various things affecting your life on Folly. We are excited about this new method of notification and hope you are, too. To ensure the City has all the information needed to notify you, please access the City’s web site www.cityoffollybeach.com and click on “Outbound 9-1-1” and fill in the requested information. If you do not have a computer, call 513-1836 (Mary) or 513-1837 (Robin) and they will register you. All information will only be used for the Folly Beach Alerting System; no information will be provided to other agencies, individuals or entities without your consent.

Another important matter to focus on in October is HALLOWEEN. The Halloween Carnival this year will be at the Community Center on Saturday, October 30th beginning at 6:30 p.m. and ending at 8:30 p.m. A portion of West Indian will be closed starting at the Stop Sign and ending at the end of the Community Center’s property. All you better be ready for the costume competition; we had some great costumes last year. We are looking for some more unusual ones this year. Also, some of the favorite activities will be repeated, the cake walk and the ghost walk. Don’t forget October 30th starting at 6:30 p.m. be ready for a Folly Halloween.

I know some of you are wondering when the city is going to address some of the items mentioned earlier in my letters; dogs on the beach, dog tags, golf carts, etc. These are still on the agenda to be discussed and acted upon. We will get to them; however, other matters had to be addressed first, i.e., bridges, relocation of sewer water main, and waterline conflicts. Another work in progress is the expansion project. It is on time and on budget. This is due to the efforts of Eric Lutz, building official and facilities manager, who is following this project every step of the way to ensure Folly Beach is getting the biggest bang for its buck. City Council and I will meet for a work session at 6:00 p.m. on September 28th and prioritize our goals and objectives. We also plan to meet at 6:00 p.m., one hour prior to our regular meeting on October 25, to discuss one of the other items on our agenda. We will announce the other work sessions on October 25, 2010.

Our A-Tax Advisory Board met last week to hear applicants make their presentations for the FY09-10 discretionary A-Tax funds. Some of the requests included, the Governor’s Cup, the Wahine Classic, Sea ‘n Sand, Festival of the Arts, Digital Billboards, two dressing rooms for the Washout, and others. The amount needed to fund all of the applicants’ requests equated to $251,960. The A-Tax funds which came in during the 2009-2010 fiscal year plus interest and is available for distribution is $216,499. The City’s A-Tax Board faces this type of situation year after year. The people who serve on this Board are:

Paul Chrysostum, Chairperson, and Mat Barba, John Davis, William Hampton, Cliff Harvey, Debbie Brandner, and Amanda Jackson, Members. To these Board Members, I would like to say I know what an arduous job you have distributing these funds when there are not sufficient funds to meet all the requests. I appreciate your time and the effort you always put into this process. You do, and have always done, an outstanding job and I thank you.

On Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 5:30 p.m., the dock at the Folly River Park will be dedicated to the memory of Karen Stringer. Karen was a gifted artist who made many contributions to the City of Folly Beach. She brought the Festival of Arts to the City which was a big success. Karen’s vision of Folly was a town with shops full of art and other unique pieces created by Folly Beach artists. She also was the moving force behind the Sea ‘n Sand Festival for many years. Karen was a life-long resident and was always in tune with the residents’ needs and willing to give a helping hand where one was needed. Please join us for the dedication of “The Karen Stringer Recreational Pier.”

Until next month, if you have any concerns or if I can be of assistance, please call.

~Tim

Dear Friends and Neighbors:

The final days of summer on Folly are winding down and the beach is gradually being returned to the turtles, birds, and Folly residents. Even though our visitors have their place and we welcome them; it is exciting when it is time for all of us to take a deep breath and do all the things we avoid doing during the time of crowded beaches, heavy traffic, and noisy nights.

Folly has come a long way since last year when we faced problems such as underage drinking, open container, trash on the beach, and various types of behavior that was not only illegal but unacceptable. At one of the first work sessions held after the election ,City Council as a whole, made a commitment to begin a campaign to educate visitors about the rules and regulations so visits could be fun while avoiding behavior which could result in going to court and paying a fine. This commitment resulted in news articles which were very informative; letters to the deans of all colleges located in this vicinity with rules and associated fines attached; and commitments on the part of our Public Safety Officers to saturate, enforce, and educate.

