Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Hello, I'm Jackie Broach, and this is first Friday with Georgetown county. Our first guest today is the county administrator, Angela Christian. This is her first time on our podcast and she is here to talk about this year's budget. Angela, I understand that you are very excited to have this over. People probably wouldn't understand, but this is a process that starts in January and is very time consuming. For you as well as our finance staff, tell us a little bit about the budget, the process and what the results are for this year.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Thanks, Jackie. The budget is intense.
It is certainly a six month plus process that involves all kinds of staff, certainly department heads. It is administrative staff, folks all up and down the scale who are involved as part of the process.
And we are so excited it's done.
But let me go into a little more detail about what's in the budget this year.
First of all, the budget is $104 million. That's 4.3% above last year's adopted budget. That's pretty reasonable, we think certainly with inflation, cost of living and the things that have gone on, I think as far as the regular tax payer is concerned, they will see a slight increase, certainly on millage rates because the law enforcement military went up 1.2 meals. And I think most folks would find that to be reasonable to keep us safe and take care of everything that we have to take care of for public safety. There's some notable accomplishments. I do want to take a minute to brag on a little bit that we were able to get done this year. We created a fund balance policy.
We created a disaster recovery fund.
You ask, well, what's that? Right.
Well, certainly we understand that we are right in a hurricane prone area. So what that means is we need some extra money for not if, but when a disaster strikes this area. The first installment that we're anticipating will be about $500,000. Just like in your homeowners insurance. You have deductibles. We have deductibles, too, and this is to help us prepare for that day and that time and that we're ready to go.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: It's a good year for it. With an extremely active hurricane season predicted.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: Yes, it makes us all just a little bit nervous.
Some of our goals were really towards sustainability, resiliency and financial health. Now, that is the full gamut of activities. Retention of employees, technology upgrades, health insurance. All these things are part of our budget process.
Important things, I think, for folks to know is about 50% of our budget actually comes from property taxes, 17% from fees and permits. And license. So those folks that need that service pay for it. Exactly. So what's most of our money spent on? I would go personnel, actually, not just personnel, public safety. Now public safety in this case includes not just like the sheriff's department, but fire, EMS, those type of activities. We want folks to be safe and to be taken care of.
This year, just like in our personal households, we saw high prices just dealing with operations, maintenance, just things we've never seen prices go up before. So inflation hit our pocketbooks too, as part of this. So we had to be very careful in looking at all our operating expenses because we saw increases in things we've never seen increases before. Same thing, just like in your house. Groceries are up and operating expenses are up for the county too.
We also saw increases in repairs, in things like fixing our h vac systems or just repair for roofs and roads and all those kinds of things that we have. We understand in Georgetown county we have an aging infrastructure. So lots of repairs that are part of our process.
So we specifically focused on. It's not sexy, but it's what we do. Taking care of h vac systems, replacement of roofs, replacement of old playgrounds that we have around the county, that we're just going to take them kind of in groups four or five at a time to start replacing equipment that's certainly over 20 years old.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: So we're excited about that, as you should be. Talk to me a little bit about the sustainability part. Why is that so important when we.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: Are looking at our budget process? We don't just want to be reactive, we want to be proactive with looking at some of these issues.
Let's just take h vac systems we really, really tried to work on.
We live in a hot, humid community and our h vac systems had a lot of age on them. So we have started this really kind of start replacing when we start seeing the first level of responses, especially some of our h vacs. So of course, when do h vac systems go out?
[00:07:05] Speaker A: The middle of August.
[00:07:06] Speaker B: Yes, they do. Yes, they do. So we're trying to get a little ahead of the game and trying to replace those before it's the hottest day of the year that they are working.
