PROSPERITY — The Town of Prosperity secured the property at 305 N. Main St., formerly Park Sterling Bank, for $135,000, Mayor Derek Underwood announced Tuesday night.
“We decided to make an offer and look at all the pros and cons,” Underwood said.
Underwood said council and administration thought the building would be good for the town now and in the future.
“The whole thing kind of aligned perfectly,” Underwood said.
Underwood said that Town Hall had structural issues and while it is being used as a municipal building, grants are not available to do enhancements.
“We looked at it as a win-win that if we were able to secure another building for administrative offices, we could make Town Hall 100 percent civic oriented to open up a lot more opportunities,” Underwood said.
While the town’s first offer on the property came back with no interest, Underwood said they kept pursuing it and were persuasive and diligent in obtaining the property.
The town will pay off the $135,000 in three payments of $45,000 at zero interest, Underwood said. If everything goes as planned, the goal is to be moved in by the end of September.
Along with the property, Underwood said the town has gained some of the inventory of Park Sterling including 11 two-drawer file cabinets, three four-drawer file cabinets, five desks, a credenza, one large conference room table, nine office chairs, three tall office chairs, two bookshelves, two printer stands, seven security cameras, two vaults, one night deposit safe, lobby furnishings (sofa, chairs, side tables) and a Christmas tree.
Prosperity made its first $45,000 payment on Aug. 3. The second payment will be made on Aug. 1, 2016, with the final payment will be made on Aug. 1, 2017.
Under new business, Tad Abraham came before council to discuss GIS mapping for the town. Abraham said Prosperity was unique for its size because it offers water, sewer and electric.
“You’re seeing a lot of municipalities getting into GIS because it’s saving them money,” Abraham said. “It’s making them more efficient and allowing them to get a better view of what they have, where they have it and what kind of condition it is in.”
GIS resolves issues by allowing the town to assign ages to things such as telephone poles, water lines, etc. Because of this, if there is a grouping of problems, it might be easier and faster to identify a solution.
“It’s data you have to make an additional investment in, but you get a return from that point on,” Abraham said.
With so many different applications, Abraham told council it could delve into it as deep as it wanted.
Town Administrator Karen Livingston said they have received information before through the Newberry County Water and Sewer Authority who gave them a contact. The plan was to work on it through grant funding, Livingston said, but that it was in the early stages.
Underwood said council could review the information Abraham presented and could discuss it further at the next meeting.
Committee reports
Under electrical, streets and sanitation, councilman Chad Hawkins said the utility department is still cutting trees in town and staying on top of that in case of worse winter weather this year.
For parks, recreation and events, Councilman Allen Gallman said baseball was coming to a close. Gallman said they had already started meeting about the town’s Christmas parade to get a head start. Livingston said they would be going with the theme this year of Christmas stories. Floats will be decorated in the group’s favorite Christmas storybook and will be judged accordingly.
“We’ve got some fun planners and it’s going to be a force to be reckoned with this year,” Livingston said.
Plans for Prosperity’s Spooktacular event have not yet been finalized, Livingston said. The town typically partners with Grace Church and they haven’t worked out an official date yet, but were leaning toward Halloween night because it would be on a Saturday this year.
Police Chief David Beddingfield said that they had an officer just get back from a two-week training course, while another officer is currently in the academy working toward his Class 1 certification. Beddingfield said they have seized several quantities of narcotics in response to complaints they have received.