2026-09-22 - Committee on Ways and Means

01:42I just wanted to confirm that.

02:16Okay.

02:23>> I'll ask

02:38which [clears throat]

02:47>> I mean it's such a

02:50unit

02:56Last question.

03:35Okay, that's all the counties.

03:38>> Okay.

03:44Good afternoon. I'd like to call the

03:46September 22nd, 2026 meeting of the city

03:48of Charleston's committee on m ways and

03:51means meeting to order. Uh we'll begin

03:54by asking Council Member McBride to

03:56provide an invocation.

03:59Bow your heads as you feel led. Lord

04:01Jesus, give us the the guidance and the

04:02clarity and the wisdom to to make

04:04decisions that are best for the city of

04:05Charleston and the residents that we

04:07serve. In Jesus name, amen.

04:10Thank you. Uh item number two is

04:12approval of the minutes from September

04:138th, 2026.

04:18Moved and seconded. Any discussion? All

04:21those in favor, please signify by saying

04:23I.

04:23>> I.

04:24>> Any opposed? The eyes have it. Item

04:27number three, bids and purchases. We

04:28have approval to purchase furniture for

04:30the Charleston Fire Department, John's

04:31Island Fire Station, number 23,

04:33$102,95.36.

04:36approval of an annual maintenance

04:37agreement contract renewal in the amount

04:39of $240,000 $794.17

04:42with Cisco Systems. Uh and then also an

04:45IT approval to renew annual maintenance

04:47and support for the city's data center

04:50server nodes in the amount of $135,000

04:5451754

04:57with Pipert.

05:00Do we have a motion?

05:01>> So moved.

05:02>> Moved and seconded. All those in favor

05:04please. Any discussion? All those in

05:06favor, please signify by saying I.

05:09>> I.

05:10>> Any opposed? The eyes have it. Item

05:12number four is a resolution to approve

05:14an amendment of the agreement for

05:15development for joint county industrial

05:17park buyin between Charleston County and

05:19Colin County. Um this was uh considered

05:22by real estate committee yesterday and I

05:25believe was approved unanimously. Uh

05:28moved and properly seconded. Any

05:29discussion? All those in favor, please

05:32signify by saying I. I.

05:34>> Any opposed? The eyes have it. Item

05:37number five is storm water management

05:38approval of a resolution for the

05:40additional funding from SEO ASIP for

05:44Barberry Woods and the related addendum

05:46to the subreient agreement.

05:49Moved and properly seconded. Any

05:50discussion? All those in favor please

05:52signify by saying I.

05:54>> I.

05:54>> I.

05:55>> Any opposed? The eyes have it. Item

05:57number six is capital projects approval

05:58of lowline revised early sight package

06:00scope of work change order number five

06:03uh to facilitate a remobilization date

06:05of October 19th 2026.

06:08This is 2 million

06:10uh 6,24

06:13um

06:15uh moved and properly seconded. Uh this

06:17is funded by the Cooper River Bridge. Uh

06:20>> really quickly, can we maybe get an

06:21update on the low line at the next TNT

06:23meeting?

06:25>> Absolutely.

06:25>> Thank you. That'd be great.

06:26>> Just for uh record, we're also going to

06:29be providing kind of a full update to

06:31council on the aggregate sources abuses.

06:34A lot of great progress on that front as

06:37well as the uhou

06:40with u both parks conserancy and friends

06:43of the low line uh for fundraising and

06:47also

06:49maint.

06:56>> Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

06:58>> Uh yes, this I just wanted to also chime

07:01in to thank the mayor for a conversation

07:02today. the um there there's certainly a

07:06reason why this is exagent um for the

07:08purposes of maintaining um the uh quoted

07:12costs at this particular time, but as as

07:14council member Seekings mentioned, um a

07:16lot of folks in district 4 are asking

07:18questions about where we stand. They've

07:20seen the signage gone up, the fencing

07:21there and such. So, we have a a number

07:24of uh um opportunities to provide those

07:26updates um going forward so that we we

07:29know where we stand before the next time

07:31we have to continue this process. So I

07:33did have a lot of conversation with this

07:35one to mention. I appreciate that. So

07:36thank you.

07:39All right. Any other discussion? All

07:42those in favor please signify by saying

07:43I.

07:44>> I.

