[00:00:11] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to First Friday with Georgetown County. I'm Jackie Broach, public information officer for the county. And we have a brand new guest here today, Jonathan Branch with the Georgetown County Sheriff's Office reentry program.
Jonathan is going to tell us a little bit about the program and what's new with it. For those who may not know, Jonathan, tell us a little about what the re entry program is.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: The reentry program originally started back in 2007. Sheriff Lane Cribb was here and Debbie Barr, I think, was the first director who started the program. And so at that time, and still today, the Georgetown County Detention center is a designated facility for the State Department of Corrections. What that means is men, and we do work exclusively with men who are otherwise qualified, can request a transfer to our facility to participate in our reentry program. So they come, but they're still technically in custody of the State Department of Corrections.
We want them now, we want them to have at least a year left remaining on their sentences so that we can. So they can take full advantage of some of the opportunities that we offer.
When the program first started, it was primarily, I believe, an apprenticeship program. And so all of the men who come from the State Department of Corrections have work assignments that they're required to participate in on a daily basis.
And so they would come and they would.
What Debbie and Sheriff Cribb had the foresight to do was to create a program where, you know, those men would come and the work assignments would be with the Facility Services department, maybe, maybe they were learning H Vac repair or electrical work or plumbing or whatever, landscaping even.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: So they're learning job skills and they.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Will learn job skills.
[00:01:50] Speaker C: Right.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: And so Debbie was able to affiliate the reentry program with an organization called Apprenticeship Carolina.
And so men could do the job training. And then when they came, when they were released from custody, they would have a certificate endorsed by the U.S. department of labor saying they were qualified to work in that area. So they would go on to get jobs, sometimes even with the county in the trades that they had trained in.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: And I mean, these can be highly skilled jobs like H Vac repair and stuff.
[00:02:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And a lot of demand for those, as you can imagine. Here in South Carolina, we had a guy who just recently came out of our program as a certified electrician. He earned his master certification and in fact, he starts a job or will have started a job this week.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: That's great.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Working as an electrician for a company.
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Local company, because I believe that for a lot of people who are coming out of incarceration, it can be difficult to find a job and kind of get back to being a productive member of society. Right?
[00:02:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Studies show that nationally, the unemployment rate among formerly incarcerated people is just astronomical compared to the unemployment rate among non incarcerated people.
In fact, I think one study showed, if I'm not mistaken, that the unemployment rate among formerly incarcerated can often be three times as high as the general unemployment rate during the Great Depression, even today. And then for the formerly incarcerated people who do find jobs, often their median income is just about half of the median income of non incarcerated people who are working.
And often they work two or three jobs, you know, where as many people work one job. So, yeah, employment's a big factor. And as you can imagine, you know, not having access to a living wage.
[00:03:34] Speaker D: Right.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: Or quality employment can, you know, be stressors that, you know, can set you.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: Up basically to end up back in jail. Right.
[00:03:42] Speaker B: Back into difficulties. Right. And so, you know, that's what we see people repeat offending. You know, the big statistical word is recidivism. You know, returning into incarceration.
That's kind of an awkward measure, right? That's metadata. Right. But yes, it's the general idea of someone coming out of incarceration, then returning to incarceration, presumably because they have reoffended in some way.
[00:04:03] Speaker D: Right.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: And as you can imagine, if you have a person, for example, who didn't have a lot of opportunities coming up, maybe lived in a place with poor education and very few employment opportunities, and maybe made a living doing some kind of illegal activity, when things get stressful, we often go back to what we know, and that's the case for many people. So we want to do what we can to make a pathway, you know, for men who want to make better decisions to get on a more positive life path. Right. We want to give them the resources and opportunities to do that.
And employment is a big piece of that.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: So of the people who have come through this program, do you know offhand how many have come through the program successfully?
[00:04:41] Speaker B: I don't have a definitive number, but my understanding is this is in the range of 250 or more men since the program first started.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: And how many of those have found gainful employment? How many have wound up, you know, unfortunately back in jail?
