PICKENS - During their only meeting of the month Monday, County Council received positive word on several ongoing county projects including sewer lines along U.S. 123 and relocating a taxiway at the Pickens County airport.

The county has received matching funds and grants that will allow those projects, among others, to move forward, said County Administrator J. Chappell Hurst.

Earlier this year, council approved working with the school board to develop a sewer line along U.S. 123.

School district officials had originally requested tying into the county’s sewer plant along the Highway 123 corridor in the Liberty area.

“We were not sure … that we would get the funding,” Hurst said.

But officials recently received word that the county was awarded a $500,000 Appalachian Regional Commission to assist in the construction of the sewer lines, Hurst said.

Council Chairman G. Neil Smith said that the county was not paying for the school district’s sewer line, but using their request as an opportunity to upgrade the system.

“The school district wanted to tie into our sewer line, and they wanted to use a forced main,” Smith said. “Council wanted to take the money that they were going to put in, and try to match it, in order to get a gravity-fed line that would be available for businesses and other people.”

Hurst agreed.

“This will allow us to develop along 123 and hopefully encourage some additional businesses to come into that area,” Hurst said.

Dirt moved in order to begin work on the county’s fire training facility will be moved to the airport as part of the taxiway project.

Supplying the dirt will count as the county’s portion matching fund portion of a grant assisting with the taxiway project, Hurst said.

“So we don’t have to come up with additional fund to do that,” he said.

In other county news, the county has been voted the best recycler among all the counties

in the state, Hurst said.

The county has the highest rate of recycling in the state, at 32 percent, Hurst said.

As the county’s recycling program moves forward, county staff will be working with area municipalities to increase their recycling rates as well, he said.

“Some of them are recycling at rates between 12-17 percent,” Hurst said. “We are working with them and I believe that you’re going to see those rates increase significantly.”

Rising municipal recycling rates will impact the county’s rating as well, he said.

“Even with the low recycling rates in the cities, we are still number 1 in the state of South Carolina.”