[00:07:19] Speaker A: And when it's last minute like that. I know we had an issue last year. We lost the AC and council chambers and it took forever to get it replaced. So it's another good reason to try and do everything in advance so you don't have those sorts of delays.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: Exactly. Certainly we saw the issue with couldn't get parts on a timely basis and all those type of things. So we're trying to be better, certainly trying to increase and raise the level of service that we provide, but most of all, trying not to inconvenience everybody involved because there's a lot of logistical changes that we have to make when that happens.
Other things, I think certainly as a part of sustainability is we included some special plans this year. One was hazard mitigation plan. This is time for the renewal downtown. Paul is to talk about what that will evolve to as we're seeing increase in traffic, more businesses along that corridor, and what happens next, but also something similar in Merles Inland. Again, things that we have to do to sustain, protect, to help us be as resilient as possible with all the things going on. At the same time, people just don't.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: Realize how much goes into the budget and how much is included there. Literally everything that is included in county operations.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: Absolutely.
Probably one of the biggest things that took a lot of time as part of the budget process was we did a major overhaul, an update on our capital equipment replacement plan. We affectionately call it Cert.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: Now, for the layperson, this would include everything from the vehicles driven by tax assessors to heavy equipment out of the landfill.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely. And this plan goes through 2036. So that's a long period of time for us to look at all the equipment. It's taken longer to get equipment. The equipment certainly is more expensive. And we are just trying to be, again, proactive and looking forward on how to do these things in a timely basis.
A lot of work that goes into it from all departments as a part of that process.
Other things that are pretty cool that I think we did as a part of this process.
An apprenticeship program in facilities.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: We just had one last year in heavy equipment that was extraordinarily successful.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: Yes. So we're getting ready to have more of those kind of folks be involved with county government. I think it's been very proactive. Again, it's hard to find folks. So we're kind of growing our bench and we're doing this from within. So we're really excited about that. Certainly as a part of this, we're doing continue to see upgrades in technology, replacing old computer equipment, a new scanning project in the register of deeds. We're really excited about that.
And just state of the art camera system for law enforcement, for crime scenes, emergency vehicles, ambulances, fire trucks, all that type of thing. And it's good stuff. It's a lot in that process. That's why it's so complicated and intense. And everybody is glad when it's all done and approved by county council, which.
[00:11:28] Speaker A: Happened just last week. Yes, and that was early for us. We usually do that in June.
[00:11:34] Speaker B: Yes, we saw an opportunity to that we had everything done that we know about today. And I said, let's go, let's get it finished and let's work on some of these other projects that are before us. So we're really excited about that.
[00:11:51] Speaker A: Well, it definitely sounds like there is lots to be excited about in the coming year for the county.
[00:11:56] Speaker B: Yes, it's going to certainly be a busy time and I just have to do a shout out. Thank all our departments, our elected officials for their cooperation. The finance team, they're awesome.
Couldn't do this without them. And we're very thankful for this opportunity.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: So for anybody who would like to view the budget in its entirety or read the executive summary, those documents are available on our website, gtcounty.org finance. Angela, is there anything else that we missed and we should highlight about the budget?
[00:12:31] Speaker B: Hopefully it's another six months or more before I come back. Thanks for having this opportunity to talk about budget fy 25.
[00:12:41] Speaker A: Thank you for taking the time to come on. I know that you stay pretty busy even when budget is over.
[00:12:46] Speaker B: Yes. Thank you.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: Thank you.
Our next guest is Walt Ackerman. If you have been listening to this podcast since we started in January, you've heard from Walt a couple of times this year because he has a lot going on with these proposed sales taxes that we have coming up on the ballot in November. So Walt, let's start off by talking about the CPST. A lot has happened since we talked to you last. We pretty much have a final list of projects. So talk with me about the work that they've already done. They presented sort of an initial list of projects to county council last week. Tell me about the projects that are on that if we're expecting to see any changes to that before it goes to county council for a final time.