[00:04:54] Speaker B: Yeah, a lot of that was pre Covid, of course. And, you know, during the time that, before I got here. And so I don't have, you know, again, definitive numbers. Our understanding is that only three men have ever been reincarcerated after Coming through our program.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: 250. I mean, that's, that's pretty amazing.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: That's a remarkable number. It really is.
You know, and of course there, there are a lot of considerations. Right. Again, men have to qualify to come to our program and they have to apply and be accepted, you know, several criteria. So there's a bit of a, I guess a self selection bias built into that, of course, but that, that doesn't in any way undermine the dedication and the work of the men who are coming in to our program.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: And the county itself has hired some of the people who have come through this program who trained with our facility services. And one of my favorite co workers actually came through this program and I think recently got promoted. So, you know, does wonderful things. It helps these people get their lives back on track and really become good, productive members of our society. Which of course is exactly what we want. So how can people help with this program if anybody wanted to contribute in some way?
[00:06:02] Speaker B: Yeah, sure.
You know, our focus really on the surface level, you know, our primary focus are on education and job training and personal development opportunities.
So we do that in a variety of, a variety of ways. Of course, we have the job training program which includes, now includes an on site welding program.
We're partnered with the Carolina Welding Training Institute in Andrews.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: Talk about highly skilled.
[00:06:29] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it's a great job and a lot of opportunity in the welding trade. And also the welding trade, like a few other trades, tends to be open to people, you know, regardless of their, you know, legal history, you know, and so we're, that program is relatively new for us. We're about a year, almost a year and a half, roughly a year and a half into the welding program.
You know, so we still haven't seen a lot of our graduates be employed in that field yet. I did talk to one yesterday who just recently got a welding job and you know, but we're gonna, we're gonna see that materialize over time. Right.
The important thing about the welding program is, like I said, all of the men who come to our program are assigned to, you know, various work positions. And we've got a number of positions inside the facility that have to be filled before they can go out to facility services, for example. So a lot of the men in our program work a daily schedule in the kitchen at the detention center. You know, for example, a few of them were maintenance around the facility. So what the welding program does is it gives us an opportunity to provide, you know, meaningful job training for the men who can't leave the facility and go out to work with facility services.
[00:07:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Right.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: So they're able to earn certificates in welding then. Also, you know, for the education piece, we're partnered with the Incarcerated Voice Initiative. That's a program that runs out of the Sociology department at Coastal Carolina University.
So men who have their GED can sign up when we do that class in the spring and they can earn college credit at Coastal Carolina taking that sociology class. They can also do it more than once because of the way the program is designed.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: We've got a few men who are doing some, earning some credits in partnership with Horry Georgetown Technical College.
And then again, we do have a GED program with Howard Adult Ed, Dr. Paula Anderson. Make sure that men who need a GED have an opportunity to do that.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: That's great.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: So we pursue or we provide opportunities in education. Right. Not just in job training.
And then also we provide a range of personal development opportunities. So we have a couple of counselors who work with us and provide some one on one services for men who want that.
We also have opportunities for some cognitive behavioral therapy based training. That's a program that's based out of the, I think the Minnesota Department of Corrections and this incredibly reputable program. Right. A lot of positive results. And then we also provide a lot of restorative based opportunities. So we give them an opportunity to reconcile with their families, to take accountability for what they've done that has gotten them in the situation that they're in and to find ways to begin to repair that harm as much as possible.
So we're focused on all three areas. Personal development, education and job training.
And your question, that was kind of a long way to get back to your question. Your question is about what people can do to support the program.
The program is expensive.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: And it is a non profit.
[00:09:18] Speaker B: It is a non profit. Right.
There's a local non profit that supports our program exclusively. They're called Amazing Journey. And we're always taking donations.
Our financial need is growing because our program is recovering from COVID And so we have more and more men coming into our program.
