Incumbents Joe Durham and Jason Cassell and candidates Carlton Holley, Preston Bruce and Patrick Lark participated in the Pickens City Council debate, hosted by The Pickens Sentinel, Thursday night.
The candidates debated the issues and answered questions from the audience and a panel made up of Michael Keith of Griffin-Ebenezer
Baptist Church and Dan Winchester of the Pickens County Taxpayers Association, Pickens County Historical Society Vice-President Wayne Kelley and Mark Barrett of Michael’s Restaurant.
Business and downtown
The growth of Pickens was one of the top priorities for Pickens, with candidates agreeing the city needs new businesses and new visitors.
Encouraging new business to locate here is one of the biggest challenges, Bruce said.
“We’ve got to convince people that Pickens is a place where people can do business, and where they can succeed,” Bruce said. “It’s not going to work to have one or two places open up and then close.”
Patrick Lark said the council needs to do a better job of marketing Pickens.
“We need to make sure we find an identity for Pickens,” he said, adding the city needs better-looking gateways to the community.
“Pickens is in dire need,” he said. “But with communication, respect and a good work ethic, things can go a long way.”
Joe Durham said the city has begun developing a plan encompassing growth and bringing it outsiders.
“We have all the natural resources a community would want to have,” he said. “We just don’t market them. We have to have a plan.”
Annexation gives homeowners increased fire and police protection, Durham said.
Carlton Holley said the city needs to do more to encourage established businesses, such as Brock’s Department Store, to stay in Pickens.
“We can do things to keep businesses in Pickens,” he said.
Cassell said it will be hard to attract large industry to Pickens, but the city should be attractive to smaller companies.
“Something else we need to look at is tourism, try and get people to focus on we have around the area,” he said. “We’ve got lakes; we’ve got mountains; we’ve got parks. We need to look at marketing Pickens as a tourism hub.”
Candidates agreed that council needs to do whatever it can to make downtown business friendly.
“A vital downtown is important,” Durham said. “People have to have a reason to stop, to shop, to eat.”
An attractive Main Street will encourage new business and customers, he said.
Holley said the city needs to spread the word on Pickens’ small-town feel.
“People care about each other here,” he said.
Cassell said he’d love to see the city get a hotel.
“If you get a hotel, you could market Pickens as a place to stay,” he said.
Council should ensure that downtown is a business hub, not just a street full of law offices and research facilities, candidates agreed.
Bruce said council should encourage Behavioral Health and lawyers to move someplace more convenient for them, in order to encourage business growth without violating rights.
“We have to get some kind of momentum going downtown,” Lark said. “That starts with sense of place, gateways, beautification … whatever we can do to encourage businesses.”
Lark said annexation could be encouraged by letting people know that the benefits of coming into the city outweigh the negatives.
“There’s really not a lot of cost,” he said.
Durham said the streetscape project should expand to include streets other than Main Street, in order to open up the entire area.
He would also encourage Behavioral Health to relocate off of Main Street.
“There are plenty of places they could better serve the clients that they have.”
Holley said that adding to the city’s tax base by annexing new properties into Pickens will be difficult.
“There’s not an airport or a Cornell Dubieller to annex into the city,” he said.
Holley said there’s plenty of things council can do to bring people to downtown.
“On Friday night, we have a losing football team, and still we’re packed,” Holley said.
“There’s a lot of pride in Pickens.
“Do I have all the answers? No,” he continued.
“I’m willing to work and listen and get the community involved.”
Holley said he wasn’t running for council to Pickens to better himself.
“I want to be on Pickens City Council to make things better for the citizens of Pickens,” he said.
Cassell said empty houses on Ann Street would make great law offices, and said the Pickens Downtown Business Association has looked at creating signage to point the way to points of interest.
Spending and budget
Candidates said they would take steps to prevent Pickens from overspending in the future.
Cassell said the council was blindsided by the current financial situation, but that a lot of the overspending was due to engineering costs for the water plant.
“Our computer system was not giving us very accurate numbers,” he said, adding that the city administrator and department heads are working hard to rein in expenses.
“I don’t think the budget will be as big an issue next year,” Cassell said.
Holley said he would see to it that each department stays within its allotted budget.
“I’ll see that we keep a closer check on spending,” he said.
Durham said all cities are struggling with spending and state cuts.
“The computer software we were using was not reliable,” he said, adding the city has put a plan in place to receive monthly updates on spending.
“Cities don’t have much of an opportunity to raise funds,” Durham said. “It’s just not there.”
Lark said if elected he would ask the questions that need to be asked regarding spending and available funds.
“You have to have that information,” he said. “There’s no complacency allowed when it comes to how the budget is managed, how the money is spent.
“There has to be checks and balances on the council that things are being handled accordingly,” Lark said. “It has to be on the table for all to see.”
Bruce said more oversight is a positive.
“You can never have government auditing itself enough, to make sure you’re not wasting funds in any way,” he said. “Do the best you can with what you’ve got.”
State budget cuts aside, Pickens City Council should be working to ensure the city is self-sufficient, and “not relying on a hand that may be taken away in the future,” Bruce said.
Bruce suggested the city set up a non-profit organization whose funds are devoted to fixing up Main Street, and attracting private donors to fund the revitalization work.
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