BRANCHVILLE – A comment from a resident directed at Councilwoman Georgianna Harmon has led Mayor Tim Cooner to again address personality issues within Branchville Town Council.

During a regular meeting on Sept. 8, Harmon was asked by a resident to consider how she goes about presenting her concerns and making assumptions that if financial reports don’t match up, it means there is a misuse of funds or that people are trying to hide something.

Harmon did not respond, but Cooner spoke at length, discussing how discrepancies can happen and how they are corrected. He reminded council and those in attendance the town has had clean audits for several years, and he praised Lori Salley of C.C. McGregor and Co. for helping to keep the town on the right path.

Cooner addressed the specific discrepancies Harmon raised during council’s August meeting, mainly that the monthly budget report did not match up with posted deposits. He said the town clerk had resigned and left the reports incomplete as well as leaving the minutes from the July meeting undone, and he was left to try to get the information together in a few days for the upcoming meeting.

“She (Harmon) wants to know because she thinks I’m hiding something. I’m not hiding anything.” Cooner said. He showed council deposit records for funds the town had received.

Cooner said he was committed to staying with the town, and vowed, “My next three years, I’m going to strive to make Branchville … a prettier place.”

“We cannot continue to keep going like we’re going, or we’re coming to (a) standstill,” the mayor said. Cooner went on to say he hoped future council meetings would run more smoothly and there wouldn’t be anymore insulting questions.

Also during the Sept. 8 meeting, council members addressed the issue of a temporary site for the town’s library, with Councilman Charles Dukes asking for a clarification concerning the council’s vote on the matter.

Dukes said the minutes of the Aug. 11 meeting indicated the Hut on Highway 21 was only to be offered as a temporary site to the county, with the permanent location to be in the replacement Branchville Town Hall building as it had been in the past. Dukes said it was his intent, and several council members concurred, that the Hut be offered as a temporary site only.

Both Dukes and Cooner pointed out there was approximately $35,000 to 40,000 from the Orangeburg County penny sales tax revenue that had not yet been claimed by the town in regards to the building and that the funds remain for the town to use once a final decision is made on the use of the Hut.

Cooner noted the town is still looking for a dentist and a portion of the building could be used for that purpose, and that at one time there had been talk of an Artisan’s Center in the building.

Audience members asked about a medical fund that had been started many years ago to send a resident to medical school. Cooner stated the town did not have control of the funds, but he would check on the matter and see if the money could be used to help bring a dentist to the area.

In other business, council members:

* Approved the purchase of a 2008 Crown Victoria to replace a vehicle that was totaled earlier in the year. The down payment for the vehicle will come from insurance proceeds for the wrecked vehicle, and the town will make 48 payments of $412.28.

* Gave first reading to ordinances to issue bonds pursuant to anticipated revenue from the soon-to-be-completed water and sewer project. Council will hold final reading of the ordinances at a called meeting on Sept. 15.

T&D Correspondent Phyllis A. Overstreet can be reached by e-mail at paoverstreet@bellsouth.net.

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