In addition to paying for that welding program and those educational opportunities, Amazing Journey also sets aside some money for men. They're released so we can help with housing and transportation and that kind of thing.
And so the easiest way and the simplest way to support the program is to make a donation to Amazing Journey that can be done on their website, amazingjourney inc.org and that's every single dollar. Right. That's very little administrative cost. You know, in the Amazing Journey budget.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: You'Re the only employee.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: Yes, I'm the only employee. Right. And my salary is covered by the sheriff's office. So, yeah, almost every single dol.
You know, go straight to Amazing Journey and go straight to taking care of the men in the program and providing what they need.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: Yeah, that's great. Well, what else can you think of to tell us? It's such a wonderful program, and it sounds like coming up on 20 years.
[00:10:30] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I've been around for a long time and a really fantastic past. I mean, just thinking that Debbie had the foresight to put the things in place that she did back at a time when the term re entry was just coming into the national parlance. Right.
You know, the term reentry itself showed up, like, right around the year 2000. 2002, maybe.
And so she was already doing it very early on, figuring out a way to provide these kinds of opportunities. And so what we want to do is take all the research that has evolved over the last 20 years and add that to the history and to the foundation that we already have and see what we can do to continue to provide men with more and better opportunities to recover their lives and find a better path forward.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: And you guys are also getting a new location out at the new detention center site that is being built, right?
[00:11:26] Speaker B: That's right. Yeah. We'll have a building designed specifically for this purpose. The building we're in right now is some kind of a detention center warehouse that things were stored in, whatever kinds of things detention centers have to keep for a long time. Yeah, right. That was stored in that building. And then. And then the building was, I guess, retrofitted. Right. To serve the purposes that it's been used for. And this is. It's worked fine. It's been adequate, and, you know, we're grateful for it. We're certainly looking forward to a new building that's designed, you know, from the start for this purpose.
So, yeah, we're going to have more space and better space, you know, to hopefully to add more and more opportunities.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: All right, well, Jonathan, thank you so much for coming on and telling us about this amazing program. And we hope to have you back whenever you have new things to talk about that are going on with the reentry program. I love to hear about the success of it.
[00:12:14] Speaker E: Great.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: Great.
Next up, we have Beth Goodall, the director of Georgetown County Parks and Recreation, and Jason Walters, the recreation manager for that department. And they are going to talk about youth sports and our new sportsmanship Initiative. Beth, tell me a little bit about that.
[00:12:34] Speaker E: So, yes. So, Jackie, a few years ago we recognized that there was somewhat of a disconnect. We have a great working relationship with our school district, but there was a disc. Somewhat of a disconnect between getting kids prepared to play high school sports or play for their schools.
That whole viewpoint of being excited to go play for your school, that was kind of on the decline.
Especially we noticed it with regard to tackle football. And tackle football numbers were dropping dramatically, still are decreasing across the nation and across the state, but so our teams were certainly struggling.
So Jason worked with a number of key folks in our recreation department, some of our volunteers and the school district and launched what we've called the sportsmanship initiative three years ago. And it has really grown and is doing wonderful things in developing feeder programs for those athletes.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: That's great. So tell me about the difference that it's made.
[00:13:41] Speaker D: So the best example I can use is from our Waccamar region regarding the tackle football.
The year we decided we wanted to do this, there was about anywhere from 12 to 15 kids per team. And that was just enough. We called Ironman football to where the kids had to play offense and defense. They don't really get much breaks. You're subbing one, maybe two kids in, but you're playing 60 minutes. Yeah. So that was real rough on the kids, but they stuck it through and we realized we finally had enough to kind of run with. So. But as Beth said, we were here and there just wasn't a lot of excitement. Numbers were declining or transitioning into school ball. And a lot of it was because the competition was so much steeper from these other well developed programs. Yeah, it was just intimidating.
So what we did is we went, we got all of the athletic directors, football coaches together and pretty much said, what can we do to help and where do we start?
