The Kiwanis Club of Orangeburg presented the Rev. Jerry French as the 2022 Citizen of the Year at at banquet held at the First Baptist Church Family Life Center on Thursday, Sept. 15. The banquet also officially recognized past honorees, the late Bill Cox Sr. and the late Frank P. Tourville Sr.
A Columbia-based contractor has been hired to renovate the former First Citizens Bank building at Russell and Broughton streets and turn it into a new city hall.
Orangeburg City Council voted 6-1 on Tuesday to hire Mashburn Construction as the general contractor for the $7 million project.
The decision was made after council spent nearly an hour and half behind closed doors discussing the matter as well as other unrelated contractual and legal issues.
“We reviewed the proposals and are confident that Mashburn will be the best contractor for this project,” Orangeburg City Administrator Sidney Evering said.
Evering said the city put out a request for proposal for a contractor and received three responses.
He hopes the project will begin by the end of the year,
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Councilman Dr. Kalu Kalu asked if any local contractors will be used as part of the project.
“As part of the proposal there was a requirement to use local and minority women contractors,” Evering said. “They have committed to doing that. Local contractors will be utilized in the project.”
Councilman Richard Stroman said, “I am not in favor of spending this kind of money on a building of this age and also adding another floor to it.”
Earlier this year, City Council voted to borrow and spend about $7 million to help pay for the renovation of the building to house a new city hall. The current city hall is on Middleton Street.
Under the proposed 30-year borrowing plan, city officials have said there would be no tax increase for the first two years of the bond.
During the third year, the city’s millage rate would increase by 7.19 mills to pay for the borrowing. The cost would eventually increase to a high of 10.87 mills during the payment of the bond, according to city officials.
The impact on a $100,000 primary residence after two years would be a $28.70 property tax increase, before increasing to a $43.48 property tax increase at the maximum annual amount, according to city officials.
City officials hope the bond can be paid off with money obtained from the fifth round of the county’s capital project sales tax, which voters will be asked to approve in 2024. City officials are expecting voters to approve the referendum as they have done the previous four times it has come before them.
According to Mashburn’s website, the company has worked on a number of municipal projects such as the Chapin Town Hall, the Clarendon County Courthouse, and the town of Kingstree’s fire and police station, to name a few.
