Council shelves fence for junkyard

By HALEY HUGHES
Staff writer

A proposal to erect a fence in front of a salvage yard along U.S. Highway 1 was shot down Tuesday by Aiken County Council.

Council voted unanimously against the proposed resolution, which in effect "kills the allocation of funds" for construction of the fence, said Councilman Scott Singer.

The proposal called for the County to enter into a cost-sharing agreement with the City of Aiken for a screening fence to be designed and constructed by the South Carolina Department of Transportation to shield B&W Auto & Truck Parts from the view of passing traffic. The cost was not to exceed $50,000.

Singer, who by his own admission has been "pushing vigorously" for the fence since the beginning, made the initial motion opposing the resolution.

He then made a follow-up motion asking that the South Carolina Department of Transportation recommit itself to following state right-of-way laws. The motion passed by majority with Councilman Charles Barton voting in opposition.

"It is ridiculous, in my opinion," Barton said. "That part died so leave it alone. I don't understand why Scott Singer keeps harping on it. How are we benefitting from it (asking SCDOT to follow state laws)? We've got things we need to take care of ourselves instead of asking SCDOT to take care of them."

An SCDOT motion for a permanent injunction against B&W Auto & Truck Parts in 1986 failed because both parties reached an agreement outside court. The parties agreed that salvage yard owner PeeWee Willing would not allow any "junk vehicles" or "junk equipment" to be parked in SCDOT rights-of-way for any extended period of time. The phrase "extended period of time" was never defined, leaving it free to interpretation.

Singer said that the proposal considered by County Council "shook the cages, so to speak. There now seems to be a political will to address the problem. Appropriate enforcement authorities are looking into this. The best solution to this problem is enforcement of the laws."

In other business, Council heard first reading of a proposal that would amend the fiscal year 2009 budget to increase funding to emergency services.

In December, Assistant County Administrator Todd Glover gave a presentation to Council's Judicial and Public Safety Committee which focused on the system's current needs. He offered up three options he said would help provide better service to the County's citizens.

The committee agreed at the time to back option two, which would add 15 emergency services positions to the budget, put an additional five ambulances on the road and add two quick-response vehicles to the fleet at a net budget increase of $715,000.

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