And pretty much where we decided we wanted to start was, well, let's just get them introduced to you, the people, to where they know they're buying into you, to your program and what you have to offer before they actually have to go out there and, you know, stare down the other team or anything like that.
So that's what we did. That was the birthplace of. It was. We were just, we invited the football staff from school districts to come and supervise, hang out with the kids, you know, do some mentorship opportunities and just get acclimated. And then we immediately started seeing the buy in from the community and from the kids. A lot of those kids transitioned directly into school ball. After that year, which was the first time since at least the pandemic to really see that transition happening, it's, that's great. Really gone well. Now even in our sports, seeing the buying from the school districts like playing at their stadiums and seeing the coaches out there sharing equipment with each other, it's seen dramatic increases year over year in our participation. So now we've gone from, you know, 11 to 15 per team to now we're running out of equipment, we're having 30 kids on a team.
[00:15:51] Speaker A: I mean, that's a great problem to have.
[00:15:52] Speaker D: Yeah.
So it's paid off in dividends and we can't do it without our partners, of course. But it's, it's really promising to see the collaboration, bringing the community together like that.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: And of course, you know, we want to see kids active in sports because not only the physical activity aspect of it, but they learn a lot of other lessons while they're out on these teams, right?
[00:16:16] Speaker E: Absolutely. I mean, we're all about teaching life lessons through sports. You have to learn to win and to lose gracefully. You have to learn to be part of a team. Those are the key things in addition to the fundamentals that we want to strive to be the most important aspects of our programs. It's not who you're winning against every week, it's building good citizens, building good solid folks and giving them that little background if they do want to go play sports. We frankly have some wonderful athletes in Georgetown county of all types.
But we want to build well rounded youth that can play sports and also get the grades and also are just good solid citizens.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: We could be working with the next Melissa Jefferson or. I know they're football legends here. I can't think of the name right now. I'm not a sports person.
[00:17:10] Speaker E: Together, yes, there's a number, a number of folks that you know, have played in the NFL. So yes, we have Olympians and NFL players and lots and lots of college athletes in the area that have played different sports.
[00:17:25] Speaker A: Equally important, maybe the next great youth coach for the next generation.
[00:17:29] Speaker E: Absolutely, absolutely.
[00:17:31] Speaker D: Yeah, we've definitely seen a lot more buy in from our coaches and we're actually recruiting. Typically we're volunteer based program. So we've actually seen kids age out and their parents come back to coach just because they've fallen in love with it and love what we're trying to build here.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: That's great.
[00:17:47] Speaker E: Another great part of this program is having the career football coaches or basketball coaches or that level of expertise involved is helping our staff to be at Another level, but also they're providing training.
Volunteers are vital to our programs. That is who coaches your programs, your rec programs everywhere.
But by having those high school coaches, they're able to help teach our volunteers how to coach, how to reach the kids and also keeping. Keeping our staff sharp as well. Yeah, that's great.
[00:18:25] Speaker D: That was actually phase two of the initiative was. Well, now that we're acclimated with each other, whether what do we ask for? Gives four or five plays the building blocks for however your region will run their offensive defense and let us perfect that. So when they go to the next level, you're already hitting the ground running. And that's pretty much what we've done. They've given us certain styles and things they want to see and that's just what we're drilling home to where now they have purely fundamentals but beyond, you know, you're.
What's the word?
[00:18:57] Speaker A: Yeah. So the kids who are interested in moving on up like they're, they're ready to hit the ground running and just go.
[00:19:03] Speaker D: Definitely better understanding.
[00:19:04] Speaker E: Yep. And the other really exciting part and, and for me it's the kids. It's seeing the kids out there. They, they are the backbone. They're the most important part. They're why we come to work. They're what we enjoy. But seeing those kids get to play at their high school stadiums, it's pretty, pretty incredible. And it brings the parents to the stadium and it's building that pride in your region and in where you're going to go to school and they're playing other kids that they'll see, you know, later in life. They're playing against them at their high schools. So it's just another level of excitement that we really love to see.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: So what age groups are we working.