07:45>> Any opposed? The eyes have it. Item

07:47number seven is uh parks capital

07:49projects approval of the Joseph P. Riley

07:52Jr. Ballpark Field improvements

07:53construction contract with Carolina

07:55Green Corp. $1,372,0008

07:588 $870. Uh this is turf removal,

08:03replacement, drainage system, scoping,

08:04and field raising. Um we had a motion

08:08and a second. Uh any discussion?

08:12All those in favor, please signify by

08:14saying I.

08:14>> I.

08:15>> I.

08:15>> Any opposed? You guys have it. Item

08:17number eight is uh parks capital

08:20projects approval of the parkshore park

08:22pickle ball courts construction contract

08:23in the amount of $255,956.

08:28Do we have a chair motion?

08:30>> If I may second, I'm I'm going to I'm

08:32going to move to defer this, but um

08:35before I do that, I want to see if

08:37someone from the parks department will

08:38come up and

08:41Yeah, I think there's y'all probably

08:42gotten some emails about this today. Um

08:46there

08:47there's a there's a little bit of uh

08:50confusion and which you know may be due

08:52to some miscommunications in the

08:55neighborhood. So, I wanted to at least

08:57have somebody from the parks department

08:59uh just give a brief presentation on

09:02what the city has done here and kind of

09:04what they've done to try to respond to

09:06some of the concerns they've received

09:08over the last it's been what three years

09:10now. So, Miss Brownley if Mr. Chair

09:14that.

09:15>> All right. So, uh we've got a motion for

09:17deferral. So, we need a second. All

09:19right. We second. Council member

09:21>> second

09:22>> Miss Brownley. Uh now we're some further

09:24discussion.

09:28>> We started design work. We met with

09:30pickle ball community. We anticipated

09:32doing 12 courts. Uh we solve some

09:35concerns as well as some budgetary

09:37concerns. Uh so we went back to the

09:40original project design

09:43and then went back to three to four

09:46which was redesigned

09:48late 2024 early 2025.

09:51After that we

09:53design contract is now being I'm sorry

09:57we have a design contract and we have

09:59the uh construction contract that is up

10:01for today. Uh that came in under budget.

10:05So some of the things that we did

10:06between the 12 courts and the four

10:08courts is that we actually eliminated

10:10light and that way we uh would not have

10:14play at night which address some

10:15concerns from the community about the

10:18noise and issues with

10:22general exploring

10:32those as well.

10:34And then the biggest thing is we've

10:36moved them away. So the original designs

10:40much closer to home. So now

10:47I've got a quick question. How much have

10:49we spent on design on all the iterations

10:51of this at this point?

10:56>> Okay. Thank you.

10:58>> Yeah. Sounds like we've got a good

11:01design to me.

11:03All

11:10right, Mr. We have a motion for

11:12>> if I say you know in in the meantime

11:15um if we can maybe get a meeting on the

11:18schedule uh in the neighborhood to to

11:23provide a little bit more of this

11:24information and if there's any more

11:26noise mitigation that can be done as a

11:29result of that. I understand there's

11:30some money in the budget to to achieve

11:33that. So, um I would I would ask, you

11:37know, for that that period of deferral,

11:40uh we we try to communicate that.

11:43>> How how long do we have to execute the

11:45contract with IPW?

11:55Okay.

11:58Do we know where we are on that 60-day

11:59period kind of towards the end?

12:06>> Okay. So, we're about halfway through.

12:08So, we may be able to do it in advance

12:10of next meeting. Uh would be the goal to

12:14have some of this neighborhood input

12:17because I'm just as we've found if we

12:20want to move this thing forward when we

12:23lose

12:24pricing, it doesn't go down.

12:28And you know, these budgets are tight.

12:30There's a lot of demand for uh uh uh

12:33improvements to parks all over the city.

12:36And so, um, this is something that I

12:39think we need to educate people on and,

12:42uh, allow us to make an informed

12:44decision.

12:47>> All right. Any other discussion?

12:49>> Yeah, I'm just curious. Uh, you may

12:50mention some monies potentially for some

12:53other mitigation. What form would the

12:55mitigation take? Sound mitigation?

12:59>> That can be installed on the fencing.

13:02That does some of the things that we've

13:04done. market has proven to be beneficial

13:08not

13:11but it is better than just having the

13:15standard fencing with

13:17>> okay and it was closer to the houses and

13:20we moved it how many feet away the

13:23parking lot

13:25>> okay I mean it'd be good to have that

13:26when you talk to the neighbors I think

13:32>> all right any other discussion

13:35Go ahead and call for the vote. All

13:38those in favor, please signify by saying

13:39I.