[00:13:29] Speaker C: I don't expect to see any changes at all in the priority project list. Remember, there are two lists, the priority project list and the contingency project list. A lot of the items on the contingency project list are on the contingency list simply because there's a significant grant portion associated with those projects. One such item is the murals inlet dredging. It's on the contingency list for, I think, $1 million. We're anticipating about $20 million in federal funds coming as a grant, so we couldn't commit that in the priority project list. So the only change that may come about is we have received word that we did not receive a grant for the brick Chimney Road extension project, which is about $12 million. And on the contingency list was a $3 million project. The commission may look to move that off the list or further down that list in hopes that we may get that grant. But that'd be the only change that I expect to see from last week's county council meeting.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: Okay, so the majority of the projects we see on this priority list I would describe as public health and safety.
[00:14:44] Speaker C: Projects, a big part of it. And, you know, if you go a little further and think there's a lot of recreation related projects, recreation is public health and safety, moving around, being active, getting outdoors, that has tremendous health benefits, some of it new fire stations and midway fire, a new EOC, a new 911 center, lots and lots of water and sewer projects, which are huge drivers of community health. And a lot of these have the added benefit, particularly the water and sewer projects, of also having economic activity benefits down the line. If you expand your water and sewer footprint, then you can expand business, industry, housing to areas of the county where that's in the past, not been available.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: And as we go forward, this list that is created by the commission is going to, I believe, this month, be either voted up or voted down by county council. And they can't make any changes to the list once it's presented to them, correct?
[00:15:50] Speaker C: Well, the actual list probably won't be, and as I said, the list will be part of the ordinance that county council votes on. We should have first reading, which is by title only, at the second meeting of June, which I think is.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: There's only one meeting in June.
[00:16:04] Speaker C: Well, I'm sorry, you are correct. The meeting in June, on June 25 should be first reading by title only, and then the subsequent readings in July.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: Well, we only have one meeting in July, too, so maybe subsequent meetings in July and August.
[00:16:23] Speaker C: Well, I think there's going to be need for a special call meeting in July because we have to get it to the election commission by the first part of August. So either the very first part of August or sometime in July, we'll have Seattle echoes.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Okay, well, we will certainly announce that when we schedule a meeting, a special meeting in July. But if people would like to look at the projects list as it is, you can find that on our website, gtcounty.org, cpst. This will again be on the ballot in November. And we've spoken to this point, probably mostly about the local option sales tax. So hopefully people are familiar with that. But would you like to talk just briefly about that one?
[00:17:04] Speaker C: Yes. So another item that voters can look forward to on the ballot referendum or as a ballot referendum in November would be the local option sales tax, which is very different from the capital project sales tax. The capital project sales tax is specifically earmarked money for construction of capital projects.
[00:17:29] Speaker A: These very specific projects.
[00:17:31] Speaker C: Very specific projects, correct. Of the very specific projects on the list, the local option sales tax is money that is collected to directly offset property taxes, whether that be from a primary home, a secondary home, a business, cars, boats, trucks, airplanes, anything that you have a property tax millage levied for that credit would go against that property tax burden to the county.
You know, we can anticipate at a minimum $10 million a year of 71% of that, or $7.1 million goes to directly offset property taxes. Now, there's a huge formula involved. The county gets two thirds of that 71% and the municipalities get the other third of that 71%. So if you actually live in the city of Georgetown or the town of Andrews or town of Pawley's island, you get additional benefit on top of the county reduction in property sales tax. We have a fantastic calculator. It's out on our website. It's Georgetown county lost. Help me.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: Gtcounty.org lost.
[00:18:47] Speaker C: Gtcounty.org lost. There's a calculator spreadsheet. I think it's titled local option sales tax calculator. You go in, there's a green box on that sheet, and you go in, key your property value in that green box, and you can scroll down and see how much property tax relief you could expect from your particular property.
[00:19:09] Speaker A: So I think I punched in some numbers just to kind of test it out. I think it said that if you had a property valued at, let's say, $200,000, you could expect your annual savings to be around dollar 400.