As you all are aware, one of Folly’s greatest assets is the employees. Today I want to take this opportunity to recognize four of our employees and congratulate them on their appointments by City Council. Marlene Estridge was reappointed as the City Clerk-Treasurer. Marlene has held this appointment for many years and has done an excellent job. Her knowledge of the history of Folly Beach is unsurpassed making her a popular source of information. We are very fortunate to have someone of her caliber to serve in this position. Ben Peeples was also reappointed. Ben has been with the City for too many years to count and has won many battles for the City during those years. We are privileged to have Ben as our City Attorney and appreciate his willingness to accept this reappointment. John Kachmarskey was reappointed as the municipal judge. John has been with the City for approximately ten years and does an excellent job at all times. The job, however, gets to be especially challenging during beach season when there are heavy crowds and more tickets are written. We are pleased that he wishes to continue in this position. Mary Cunningham was appointed Municipal Clerk. She has been with the City in a full time position for approximately five years and before that, she was part-time. Mary can always be counted on to undertake any tasks presented to her and gets them done in a timely manner. She is efficient, hard working and helps us all stay on schedule. Again, congratulations; I am proud to be associated with all four. I hope others will join me in congratulating these worthy individuals.

Also, Council elected a Mayor Pro Tempore during the August 24th Council meeting. City Council is charged by State Law to elect, after each regular two-year election, one of their body as the Mayor Pro Tempore. The Mayor Pro Tempore serves for two years and acts as Mayor during the absence or disability of the Mayor, and acts as Mayor if a vacancy occurs until a successor is elected and qualified. Council Member Laura Beck was elected to serve in this position. Welcome aboard, Laura.

Several weeks ago there was an article in the paper about one of Folly’s Home Town Heroes, Dr. Dilan Ellegala, a neurosurgeon at the Medical University. He and his medical team have spent a lot of time in Africa doing medical training. One time, while in Tanzania, he performed brain surgery in an operating room where there was only the doctor, nurse, and someone holding a flashlight in case the lights went out. There was no “ventilator” to keep the anesthetic flowing, only a relative of the patient who took over hand pumping the chemical when the anesthesiologist tired. After returning to the United States, Dr. Ellegala organized the Physicians Training Partnership, a program which is geared to training surgeons who will stay in their homelands and help train other African surgeons, rather than use their new skills to work in the West. After reading this story and others of Dr. Ellegala’s accomplishments, I knew there was no doubt that that the residents of Folly Beach would like to meet Dr. Ellegala and hear more about his mission work. Therefore, on Thursday, September 9th at 7:00 p.m. at the Tides (Holiday Inn), there will be a celebration of Dr. Ellegala’s achievements. Please join us and meet Folly’s Home Town Heroes.

The City’s independent auditors have completed the audit for Fiscal Year 2009-2010. Unless notified otherwise, the auditors will make a presentation to City Council at a work session prior to the regular meeting on September 28. The work session will begin at 6:00 p.m.

Mayor and City Council will be having work sessions in the near future to address various matters as discussed in prior letters, i.e., golf carts, dogs on the beach, dog tags, new bridges, and waterline conflicts, just to name a few. We will be posting the dates, times, and subject matters at City Hall, on the web site, and at the Post Office.

Also, be on the lookout for information and articles on our new “Outbound 911” which is the City’s Alerting System. This is a new and innovative way to notify residents of important events.

Labor Day is around the corner so Have Fun – Be Careful – Be Safe – Obey the Rules – Leave No Litter – If you Drink, Don’t Drive – and – If you Drive, Don’t Drink. Also, if you have a complaint, if you have a suggestion, or if you would like to volunteer to help your community, please contact me at 513-1835 or e-mail me at timgoodwin@bellsouth.net .

~ Tim