[00:19:45] Speaker E: With here with rec football for tackle.
[00:19:48] Speaker D: Football, it's ages 9, 10 and 11, 12.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: And our season is. It just got started maybe a week ago.
[00:19:53] Speaker E: Right. It, it's been going for about three weeks. Yeah.
[00:19:56] Speaker D: So it started.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: Time flies.
[00:19:57] Speaker D: Yeah, it started with practice and fundamentals in early October and we just started games last week.
[00:20:04] Speaker E: And we are kind of a different, we're going by a different model that we've developed for ourselves. Our school calendar went to the, the year round school a couple of years ago and say that's a little bit, it took a little bit of getting used to on our part, but that puts kids going school in early August and it's extremely hot here in early August and we started sometimes in September and early October. Very true. And you know, kids that have been at home in air conditioning potentially for quite a few weeks, then you throw them out there on the football field. And we were forever having heat issues, heat indexes, having to suspend programming just because of the weather. So we started batting around the idea of how to get these kids better conditioned. And then the fundamentals are certainly very important as well. We also started seeing some of the professional athletes, football players were talking about the benefit of flag football. And beginning when you're not worried about getting hit, you know, you can focus on some of those fundamentals. So we actually started, I think two years ago, we started doing flag in August. So the kids, soon after they go back to school, they can sign up to play flag football. Flag football's co ed, as is our other football, if girls are interested in playing, which is wonderful, but a little bit lower level in that you're not going to be in full pads, you're not supposed to be getting hit.
So they can wear shorts. You know, it's a little safer to do when it's hot outside. So we started with flag and we'll play a full flag season as a conditioning opportunity and then we move into in October to tackle football.
It also allows, because high school football is ending, I think it allows the high school coaches to have a little bit, maybe more time and even some high school athletes, which I think we've had some of those that will help help with our programs as well. So it's, it's, it's been a neat transition and I think it makes it a little more safe for our kids too.
[00:22:17] Speaker A: Okay, let's talk a little about volunteerism. What, where do you have a need right now?
[00:22:24] Speaker E: We always need coaches. We always, always need coaches.
Not just on a volunteer level. We always need officials and we pay and train officials.
That is another nationwide prep issue.
Getting youth sports officials, frankly getting high school officials is difficult.
So that's a huge need. But we always need volunteers that want work with kids, whether it's basketball, football, just in our outdoor programs. We certainly have needs for volunteers there and also in our aging programs as well. So.
[00:23:00] Speaker A: Okay, let's talk about aging for a minute.
[00:23:02] Speaker E: So.
[00:23:03] Speaker A: Or senior programs.
[00:23:04] Speaker E: Those are senior programs. So we, we have an aging population in Georgetown county and we are the Meals on Wheels for Georgetown county under, it's under recreation and Community Services as well as we run congregate dining sites at six locations. We also provide senior transportation to those dining sites in addition to home delivering about 3,000 meals a month. Wow. Yes. So lots Going on on that side with that senior population. In addition, we have so many programs that are senior friendly or adult. You know, they can all join together, but lots of exercise oper opportunities from outdoor programming, from indoor programming to pickleball to you name it. There's so much going on for our seniors as well. Wonderful.
[00:23:58] Speaker A: All right, well, do you want to tell us a little about what's coming up as far as programs that we might see in the winter coming up?
[00:24:05] Speaker E: So we've got a really exciting program on Saturday.
We're partnering with a number of organizations and we have a 5k at rocky point tomorrow. Yes, yes.
So that will. That'll be out there on the trail. So a couple options to run and then right after the children's stash, in.
[00:24:23] Speaker A: Addition to a run or walk. 5K or 10K.
[00:24:25] Speaker E: Yes, yes. And then at right after the run, there's a bike ride, same trails. So we're really excited about that. Our Go. Our Fit Go challenge is coming to an end and that group, I think has gone over 40, 000 miles this year in the challenge. So, so very exciting. Lots of seniors in that program. But then we have all ages.