[00:19:21] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Just on your property taxes. That doesn't include your, that's just your house. Yes. Doesn't include vehicles, boats, et cetera, et cetera. So, I mean, that is not a bad savings. And we talked about this before, how much would you have to spend to pay that much in sales tax?
[00:19:39] Speaker C: So, and I think that's a critical piece. And remember, the sales tax is not collected on food items, on gasoline, prescription medicine, prescription medicine, the things that most people buy every day. So this would just be on taxable goods, clothing, furniture, appliances, things along those natures, vehicles, are not because it's capped you if you save $400 on your property taxes, you'd have to spend $40,000 out of pocket to pay enough sales tax to meet or match that, that property's tax savings. This is a very progressive tax, whereas most tax is regressive. You know, the folks in lower income brackets spend the majority of their money on basic necessity items which are not taxed on the sales tax. Folks in higher tax brackets spend more. And it's a bad term, but luxury money.
And so it is a progressive tax and non essential spending. Yes, that's a good way to put it. So this is, that tax is progressive in that nature. It should be a huge win for everyone in the county.
You know, we saw studies where anywhere from 38% to 40% of the sales tax collected in Georgetown county is collected from folks traveling through or down here on vacation. So it's not like the county residents are assuming this entire burden by themselves. We have other folks helping us out as well.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: Yeah, the entire purpose, the reason this tax was created in the state, I think, was to kind of spread it out and make it more affordable to live here for residents. So we will certainly be talking about that more as we move closer to November. We do have a new button on our sales tax websites that will allow people to reach out directly to me and ask to have a speaker come and address their, their group or organization about these taxes and learn more. We've already received a couple of those since we put it out last month. So you're going to be doing a lot of talking about sales taxes in the coming months.
[00:21:51] Speaker C: Yes, I think I have a couple of engagements already lined up, and I'm sure that other groups may want some information. And I'm happy to help, as I know you are in any way to try to try to get good information out in front of everybody.
[00:22:04] Speaker A: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for your time.
[00:22:06] Speaker C: Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate it.
[00:22:08] Speaker A: Our last guest today is Robin Mears. He's another first time guest on our podcast, and we waited until this time of year because Robin works in our stormwater mosquito control division, and this is when he the time of year when he is the most busy. Robin, tell us a little bit about what's going on right now in the mosquito control department. You guys just started spring for the season last month, correct?
[00:22:33] Speaker D: That is correct. We just started spraying because this, of course, is the time of the year that mosquitoes are the worst. And once we start getting phone calls or once we conduct surveillance and start seeing that mosquitoes are in the area, we start spraying surveillance.
[00:22:51] Speaker A: Tell me what mosquito surveillance looks like.
[00:22:54] Speaker D: Well, a lot of times it's either we have traps located all around the county, but many times our best surveillance is one of us goes out to an area that we suspect there's a problem, and we see how many mosquitoes light on us within a minute to two minute timeframe.
[00:23:11] Speaker A: That does not sound like a fun part of your job.
[00:23:14] Speaker D: No, but it's very effective.
[00:23:17] Speaker A: So talk to me about what we're spraying.
[00:23:20] Speaker D: Okay. We just went back to a product that we tested last year, and we had to wait on approval from the South Carolina Regulatory Commission. It's a product that's made up of essential oils and an organic. It's called a surfactant, which is an agricultural product that helps it stick to plants, and so it helps it to last longer. But, yes, we just went back to that product. It is a much safer product than what is typically used for mosquito control.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: Safer for people, safer for bees and other pollinators. Safer for who?
[00:23:59] Speaker D: Both. The EPA says it's safe for humans and pets, but we have also found out that it's much safer for what we would call beneficial insects, such as bees, butterflies, pollinators, things like that.
[00:24:18] Speaker A: I personally am very glad to hear that we've gone back to this. I know that a lot of residents throughout the county will be.
It took a long time for us to get that approval, though.
