With a little nudging Tuesday from the Orangeburg County Transportation Committee, Orangeburg City Council approved two municipal agreements that will pave the way for the construction of sidewalks and gutters along Buckley and Cherokee streets.
Transportation committee Chairman Dr. Jessie Kinard, along with state and local transportation officials, asked council to resolve the issue that has been ongoing for two years.
“As we know, everything goes up,” Kinard said. “If we wait too long, we’ll pay more.”
With the projects stalled due to the lack of the municipal agreements, Kinard said that the retirement of a local DOT supervisor, plus several changes in the state office, had resulted in “our proposals getting lost and not executed.”
“I got the feeling the state couldn’t put out the bids because the agreements were not signed,” Kinard said.
A state DOT official explained that “the conflict with the city is in some of the wording of the agreement.”
City Administrator John Yow said there was some concern with business license and utility issues.
Confirming that the agreements specifically apply to the two sidewalk and gutter projects, Mayor Paul Miller said, “I believe from what I was able to understand that there’s some concern about the wording in paragraph four, as relates to utilities. (The Department of Public Utilities) has made an agreement with DOT and that will be the binding agreement, irregardless of what the wording says. ... DPU pays some expenses as to the moving of utilities.”
DPU Manager Fred Boatwright told council that DPU and DOT have been working together for years to work out similar agreements that allow the city to put utilities on DOT rights-of-way and move those utilities if necessary.
“As far as I know, everything has been successfully worked out,” he said. “That’s not uncommon.”
Although the city, Orangeburg Consolidated School District Five and the owners of a nearby apartment complex agreed to put money into the project, the state DOT will pay 100 percent of the sidewalk and gutter costs.
“Thank you for your persistence in bringing this to an end,” said the mayor. “I’m sure the people in the neighborhoods will be glad.”
The Buckley Street project calls for sidewalks and gutters along both sides of U.S. Highway 601 to the gated entrance at South Carolina State University. The Cherokee Street project will provide sidewalks at Mellichamp Elementary School.
The projects are to be let out for bid next month.
In other business, council:
According to Yow, the update is the first complete re-write of the handbook since 1996. Most of the revisions, he said, are because of changes in state law and the use of new technology, such as the Internet.
“We’ve been working jointly on the revisions for about two years. It’s gone through a number of legal reviews,” Boatwright said. “There aren’t many changes. Most are dictated by law or on the advice of our attorney.”
T&D Government Writer Tucker Lyon can be reached at tlyon@timesanddemocrat.com or by calling 803-533-5545. To comment on this and other stories, visit TheTandD.com.