Taken from/Based On the Latta Town Council minutes
Regular Meeting of the Latta Town Council
July 12, 2018, 7:00 p.m.
The Latta Town Council held a regular meeting on July 12, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. The following were present: Councilmen Edward Bethea, James Reaves, Trudy Drawhorn, Andy Herring, Jarett Taylor, and Mayor Nancy Brigman. Councilman Taylor called the meeting to order, led by the Pledge of Allegiance, and Councilman Drawhorn offered prayer.
Councilman Brian Mason was absent.
Councilman Taylor asked council to amend the agenda to recognize the Latta 12u Ponytails. Councilman Drawhorn made a motion to amend the agenda and Councilman Herring seconded. It was unanimously approved by toll call vote of council. Councilman Taylor stated that since he had been on council the town has had 2 teams go to the World Series. He called of the players and coaches’ names, and they were recognized for their hard work and accomplishments.

Minutes from Regular Meeting on June 14, 2018
Councilman Drawhorn made a motion to accept the minutes with proper corrections if any, and Councilman Herring seconded. It was unanimously approved by roll call vote of council.

Minutes from Special Council Meeting
on June 28, 2018
Councilman Herring made a motion to accept minutes, and Councilman Drawhorn seconded. It was unanimously approved by roll call vote of council.

Church of God
Pastor James Fennell from Latta Church of God: connecting to town sewer: He stated that he had come to the June 14, 2018 council meeting and spoke with council. He was waiting on Councilman Mason to call him. Councilman Taylor stated that he was absent at that meting and asked if any of them knew anything about it. Mayor Brigman said she thought Councilman Mason was handling it because Councilman Mason got his number. She doesn’t know if Councilman Mason has spoken to the town engineers about the situation. Councilman Taylor asked Pastor Fennell how they presently have sewer, and he said they have a septic tank, Councilman Taylor asked if it was not feasible, and he said no. Councilman Drawhorn stated that James Small was supposed to go on King Street and see if he could tie him in that way. The pastor said that the house behind the church had sewer, and it is 166 feet away from the corner property on Bass Street. Councilman Drawhorn asked Lyle Hayes if he could look and see if the church could tie in from King Street, Pastor Fennell said that if they tapped in on Bass Street that they would need a grinding station, and the church would pay for it. Councilman Taylor said he has some time off next week and he said he would check in to it and get back with him by next Friday is Councilman Mason hasn’t already done it. He said by next Friday the pastor would have somewhat of an answer of what we can and can’t do.

Department Reports
Water/Sewer/Street
Lyle Hayes said he didn’t have anything but what was on his report. Councilman Drawhorn asked when he flushes the hydrants if the water seems to be clearing up. Lyle said he flushes the hydrant until it is clear. Councilman Taylor stated that we purchased two machines that are supposed to flush hydrants automatically. He asked if the machines work of did the town waste money. Lyle said they are at the shop. They were at the old school, and they complained about the water and rust in the road. Councilman Taylor said you have rust in the road or rust in the lines. He would rather have rust in the road.
Councilman Taylor stated that they had an employee to quit, and it was James Small. He didn’t give a notice or a reason. They moved David Grimsley up to second in charge and Lyle Hayes in charge for a couple of reasons – he is a good person for the job, and it is easier dealing with one department head than two. Councilman Taylor explained that we had a meeting with DHEC today and several old issues were discussed, and he thinks they were somewhat pleased with everything. We are in the stages of getting DHEC permits and about 5-6 other permits. He has been told that in the next 18 months we will have construction start on Henry Street with a new 300,000 gallon water tank, replace the main feeder in town on the right side of Henry Street, replace east side of Main Street down to A & B, Leitner Street down to town limits, and Rice Street on the same side.

Judge’s Report
Judge Janette Dupree gave everyone her report and asked if they had any questions or concerns.

Police Report
Chief Derrick Cartwright stated that he wanted to go over the top part of his report. In years past, the former chief was the Victim’s Advocate. It is something that he tried to do but the victim deserved more, and we can’t give the victim the time they need. He went to some trainings in Dillon and Bennettsville. This is something that we have to have, and this will be paid for from the tickets and fines that the town collects. He wants a part-time victim advocate going out and talking to victims, and he thinks people will talk to someone more if they don’t have on a police uniform and are in regular dress attire. They started something this year that 90% of the money has to be spent or we have to give it to state.
Councilman Taylor made a motion to hire a part-time advocate as long as it stays in the budget with that particular bank account, and Councilman Drawhorn seconded. It was unanimously approved by roll call vote of council.

Park Report
Councilman Taylor said at Academy Street Park, they have put out 92 tons of dirt on three fields that was paid by FEMA money, and put up some fence. He has spoken with a representative from Harbor Freight, and he said he wants to find a time so some of his employees can come and clean up the rocks on Henry Street Park.

Council Reports
Councilman Bethea
Councilman Bethea said Walt Brown asked him about trash pickup on Lucky Run and wanted to know if the town would give them a price for the town to do trash service for the people on Lucky Run. Councilman Taylor said that would be annexation. If they want to pay more in taxes that he had no problem if they want to come to the next council meeting and represent his community.

Councilman Taylor
Mauldin Street has a huge wash out and it probably came from the hurricane but we are going to take care of it. He talked about our sewer system and its capacity.
He said if a project came in other than a large warehouse that would need just an average bathroom or sink, and involved a lot of water we couldn’t service it. He said that he didn’t think that Latta or Dillon could handle it if we had 2-3 infrastructures to come in. He thinks it is a good time to come to the table and start to talk with the County of Dillon and the city on merging systems and creating something that can work for the people of Dillon County. We could come together and apply for different grants to help everything come together. The problem we have with the ditches around town is we don’t have right-of-way and for us to clean out every ditch in Latta would require someone to go around to every single house that has a ditch running through it and ask them for permission to go on their property with heavy machinery. We clean out ditches that we have access to, and they will start cleaning them out starting next week. Someone asked if they could clean out drains next to her house on Church Street; Mike Griffey contacted Councilman Taylor several weeks ago and wanted to know what the town’s plans were for Church Street. Mike said that he would like to get a small group of people together and talk about some things, so Councilman Taylor, Mike Griffey, Corky Lane, and Amanda Allen sat down and talked. Mike had a nice diagraph of the trees that were cut down, the trees that are there, and the different varieties of trees that are there. Mike wants Abingdon Manor to look nice, and Councilman Taylor said he doesn’t blame him. It is one of the older streets in Latta and it needs to be taken care of and historically preserved.
Mike wants to get an arborist in there and find out what we can do with the street before we decide what to do with the street. Once we find out what we can do with the street, present it to the citizens on Church Street, and see if they actually want to do it.