[00:24:28] Speaker D: That is correct. It's a pretty extensive process. They had to go back. Even though it had been sold on the market, they still had to go back through the EPA.
When we use a product, the terminology is that it's being used for public use. And so it has to go through a little bit greater scrutiny to make sure that it's not harmful to the greater public.
[00:24:56] Speaker A: Okay, so let's talk about some other things in mosquito control. You had a list of frequently asked questions here, some things that you just kind of wanted to inform the public about. So tell me why you guys do what you do. And let me just say, mosquito control is one of the most divisive issues we see in the county as far as social media. People either love it or hate it. There is no in between.
[00:25:21] Speaker D: That is correct. And we have to, you know, you know, we do a great job when we do spray, but then there's others that just hate the fact that we do that. We have to spray. But the reason we spray, the short answer is it's mandated by dehap.
But the reason is because, as most people know, mosquitoes are disease carrying insects and diseases such as West Nile virus, which has been found in our county, Zika dengue, which is becoming a problem worldwide. And then you have encephalitis, which is mostly with horses. But then there's a couple of others that have shown up recently that we're also working against. So that's the main reason we spray. It's not so you can sit on your front porch at night. You know, there's things you can do to help that, but we really are here to help reduce the possibility of disease.
[00:26:26] Speaker A: So I want to go back to what you just said. There are some things that residents can do to kind of help around their own homes. Talk to me about those.
[00:26:34] Speaker D: Well, for instance, again, if you want to sit on your porch or your patio, there's products out there that hunters and fishermen have been using for years. They're sold at almost any of the big box stores.
But the primary thing public can do is get rid of any, anything that's holding water within their yard.
We're talking bird baths, swimming pool, little swimming pools, trash, bottle tops. Believe it or not, one bottle top mosquito can lay 150 eggs in it.
[00:27:13] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:27:14] Speaker D: And those can stay dormant for two to three years before they hatch. So it, you know, you don't realize that that little bit of standing water in your yard, and that includes ditches, you know, private ditches, you need to make sure they're moving.
A mosquito will not lay eggs in moving water. So there's not a problem if you have a stream or if you are in a tidal area or something, or if you have a pond that has an area. Typically, you won't have a problem with mosquitoes laying eggs there.
[00:27:46] Speaker A: So this is why we see so many of the fountain mechanisms and ponds and such.
[00:27:52] Speaker D: I would think that is one of the reasons for it. You know, the other is, again, to aerate the pond and get more oxygen in it. But, yeah, it certainly helps with mosquito control. So we like to see that.
[00:28:05] Speaker A: Okay. Is there anything else we can do around our homes to kind of prevent the mosquito population from booming before it happens?
[00:28:14] Speaker D: Right.
You know, if you can afford it or if you're willing to do it. You know, we certainly encourage people to do their own spraying. I mean, you know, we're not going to sit there and tell you not to do that.
Our spraying, our treatment is primarily a supplement.
You know, we can't kill them all. We can't. Typically, when we're spraying, the spray from the trucks goes 100 to 150ft on either side of the road. So it may only be getting in your front yard.
[00:28:46] Speaker A: Well, we can't go on somebody's private property, too. I know we've had requests to do that.
[00:28:50] Speaker D: That is correct. That is something that over the last few years has become, you know, an ordinance where we can't spray private property. That is correct.
[00:29:02] Speaker A: Okay, so what else do we need to know about mosquitoes?
[00:29:06] Speaker D: Well, one little fact that most folks don't know is which mosquito actually bites you.
[00:29:12] Speaker A: I do know this.
[00:29:13] Speaker D: You do?
[00:29:14] Speaker A: Only the females.
[00:29:15] Speaker D: That's correct. Only a pregnant female. She's not pregnant. She's not going to bite you. And the reason is, the only reason she bites you is she needs the protein in your blood. She does not eat the blood. That's not what the purpose is. It's not food. But they need the protein for the last stage of development for their eggs. So typically, after one bites you, you can pretty much be assured that very shortly she's going to go and lay her eggs.
