Orangeburg City Council is discussing the possibility of creating the city’s own housing authority to address housing needs.
“I think that due to the economic growth of the city, we will face some housing problems,” Orangeburg Mayor Michael Butler said during council’s meeting on Tuesday.
“There are areas in the city that need to be developed more,” Butler said.
Butler said he has wanted the city to establish its own housing program for quite some time so “we can better meet the needs of the citizens that are here that have a problem with housing.”
The city is currently a part of the Lower Savannah Regional Home Consortium.
Being a member of the consortium enables the city to receive federal Housing and Urban Development money. Habitat for Humanity and New America are two groups in the city that benefit from HUD money, enabling them to construct homes in the area.
Assistant City Administrator John Singh said there are currently about a half a dozen cities in the state that are a part of the consortium and that there is no charge for the city to be a part of the consortium.
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As part of the council meeting, council unanimously approved a resolution to participate in LSRHC. The city is required to renew its participation in the consortium every three years.
Councilman Bernard Haire asked what it would take for the city to get its own housing authority established.
City Administrator Sidney Evering said the city is currently engaged with a consultant to help walk it through the process.
“When we have done some market analysis, that is one of the things that stands out is that there is a lack of affordable housing in the city, but also market-rate housing. I would add just the housing stock, period,” Evering said.
Earlier this year, council voted to set aside $1 million for affordable housing as part of the $6.3 million the city received in American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Butler said when he was elected to council, he targeted Dickson and Maxcy streets as two areas that he would like to see improved, as well areas near the universities.
“One time we got some money from the COG (Council of Governments) and we did sidewalks over there,” Butler said. “I was so glad, because people were walking in the streets.”
Evering said it would take about six months to a year to create a housing authority, noting an executive director would have to be hired.
• Council gave unanimous first reading to an ordinance amending the Department of Public Utilities’ budget for its automated water metering project by $1.1 million.
“Due to escalating costs, we needed to do a budget amendment to allocate more funds to complete the project,” DPU Manager Warren Harley said.
The AMI project is placing automated meters at every residence and business in the DPU service area. The system will allow customers to track their water usage online and more easily detect water leaks, Harley said.
“The bids came back and they are a lot higher than we had budgeted,” Harley said.
DPU had budgeted $6.5 million for the preapproved project and requested council increase the amount by $1.1 million.
“The bulk of that – almost half of it – will go toward contingencies, that is, issues that might come up during the process that we don’t know about at this point,” Harley said. “We are hoping that we will not see a lot of those and that we will be able to save a good bit of that funding.”
Harley said the money is available in DPU’s reserves.
He said the utility was able to reduce the bid cost by about $500,000.
• Council voted 6-1 to give first reading to an ordinance increasing the budget for the Hampton Street sewer project by $234,884. The project is currently contracted to Columbia-based GH Smith Construction Inc. for about $1 million. A part of the project will be paid for with about $500,000 in grant funds.
Harley said the money is available in the DPU’s reserve fund.
The project includes replacement of the 8-inch sewer main, the replacement of 19 manholes and associated infrastructure.
Prior to the vote, Councilman Richard Stroman expressed his concerns about GH Smith Construction being based out of town. The second-to-lowest bid for project was Porth Contracting Company in St. Matthews.
Harley said council already approved the bid and that the question before council was simply to increase the amount budgeted toward the completion of the project. He said changing the bid process at this juncture would be problematic.
“It would be unfair for us to change at this juncture,” Harley said.
• Council appointed LeAndrea Felder and Anna Bloome Brunson to the city’s Employee Grievance Committee for three-year terms.
• Council went into closed session to discuss a contractual matter related to the Hillcrest Golf Course lease agreement with South Carolina State University.