13:40>> I.

13:40>> I.

13:41>> Any opposed? All right. The eyes have it

13:44for deferral.

13:47Uh, okay. Item number nine, uh, parks

13:50capital projects. This is approval of

13:51John's Island Recreation Center GMP

13:54amendment number two to the Seymour

13:56contract with Trident in the amount of

13:5811,154,647

14:03U for procurement of goods and supplies.

14:05Um, do we have a motion?

14:08>> Moved and properly seconded. I do have a

14:11question. Didn't we approve this last at

14:13the last meeting?

14:16Is it How is this different?

14:20Sorry.

14:25>> Sure.

14:26>> You can just take my seat if you What's

14:28that?

14:30>> Number two.

14:31>> Oh, okay.

14:34>> Okay. I thought the amount was the same,

14:35too. All right. Thank you.

14:38Uh, all right. Moved and seconded. Any

14:40discussion? All those in favor, please

14:41signify by saying I.

14:43>> I.

14:44>> Any any opposed? The eyes have it. Item

14:46number 10, parks, capital projects.

14:48Again, approval of the Hazel Parker uh

14:50Parker playground renovation

14:52construction contract in the amount of

14:53$177,10

14:55of Trillet Construction.

14:57>> Uh so second

14:59>> moved and properly seconded. Any

15:01discussion?

15:03Just uh making the point that this is um

15:08just part of the budget for the overall

15:10project. There has been a significant

15:12amount of private funds that have been

15:15committed to this through the parks

15:17conservancy uh for that uh the

15:19renovation of that park almost double

15:21what the city's putting into it. So a

15:24good example of public priv part

15:26partnership coming in the private sector

15:28um uh putting some money in uh to make

15:31our parks better. Any

15:35other

15:35>> just quick followup. I mean, if you look

15:37at the budget on this, it was I think

15:39it's going to have to be a little bit

15:40more than 50% coming from the private

15:42sector um through the parks conservancy.

15:44I saw Jason was here earlier. They've

15:45done a masterful job of raising money

15:47for this project that's going to

15:49preserve a playground, replace

15:51facilities in there that need it, and

15:53really green it up. So, it's going to be

15:55a great project.

15:58>> All right. Uh got a motion in a second,

16:00I think. Uh any other discussion?

16:03All those in favor, please signify by

16:05saying I.

16:05>> I I any opposed? The eyes have it. Item

16:09number 11, uh, parks capital projects,

16:11approval of the WL Stevens Aquatic

16:13Center and Forest Park playground

16:14professional services contract,

16:17uh, SN in the amount of $100,000 for

16:20construction materials, testing, and

16:21special inspections. Moved and properly

16:23seconded. Any discussion?

16:26All those in favor, please signify by

16:27saying I.

16:28>> I.

16:29>> Any opposed? The eyes have it. Item

16:32number 12, uh, planning, permitting, and

16:34engineering. This is housing and

16:36community development authorization

16:37accept COC SNO auto renewal for

16:41$130,210.

16:44Uh, moved and properly seconded.

16:46Uh, any discussion?

16:49All those in favor, please signify by

16:51saying I.

16:52>> I.

16:52>> Any opposed? The eyes have it. Item

16:55number 13 was uh

16:58uh on public works yesterday and

17:00approved unanimously. This is storm

17:02water management approval of the

17:04one-year maintenance service agreement

17:06contract extension with Harper general

17:08contractors in the amount of $420,000

17:10for the continued maintenance of the

17:12Lockwood Drive William Dudley Gregory

17:13Pump Station. Moved and properly

17:15seconded. Any discussion? All those in

17:18favor, please signify by saying I.

17:20>> I.

17:20>> Any opposed? The eyes have it. Item

17:22number 14 also uh bring bought forward

17:25from uh public works yesterday approved

17:27unanimously storm water management

17:29approval of the central park drainage

17:30improvements construction contract in

17:33the amount of $4,54,3954648

17:37with Gulfream construction company. Uh

17:40did I hear a motion and a second? Moved

17:43and seconded. Any discussion?

17:46All those in favor please signify by

17:48saying I.

17:49>> I. If nothing else to come before this

17:52committee, we stand adjourned.

17:55Give