The males don't bite, so that affects how we treat and that affects it how we look in our traps, that affects how we attract them.
[00:29:57] Speaker A: Now, we don't just spray. There are some other actions you guys take, too. I think I've heard the term larviciding before.
[00:30:04] Speaker D: That is correct. Larviciding is where we are trying to kill the larvae that hatch out of the eggs before they become adult mosquitoes.
Larviciding has become the primary method of controlling mosquitoes that we've learned. We go to a lot of workshops and a lot of conferences with other counties and with other states to learn what they're doing. And we have learned that larviciding has become the real key mechanism. So over this past year, actually, this probably the second year that we've really stepped up our larviciding efforts. If you see our trucks might be on the side of the road spraying in a ditch.
You'll see us putting tablets out in the grates of catch basins. You'll see us putting some tablets or some granules in open ditches. And that's what that's to do.
It's to kill the larva. And then there's some new. Once again, we're really trying hard to focus on safer products, more organic products, more natural products, and we found several of those that we can even use in small ponds to help control.
[00:31:29] Speaker A: That's great.
The more natural the product, I think the better a lot of people would say, absolutely, yeah.
[00:31:36] Speaker D: And we're very committed to that. You know, I hope that people appreciate the fact that we're trying to move in that direction. However, it doesn't mean that they're not effective. These products, we test them, and we have found in some cases that particularly this new product that we're using now, we believe is actually more effective than some of the other chemicals that are being used. Because across the industry, there's a big push right now to, to determine the resilience of mosquitoes and other insects to a lot of these insecticides that have been sprayed for 20 or 25 years. So we're learning that they will become resistant to a lot of those products. So we're, once again, we're trying to find new products, but we're trying to find safe products.
[00:32:30] Speaker A: I can't speak for others, but I got the result last year when we were using this product for great in my yard, and my husband and I noted that we saw fireflies for the first time since we lived here. So I don't know if that's related, but thought I'd mention it.
[00:32:43] Speaker D: And you're not the first one to tell us that. And that's very exciting as far as we're concerned. You know, I grew up in a farming area, and one of the things that we've noticed over the years is the disappearance of fire. So to see them coming back, that tells us, in my opinion, that tells us we're doing something right.
[00:33:02] Speaker A: Let's hope so.
I enjoyed watching the fireflies when I was young, and I'd like my daughter to have that experience, too. So we'll be watching this closely and hoping for good results. So in addition to larviciding, we also occasionally do aerial sprays. But that is not something that we do very often. Is that right?
[00:33:20] Speaker D: That is correct. In fact, we try to avoid it. A lot of people think that it's something we should do more often, but the only time that we didn't even have to do it last year, which we thought was great, if the truck spraying does not control the mosquitoes sufficiently, then we will move to the aerial spraying. And the reason that we avoid it, I hope folks understand, number one, it's very expensive, but number two, the product that we have to spray is called naloxone. I can, you know, name it. That's the chemical.
It is a very toxic product. It kills pretty much any insect that it comes in contact with. And so we, you know, we really try to, you know, try not to use it any more than we have to the industry is also trying to stop that kind of, you know, the use of those kind of products. Now, it is an EPA approved product because it does dissipate. Everyone needs to understand that within a few hours, it will have dissipated and it's no longer in the air. But, yeah, we would like to have the same effectiveness.
There's other counties within the state that spray with helicopters, but they're spraying the same product that we spray in the trucks. So it, you know, or that we used to spray in the trucks, they're not using the new product yet. So, you know, if we could ever get to a point where we're, you know, doing that, that'd be great. But the current spraying that we have to do by air, like I said, we avoid it. And it's because of the product that we have that we have to use.
[00:35:07] Speaker A: Now for people who are still not comfortable maybe having their property sprayed or who are beekeepers and, you know, for obvious reasons, they don't want their property sprayed, what steps can they take in.
