By Betsy Finklea
The Dillon County Council held a called meeting on February 11th to take up three matters.
The first order of business came from the council’s Public Safety Committee. The committee made a recommendation that each fire department shall elect a chief annually from employees or volunteers who are in good standing and meet the qualifications. The election process will begin in March.
Councilman Archie Scott, chairman of the committee, said that employees or volunteers will have the same right to be chief.
Chiefs were previously elected, but council changed this and the administrator appointed the chiefs. This would change it back to elected chiefs.
Scott made the motion to approve the recommendation of the committee and allow the men to elect the chiefs. This was seconded by Councilman Randy Goings. Councilman Scott, Goings, Chairman T.F. “Buzzy” Finklea, and Harold Moody voted for the motion. Councilmen Stevie Grice, Robbie Coward, and Bobby Moody voted against the motion.
The next matter taken up was the Judicial Center changeorders. The following changeorders were presented:
-Radio Tower Change Order 019 $52,236.39. Dillon County Council approved on 1/28/2015
-Radio Tower Change Order 019R $60,179.54 Difference of $7,943.15. This meets the engineers requirements.
-Smoke Duct Detectors Change Order 028 $6,313.03. CGL failed to provide any smoke detectors in the holding cells in the Judicial Center. Required by the SC Department of Corrections. The holding cells cannot be used until this is completed.
-Complete Paving of Employee Parking Lot. Dillon County Council approved on 1/28/15. FBI to go ahead and pave as much of the employee parking lot that SM&E has approved. FBI has completed as much of the parking area as per SM&E recommendation. The remaining area to pave is included in the original bid, however,
-Remobilization of Paving Contractor Change Order 026 $1,702.10
There was no vote required because the funds are coming from the Sheriff’s and the maintenance budgets.
The third item on the agenda was on appointment of the Pee Dee Regional Health Services District Board. James “Buddy” Ray was appointed to this board.
At the end of the meeting, Councilman Randy Goings said he would like to say something to the council and the audience for the future. He said when he sits on these committees that they have to make decisions on what to suggest to council. He said if he agrees to one thing at a committee meeting then that is the way he is going to vote unless some type of emergency comes up.
He said he was not going to say he was going to do one thing at a committee meeting and then do something else at the council meeting. He said people are going to politic you until an issue is solved, and you can’t satisfy everyone. Finklea said he agreed with Goings 100 percent and that he thought most councilmen felt that way.

NOTE: This meeting can be viewed at www.thedillonherald.com and can be found under the category “Government News.”