September 1, 2016

John’s Island Council
Post Office Box 208
John’s Island, SC 29457

Minutes of the September 1, 2016 Meeting

Members Attending: Sam Brownlee, John Kozma, Gary Marino, Rich Thomas, Thomas Legare, Henry Chavis, Tim Squire, James Owens, Catherine Poag

Guests: Jean Howard, Ben Havens, Pat Cline were introduced. Jean and Pat are running for the Constituent School Board and are interested in working to improve the schools on John’s Island.

The meeting was called to order by Sam Brownlee and the pledge of Allegiance was said.

With a motion duly made and seconded, the minutes of the August 4, 2016 meeting were approved.

Speaker: In the absence of Chris Cannon and Rich Jenkins, Treasurer Sam Brownlee ran the meeting. He introduced Ben Havens who owns Southern Exposure Painting, a company of 25 employees which imports blue tape used by painters and is also a house painting business. Mr. Havens is purchasing a property on Kitford Road from Roosevelt Simmons and will ask for rezoning to light industrial. He plans to construct a building of approx. 5000-6000 sq ft which will be mostly a storage facility. At times,there may be a small office space that could be rented out. The property is currently zoned R-3. There will be large trucks coming onto Kitford Road for delivery of containers of the blue tape, which comes from China and it will take 2 hours to unload. The shipping out of tape is mostly done by dropping off at UPS. There were some questions about any blocking of the road. James Owens lives on Kitford Road and talked about some of the other properties on Kitford Road.

Treasurer’s Report: Treasurer Sam Brownlee reported that the bank balance at the end of July was $637.06 and that there is an expense of $68.00 for a post office box. The Scholar’s Fund balance was $400,890.38 as of July 29, 2016. Rich Thomas said that the Scholar’s Fund Board will start looking at “projects” starting January 1st and the details for the 501c3 are still being worked out. There is already a SC state tax exempt status. There was no CHATS meeting.

Council of Governments: Tim Squire went to the recent meeting and said there was nothing relating to John’s Island that was discussed.

Wadmalaw Island: There was nothing to report.

Old Business: The request from Stono View developers to remove 37 trees is back for a city hearing on September 7th. There is also a request to remove 12 grand trees on Cane Slash Road.
There will be a meeting of candidates on September 21st at the JI Library at 6:00PM.
With regard to the light at Maybank and River Roads, there are new lights being installed but those are not working yet and there has not been any report of exactly how they will work and what improvement might be provided to relieve the ongoing traffic problems at that intersection. Diane Knich is not covering John’s Island any more but Robert Behre should follow up on this matter for the P and C. Rich Thomas reported that the letter to the editor thanking everyone who worked on the light improvement issue had been sent in but has not been published yet. Rich also reported on the 1/2cent tax referendum. It passed Charleston County Council after the 3rd reading and will be on the November ballot. Not many people seem interested in supporting this. There was mention that Mt. Pleasant and St. John’s Water Company will ask for funding to move water lines or else the customers of each water company will see the expense passed on to them. The widening of Maybank from the bridge to River Road has had a problem with a recent vote by Charleston City Council. It seems that there were changes made from the original plan and City Council was not advised of the details of what they were voting on. There will most likely be a revote. There is also the issue of all of the utility lines that run through that area with talk of County just paving over and dealing with any problems down the road.
Catherine Poag reported that the Hoopstick Bridge Replacement project will be starting before year end. Thomas Legare mentioned that a light is needed at the intersection of Plowground and Bohicket Road due to bind curve and the speed of cars coming through there.
It was reported that a doctors’ office is being considered for the lot at Partnership and Bohicket Roads.

New Business: James Owens asked that speed limit signs be installed on Kitford Road. Thomas Legare moved that a letter be sent to DOT asking for a speed limit sign on Kitford Road. Henry Chavis seconded and the motion was approved. Rich Thomas said that the St. John’s Water Company recently had a request for 66 taps for a property on Edenvale Road. It is for a 6.6 acre parcel that a woman wants to put up micro houses for families who have a member in the hospital. It is currently zoned Ag. County staff suggested further research be done by the woman. There was an article in the paper about this recently.

There being no further business the meeting adjourned at 8:20PM.

Repectfully submitted,

Catherine Poag, Secretary