And then we'll be transitioning, of course, into basketball.
So youth basketball will be starting. And at our Murrells Inlet Community center, we work in partnership with a youth theater program and they do wonderful theater programming. And for the month of December, there will be Christmas plays being presented by the kids at the Murrells Inlet Community Center.
[00:25:11] Speaker A: Oh, that sounds adorable.
[00:25:12] Speaker E: Very.
And just lots of course, exercise programs happening from the line dancing, all ages things. We also have a community bingo game coming up in December, so that information is out. So just, just lots of opportunities. So check out our social media or website and you should be able to find something for everyone there.
[00:25:36] Speaker A: Wonderful. Well, there certainly is no shortage of things to get involved in, especially for youth, but for people of all ages. Well, Beth, Jason, thank you so much.
[00:25:47] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: Our next guest is Randy Akers with our IT department.
Randy's not exactly a first time guest. He's just usually behind the camera. If you've been to any county council meetings, you may have seen him operating the cameras up there. He's also the producer for. For all of those. He. He runs our live streams.
So Randy is here today to talk with us a little about the upgrades that are currently going on in county council chambers, which is why our last council meeting was over at Howard Auditorium. Randy, tell us a little about what's going on in council chambers and what that's going to mean.
[00:26:23] Speaker C: Well, thank you, Jackie. It's a pleasure to be on this side of the camera for once.
The upgrades going on in county council chambers are really just some technical back end upgrades to repair some inadequacies with the existing AV system.
You know, when we moved into count that county council chambers about, I believe it was about 15 years ago in 2010ish, some of that equipment was installed new. Some of it was actually moved over from the old county council chambers on the other side of the building where the stormwater department is now.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: I did remember that.
[00:26:57] Speaker C: Yep. So it, this upgrade is really just about addressing some issues that have been going on with that system for a while as well as kind of bringing some of that older equipment that the county repurposed back when they moved into that space into a more modern compliance.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: Okay, so in short, our live streams will hopefully look better.
[00:27:18] Speaker C: Well, the, the cameras that we use for the live streams actually are not being upgraded as part of this. Since we just had those installed back in 20, 21 or 22, I want to say we're not upgrading those. This is, this upgrade is going to take care of all the stuff in the back end that helps the meetings run. So all this, there's a little room behind the council chambers that has a rack full of equipment in it. All of that equipment's getting upgraded. The monitors that the county council members use in front of their their seats to see what's going on and being presented on the screens, those are being upgraded hopefully a little bit better of a public comment microphone. We're going to try a different microphone microphone at public comment and hopefully that will help the situation there. I know a lot of people have issues hearing when somebody's at that podium making a public comment, they report that they have a lot of issues hearing what's being said there. So we're going to try and make a change there and hope that it helps out.
So really it's just a lot of the back end stuff that helps the meetings run. That's what we're upgrading with this.
[00:28:17] Speaker A: Okay, great. So how long is this supposed to take?
[00:28:20] Speaker C: So we're expecting to have everything done by November 20th.
We started on October 20th and the vendor that we're working with told us it would take approximately four to five weeks.
So we're hoping that they can be done by November 20th and that'll give us a couple weeks to play with all the new stuff, test it out, make sure it's good to go. For the zoning board of Appeals meeting on December 4, which is scheduled to take place in county council chambers, and also the Accommodations Tax Committee meeting, which will take place that morning, December the fourth. So there'll actually be two meetings that day when we move back in there.
[00:28:54] Speaker A: All right. And then hopefully our last council meeting of the year can also be back in council.
[00:28:59] Speaker C: I think that's December 9th, if I recall correctly.
[00:29:01] Speaker A: So everything's going smoothly so far. They're hopefully on schedule so far.