[00:35:19] Speaker D: The case of beekeepers? Like I said, we're mandated by Dhec.
The only folks that we currently are not able to spray or that we're not allowed to spray is someone that has a bona fide medical condition that's verified by a doctor. Or if you're a beekeeper, and if you are a beekeeper and you're beekeeping is, whether it's a business or just a hobby, you can call our office, you can register with us, and, you know, we, you. Hopefully you've seen the signs out around the county that says do not spray. And that's for our truck drivers. They will try to turn off the sprayer just before they get to that location. And then they'll turn it back on just when they get past it.
And then when we aerial spray, we send out, we use a service called code red. We will send out an alert and the beekeepers will actually cover their hives. And that way the nailed, because the nailed will kill honeybees. And so that's what we do. So, and we, we're very proactive in trying to locate beekeepers. We'll usually put something in the paper.
A lot of it is word of mouth. A lot of it is, we know who previous years keepers were, but anyone that has bees or is thinking about getting hives, you know, please contact the county because otherwise we just can't guarantee the safety, you know, of your bees.
[00:36:58] Speaker A: And you can, of course, find that contact information on our website, g.org mosquitoes. Well, is there anything else that you want to talk to us about?
[00:37:10] Speaker D: Not really at this point. I think in the future we're going to try to focus on some more specifics.
The only thing I will say this is that, you know, we would love to spray everybody all the time and that would help to eliminate mosquitoes. We have nearly 50 truck routes. We only have four trucks, and we have four drivers. So we try to get to everyone about every other week, and then we have what we call hotspots that we like. South island is a hotspot and we hit those almost every week. So we try to get to everyone as often as we possibly can. But you know, the other thing is sometimes we can't spray because of weather. Can't spray. Rain or wind prevents us from spraying. Sometimes, you know, we have breakdowns. Sometimes, you know, we just have something that we can't control. But we do try to get to everyone as often as we possibly can.
[00:38:10] Speaker A: And for people who'd like to check out the schedule, see what areas are being sprayed, we do post those every week on the mosquito control section of our website, gtcounty.org. mosquitoes. That's nice and easy to remember, right? Well, Robin, we are happy to have you back anytime. Thank you so much for coming in. It was great talking with you.
[00:38:29] Speaker D: Well, thank you for the opportunity.
[00:38:32] Speaker A: Before we wrap up, as always, there are a few important dates I'd like to share with you taking place this month. Today at 10:00 a.m. we will be breaking ground on our new detention center, which is scheduled to open in early 2027. This is a $65 million facility. It will be 85,000. This will be taking place pretty much just across highway 51 from the current location of the jail. On June 10, our summer reading program will kick off at the Wacom hall library.
On June 11, we will begin our summer long celebration of the 225th anniversary of the Georgetown County Library system. Every Tuesday and Thursday throughout the summer, we will have programs at 04:00 p.m. at the Georgetown Library Auditorium. The library itself is still closed for renovations, but the auditorium will be open for these programs. Programs again begin at 04:00 p.m. and we will have a very special guest speaker. On June 18, Dwight McEnville will be the guest speaker to discuss the library's long history. Also on June 11, primary elections will take place. Visit gtcounty.org vote to find more information, including sample ballots and where you should go to cast your ballot. Returning for a moment to the topic of the Jill bids are currently being accepted for work on the jail by subcontractors. The deadline to submit bid proposals will be June 12. Georgetown county is in the process of updating its hazard mitigation plan. A survey is currently being circulated to gather information from residents on their emergency preparedness as part of this update, the deadline for completing the survey is June 15. County offices and facilities will be closed on June 19 for the juneteenth holiday.
As a reminder, county council will have a workshop on June 12 this month and a regular meeting on June 25. On June 27, 28th and 29th, the Friends of the Walkamal Library will hold their annual Friends book sale. For more events and upcoming activities, visit gtcounty.org dot.
