BAMBERG - The Bamberg County Council has approved a $6.9 million general fund budget for fiscal year 2007-08, which includes a 3-mill increase to help pay the bills.

The new budget stands at $6,899,383 and was given final, third-reading approval during a special called meeting Monday night. This year's budget is $426,911 more than the 2006-2007 spending plan.

The bulk of the increase is for a 3 percent cost-of-living pay increase for all county staff, along with a complete upgrade of the county's Emergency 911 system and heavy equipment upgrades in county departments including the public works and sheriff's departments, Bamberg County Finance Director Booker Patrick said Tuesday.

Higher fuel costs have contributed to the budget increase, he said.

"Well, fuel costs have gone up across the board. We are upgrading some heavy equipment, which now includes a motor grader and backhoe in public works. We are adding two additional deputies, and that increases the number of cars," Patrick noted. "Plus, as we do every three years, we try to rotate at least three or four of the older cars out. We're also doing that this year."

Under the E-911 upgrade, new computers equipped with some of the latest technology and software will be added to the department, which will also now be able to track cell phones through its system. Patrick said the millage increase was also needed to be able to maintain the equipment to its optimum performance.

The county is also working to digitize the assessor's office, Patrick said, adding that Lower Savannah Council of Governments is assisting the county with digital maps for the E-911 system. The maps will then be interfaced with those included in the assessor's office, he said.

"That was one of the things in this budget that's costing us money that we've tried to implement," the finance director said.

What does a three-mill increase mean for taxpayers? The owner of a $100,000 home would pay $12 more dollars on that property in the coming year, Patrick said. The owner of a $50,000 home would see a $6 increase on their property tax bills, he said.

Bamberg County Council has been relatively conservative regarding tax increases, Patrick said.The last millage increase -- 14 mills -- was levied during the 2004-05 fiscal year.

"But that hadn't been increased in four or five years, and that's why that one was so large. We looked at the millage increase over a 10-year period (1996-2006), and it was like a two-mill increase in average. Nobody likes to raise millage, and I think we've tried to hold the line in light of all the new things we've implemented," Patrick said.

In other business during the special called meeting, the council gave second-reading approval to the sale of the Infinite Creations building for a Dubai, United Arab Emirates, economic development project.

Bamberg County Administrator Rose Dobson-Elliott said the company that will occupy the building, however, does not have anything to do with the United Arab Emirates other than as an export site for the product the county's potential industrial investor hopes to create in the U.S.

"The company is Kicking Horse LLC. The owner is Steve Weavil. The council gave second reading for the sale of the property in the amount of $160,000. Mr. Weavil has committed to a $2 million investment initially," Dobson-Elliott said.

Weavil is planning to operate an equine bedding business and create an initial job force of 12, she said.

"Equine bedding ... is used extensively in poultry houses. He (Weavil) was originally in the furniture business in North Carolina. Like everything else in the country, that's going overseas. The shavings from the furniture mills was supplying this project, but there's been a gap with supply with the furniture business going overseas," said Dobson-Elliott, noting that the county's pine tree-rich area will provide a viable shaving substitute.

"Weavil wants to be in operation by the first of September. The project's going to be a big benefit to Bamberg County. I think it's been 11 years since there's been any real activity in the building, so we're looking forward to having it. We're doing a lot of work out there cleaning it up," Dobson-Elliott said.

Also during the meeting, the council gave first-reading approval to the issuance and sale of South Carolina Educational Facilities Rental Revenue Bonds, Series 2007, to Voorhees College in an amount not to exceed $15,500,000.

"For those bonds to be tax exempt, you have to go through a unit of local government," Dobson-Elliott said. "The stated purpose of those funds is for dorm development and the refinance of some older debt. We also approved a resolution to put legal fees in the cost of the bonds."

T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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