[00:29:05] Speaker C: Yeah. Of course, working in any 200 year old room, even one that's been as expertly and beautifully renovated as our county council chambers have, it's difficult. And the vendor has certainly run into some issues with that.
You know, when you've got old school plaster and lath walls instead of modern drywall, it's hard to work with that, especially when you're running cables up and around places where cables aren't really. They didn't plan for that back in the 1800s when they built that building. They did not plan for Ethernet or anything like that.
[00:29:39] Speaker A: They did not expect the council meetings to one day be live.
[00:29:41] Speaker C: Exactly.
So working with some of that has been difficult for the vendor, but they found some ways to get around some roadblocks. We've had to. To come up with some creative, creative workarounds to make some things happen. We. We had to bring in a forklift to bring in a new screen for the projector to go on to. We upgraded the screen with a higher quality screen that's going to hopefully enhance the view of presentations for the audience. And getting that into the room was especially a challenge. We had to have a forklift lift it up and over the front of the building through those old front doors that are no longer really used for anything. Yep. Over the balcony. So that was a fun day.
But yeah, it's. It's been a challenge working in there, but we've. We've gotten it taken care of.
[00:30:29] Speaker A: Okay, great.
Well, I will look forward to seeing it once it is all done. And then in the meantime, our next council meeting in November will be at the Howard Auditorium, as will all other meetings until November. You said fourth.
December 4th.
[00:30:44] Speaker C: December 4th, yes. So I think we have two more meetings scheduled to take place at Howard. That is the November 18th county council meeting and then the November 20th planning commission meeting. Again, we're hoping the vendor can finish up in council chambers on November 20th to give us some time over those next couple weeks to get the new equipment really tuned in and get everything finalized so we can get back to being in council chambers on December 4th.
[00:31:11] Speaker A: Okay. Well, Randy, thank you for joining us and thank you for everything that you do to bring these meetings to people at home. I know that we've had a lot of people asking about live streaming Planning Commission meetings.
Our administrator has decided we are going to go forward and do that once these technology upgrades are done.
I think she'd like to test run it for a couple of months and then hopefully no later than the spring we will start live streaming Planning Commission. So I know that will be good news for a lot of people.
Something else for you to look forward to.
[00:31:43] Speaker C: Yep, we're we're gonna start live streaming those as well and I know that's been a requested thing from the public for quite a long time and we're excited to bring that to them.
[00:31:53] Speaker A: Randy, thanks again.
[00:31:54] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:31:56] Speaker A: That's it for this month's first Friday with Georgetown County. Thank you for joining us. As always, I'd like to end with some important dates coming up this month. Georgetown County Office has and facilities will be closed for Veterans day on Tuesday, November 11th.
They will also be closed for Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 27th and Friday the 28th.
Due to the Veterans Day holiday, County Council will deviate from its regular meeting date and instead meet on Tuesday, November 18th. As Randy stated earlier, that meeting will take place at Howard Auditorium while AV system upgrades are occurring in Council chambers.
Council should be back in chambers for its meeting on December 9. As a reminder, County Council only meets once per month during the months of November and December.
The Georgetown County Planning Commission will meet at Howard on Thursday, November 20th.
Tomorrow, November 8th, the Rocky Point Patriot Trail Run and Walk will take place at Rocky Point Community forest beginning at 9am with bike rides on the trails beginning at 1pm Visit gtcounty.org for more information.
A blood drive will take place at the Waccamaw Library from 11am to 4pm on Monday, Nov. 10.
That's also the date for a free recycling workshop at the Southern Georgetown Library. That event takes place from 1 to 2pm The Georgetown Veterans Day parade will be from 2 to 3pm on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.
The Georgetown County Accommodations Tax Committee will meet to make its recommendations on Thursday, December 4th at 9:00am that meeting is expected to take place in County Council chambers.
Lastly, Tuesday was Election Day and while no county offices were on the ballot, if you're interested in election results, you can find them on our
[email protected] Vote thanks again for joining us. I hope to you see See you next month.
