State of the City Address

As the City begins yet another year, we have a lot to look back on, but even more to look forward to this year. The recession of the past year has taught the Country, the State and certainly Pickens many lessons that make us all complain a little less when we hit the alarm each morning. This year the City cut over $100,000 out of our operating budget to anticipate the decline in revenue from property taxes, business license fees, hospitality taxes and more. We also put over $200,000 back into our reserves since June to prepare for any other unexpected changes or reductions to our anticipated revenues.

With the same demands as there are in good economic times being placed on the City to provide quality services with a smaller staff and less resources to do those jobs, the task has not been easy. More importantly, it is not over. Unlike the Federal government, local governments are mandated to pass and maintain a balanced budget. We are continuing to find new and creative ways to do more with less so that we can maintain full Police and Fire Department along with our many other city services.

One of the biggest challenges for the City of Pickens has been and will remain our outdated water treatment plant. The City of Pickens serves over 4,000 water customers and we are dedicated to constantly improving our system and water quality.

The City recently paid for the completed engineer designs of our water plant improvements and is resubmitting this project as a scaled down version back to Rural Development for funding. A few months back the City was faced with a serious decision about beginning an estimated $16 million dollar upgrade or scaling the project back to lessen the debt load on citizens. City Council chose the latter decision after months of debate, additional engineer opinions, conversations with other rural water districts, and research into other water plant projects, scopes, and pricing.

The decision to turn down $6 million in stimulus money was not taken lightly, but the citizens of Pickens would have had to put up $10 million in loans before ever receiving a dime of grant money. We appreciate how hard prior Councils worked on this project and commend their ability to have a vision for a project of this magnitude. The lesson learned is that the water business is not cheap and that a 50- year run of a water plant cannot continue to be successful forever without improvements.

We want citizens to be confident that we are doing our research and talking to many stakeholders not only locally, but also regionally, as water in Pickens County is different a situation from what it was 50 years ago. We hope to announce the estimated budget and scope for this “phase I” improvement to our water plant by early Spring, so stay tuned!

The “Stimulus” package passed in 2009—love it or hate it— it happened and it’s here to help and be felt for decades. The City of Pickens received 2 new police cars, new rifles for our entire police force, and over $140,000 of energy efficiency improvements to 5 City owned buildings, to reduce our monthly energy bills and take one small step towards going green! One of the biggest winners, the Pickens Seniors, will benefit from over $40,000 worth of improvements to help the group as they continue to do wonderful things and build a true community center in the former Hagood School. We look forward to starting improvements within a few weeks.

The Pickens Recreation Department completed another successful year of programs and summer camp and enjoyed all of this in our new facilities built just about 5 years ago. Thanks to the Pickens County C-Fund Committee, we were able to fully curb and pave two of the lots surrounding our recreation fields, which will provide a safer and more user friendly experience for all families and children.

With the help of our citizen lead advisory board, the PYAC, we improved the “volunteer fields” and made the fields more suited for groups of all ages. Additionally, we brought our grounds maintenance in house only a few years ago and have been so impressed with how much we have improved our fields and facilities. Finally, thanks to Pickens County, we have begun construction on new batting cages that are sure to be a hit!

Pickens is pleased to provide sanitation collection service in addition to household recycling pick- up through a partnership with the County. Recently, the County mandated recycling rates for all municipalities with the threat of monetary penalties for noncompliance. While Pickens proudly boasts the highest recycling rate within the County, and we meet current standards, we still have some work to do before 2011.

Be a part of the solution and recycle! We provide this free to all residents, so call and get the free container and get on the route! We are currently discussing ways to increase our rate and reduce waste so that we do not all suffer from future penalties. Just think of the impact if we all recycled our junk mail and papers!

The Pickens Police Department worked tirelessly this year on an anti-drug campaign to improve the safety of our community. As the result of an 8 month drug investigation by the Police Department, over 50 drug related warrants were obtained. Currently, the department has an 85% clearance rate on all investigations into criminal activity.

The Police Department worked in conjunction with Pickens County to remove several condemned and dilapidated homes throughout the City that encouraged criminal activity in our neighborhoods.

The department’s dedication to grant writing has saved the City tens of thousands of dollars and has helped ensure our police force has the up- to-date equipment and technology needed to fight crime in 2010.

In 2009, the Pickens Fire Department received approximately 384 fire calls. Of these calls, 113 were within the City limits, 216 were rural calls, and 55 were within Shady Grove fire district. We sometimes take for granted how important it is to have a professional and fully staffed department that is trained and ready to respond until we are the ones calling. Without the teamwork of our volunteers and full time staff, Pickens and the immediate rural area surrounding the City would not have benefitted from such a rapid response time.

Already in 2010, we were able to take advantage of an insurance grant to buy 10 new sets of boots and gloves. 2010 will mark the beginning of an aggressive purchase plan for radios, turnout gear, and other OSHA regulated equipment to ensure our firefighters have up- to-date protective gear.

We look forward to another successful year of assisting our community from our Pickens City location and our Shady Grove station.

Plans for 2010:

Although our budget will remain tight, as we do not anticipated any revenue increases in the continuing economic struggle, we do have some serious plans! Through the grant process, the City plans to start our 5 acre downtown park transformation-from kudzu to park! We will have a conceptual drawing available for viewing and comments by March and look forward to sharing it with you all.

The master plan is to develop a park and outdoor amphitheatre unlike any of our neighbors that will be sure to attract people to come to Pickens for entertainment and outdoor leisure. The greenspace will creatively use flowers, fountains, trails, boardwalks, and sitting areas to compliment this amphitheatre. We believe the City cannot grow and encourage our local economy without putting some serious dollars into Main Street. In addition, we plan to partner with the Council of Governments to discuss our options for beginning a second phase of streetscape improvements focused on the west end of Main Street. As grant and funding options allow, we plan to begin this as soon as possible.

The City is dedicated to giving back to citizens and business owners of Pickens and putting their hard earned tax dollars back into the community to try and encourage new investors to occupy our vacant buildings. This is something we consider to be urgent and have a Steering Committee comprised of stakeholders heading the planning process every 4th Monday of the month at 5:30pm.



2010 will also mark the year we aggressively shift our focus towards MS4 stormwater compliance. This unfunded mandate handed down by EPA and DHEC has a strict set of regulations and requirements for all MS4 municipalities, including Pickens. As an MS4 permit holder, we are already slightly behind the compliance schedule and cannot risk the fines that can be imposed by DHEC for noncompliance (the most well known case being Richmond County which was fined over $800,000).

Citizens should become aware of these stormwater buzz words and understand that the regulations have been put in place as a part of the Clean Water Act to help protect streams and lakes and improve their quality for future generations. In this case, everyone contributes to how clean stormwater is when it enters our rivers and streams-whether it’s directly into a water source or indirectly as runoff water from your property entering the network of pipes and ditches around the City.

The City has already had a public hearing and two expert groups come and address Council to start getting the facts out about the fees and ordinances coming in the near future. Watch the papers for another public hearing before May 1 on this issue.



Finally, I would like to conclude by welcoming our newest citizens who annexed into to the City of Pickens. The exciting new Pickens High School project has already been a successful endeavor for the City as we worked hand in hand with the School District to bring public utilities to the new site. I want to extend our sincere appreciation to all the property owners up highway 178 who signed easements and/or annexed into the City limits, bringing this new site into the City limits. In the past year, we annexed 14 properties into the City and expanded our City limits to include the new site. We look forward to the completion of the new utilities and the new high school.

Sincerely,

Mayor David Owens