BRANCHVILLE – The Branchville Town Council is working to resolve the issue of whether or not Mayor Tim Cooner lives within the town limits.

Branchville Town Councilwoman Georgianna Harmon back in January 2006 questioned Cooner’s residency, stating she had heard he was not allowed to vote in the Nov. 8 nonpartisan municipal election because he was “not a resident” after changing his legal residency on Nov. 8, 2004.

Local surveyor Kirk Nivens of Nivens & Nivens Survey Inc. conducted a survey which determined that Cooner’s 1405 Edward St. address was inside the town limits. Cooner presented council members with a map and a letter to that effect from Nivens during a special called meeting on Jan. 30, 2006.

The finding was based on the town’s center being located at the Charleston-Augusta Railroad track, which is on Main Street at the center of U.S. 21. Every residence within a one-mile radius of that center was considered within the town limits.

A council majority accepted the findings during the January meeting. An ordinance is being prepared that, if approved, would officially accept Niven’s findings. It is expected to be considered at the council’s July 9 meeting.

But, at a June 4 meeting, Alan-Jon Zupan and Sid Miller of the South Carolina Geodetic Survey group, presented their own original town center-point findings based on their historical research.

Harmon says she had sent a letter to the survey group at the council’s behest. She said she stated in the letter that the council had voted on the new town center based on Nivens’ recommendations and that the council “would now like to know what the new town limits are.”

Some residents feel, however, that council’s initial request to determine the town limits for taxation purposes turned into a search for a new town center, which Harmon has said, in her opinion, placed the mayor’s residence out of town.

“I was asked by council to contact the Geodetic Survey group to find the town limits. There is no mention of finding the center of town. They asked me to do it. There’s nothing else to it,” Harmon said.

On Thursday, Zupan said, “Ms. Harmon requested that we do research to locate the center of Branchville so that the town limit could be determined. The town limit is based on the point as defined in the Dec. 12, 1858, legislative act incorporating Branchville. Part Two establishes the corporate limits: ’... and the corporate limits of said village of Branchville shall extend one mile in all directions from the eating house between the two railroads.’ This was the starting point of our research.”

'A dead issue’

Resident Ami Cooner said Harmon has “her own personal agenda.”

“The survey was supposed to be where the outer limit signs should be. Then, when the people got here and that was brought up by other council members, she said, ’Remember, I told you that?’ The surveyors said, ’No, you didn’t. You told us we were supposed to find the center of town,’” Cooner said.

Resident Joe Ann Hendricks said the mayor’s residency is “a dead issue” that council already voted on and researched.

Harmon concurs that the researchers never said the mayor lived outside the town limits; however, she noted, “In my opinion, the maps given to council by the Geodetic Survey indicated Mr. Cooner was outside of the town limit.”

Zupan said at no time at the meeting did he state that Cooner lived outside of the town.

“I did not state that the mayor’s residence did not fall within one mile of the point that we think is the most probable location of the ’eating house’ in 1858. At the time of the town council meeting, I and Sid did not know where the mayor’s residence was located. We studiously avoided knowing this information during our research,” he said, stressing that he and Miller left the meeting still not knowing the mayor’s residence location.

Nivens said his findings were “the result of several days of professional research” which included trips to Columbia and county record research.

“I am fully qualified and prepared to defend my letter of opinion ... . It was not within the scope of our services to re-establish with certainty the original true center of town, for to do so would have required considerable more research and, hence, additional expense to Mayor Cooner,” Nivens said.

“In lieu thereof, we established a point ... . My letter of opinion clearly stated the difficulty I found in re-establishment of the true center point of town. I concur he (Zupan) came up with the most probable location in his personal opinion because conclusive, incontrovertible evidence of its exact location is not available,” Nivens said.

He said the issue has become a controversial “political football.”

“The owners of the property the mayor’s residence is constructed upon has paid town taxes for many years to a town. Would you not assume you were determined to be located within the town? Are there not more pressing needs in Branchville ... ?” Nivens said.

Branchville resident Tom Jennings says finding a carnival site for September’s Railroad Daze festival is one of those more pressing needs.

“We’re beating a dead horse here ... . I mean, if the people that are elected to run this town can’t ... , who can?” he said.

Resident Larry Lavender said he doesn’t like that a residency issue is seemingly being turned into a search for “a technicality to get rid of the mayor.”

Resident Brenda Jennings said, “The fact of the matter is Mayor Cooner does a wonderful job. No, I do not support ... everything ..., but, by and large, he ... has done enormous improvements ... . He is hindered in doing that job for what I would consider borderline harassment from Mrs. Harmon.”

Beatrice Miller said she, as an African-American community member, doesn’t like the tension surrounding the issue. She said her feelings are shared by the community’s largely elderly population, who she said disagree with what they think is a “personal issue.”

Harmon said she bases her statements solely on the S.C. Code of Laws , not personal agendas.

She said a letter dated Jan. 30, 2006 from Orangeburg County Administrator Bill Clark to town attorney Bob McCurry shows that the mayor’s residence lies outside the town limits.

In the letter Harmon presented Wednesday, Clark stated that, based upon the county’s review of its existing tax maps, “it appears that the residence ... is situated outside of the town limits.”

Clark also indicated in the letter that the county did not appear to possess “any historical maps or documents” to address where the town center’s location is and that while the “parent parcel” from which Cooner’s property was subdivided was clearly located within the town limits, “it appears that the subdivided parcel is not.”

“To my knowledge, Mr. Cooner’s residence has been classified ’outside the Branchville town limits’ since the existence of the town, and is indicated so in the existing maps used for taxing and voting purposes in Orangeburg County,” Harmon said. “Mr. Cooner changed his legal residency ... on Nov. 8, 2004. As I interpret the law, Mr. Cooner should have resigned his position at that point since he was not a town resident.”

“Instead of doing the honorable thing and stepping down, Mr. Cooner started paying the town of Branchville property taxes, insisting he was a resident of the town. I’d like to keep the center point of town as the Orangeburg County map shows. The center point was determined in the 1800s, and the town ... was developed from that point. What is the purpose of changing the center point ... ?” she said.

'No need to continue to dig’

Branchville Town Councilman Glenn Miller says he does not dispute Nivens’ findings and is ready to move on to other issues.

“He lives in the town according to all the information we have. ... When you get a surveyor to do a job for you, I have to depend on what was said. ... How can I question him?” Miller said.

“There’s no need to continue to dig in things of the past. ... I don’t like to keep dragging on with issues. It’s done. I have no personal agenda – never did and never will. I’m for the people and the betterment of the town,” he said.

Bringing order

Citing S.C. Code 5-7-250, Harmon said she will request the presence of a parliamentarian at the next town meeting to avoid the outbursts of “public rage” that occurred at the June 4 meeting.

“It is essential that parliamentary procedure govern all meetings ... The key is to agree to disagree, not to engage in personal attacks against those who favor different opinions,” Harmon said.

Cooner, who says he is still in office “as of now,” said he is interested in moving forward with other issues, including a $5.5 million water project, a $1.1 million streetscape project, the retention of an additional $400,000 for the old freight depot restoration and an $800,000 town hall renovation.

“It’s very hard to concentrate on these issues when you’ve got smaller things eating at you. I’m in my fifth term as mayor. I’ll have 11 and a half years if I make it to July 1. I’ve enjoyed it ... . If the council said a year and a half ago that I was in town and there was five in favor of that, I don’t see why that issue should ever come back to the table,” he said.

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 at TheTandD.com.

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