[00:00:09] Speaker A: Hello and happy October. I'm Jackie Broach and this is first Friday with Georgetown county. Our first guest this morning is TL Staub, who is our one and only trails manager for Georgetown county. He is living his best life in his post sheriff's office retirement years. TL we have a big event coming up on October 26 this year and I was hoping you could come tell us about it.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Yes, we are out at Rocky Point Community Forest. We're going to have an outdoor festival and a Halloween festival. It's going to involve from 02:00 to 06:00 at Rocky Point Landing, we're going to have an outdoor festival. We're going to have some kayaking, some hiking on some trails, some nature exhibits, and for people, we want people to come out and enjoy the rocky point and be on the trails. Then starting at 06:00 till 830, we're going to have a not so scary or not so spooky hay ride for the kids through the woods. We did this last year. It was really successful. We're hoping to be bigger this year and kind of combined both festivals this year to get everybody out there. It's going to be a good time. The weather should be cool and so bring. Come out and enjoy the outdoors and then come ride the hayride and have some s'mores and some outdoor games.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: You had me at s'mores.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a good time. It's just a great place to come out. It's one of the outdoor parks that we have several trails on. So there's all different types of trails for abilities. You can hike 1 mile, 2 miles, 3 miles, 4 miles, whatever you would like all to come out.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: So for the first part of this, the outdoor festival, we tried to do this last year and the weather did not cooperate. We ended up having to postpone and it was not what we had envisioned. But hopefully this year the weather will cooperate. So tell me what this outdoor festival is going to consist of. I think last year we had vendors lined up and all sorts of things like that.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: Some vendors lined up. This year we this is a joy project with the Wynyaw River alliance, the river keepers and the River alliance. They have, they own part of the land that comprises Rocky Point community forest as well as the county. So we've worked together, so we're working with them to bring some of their resources out there so people can learn about the river colony and just outdoor nature and plants, native plants I'm hoping is coming this year and some other groups will be out there to just showcase the. Showcase the outdoor area.
And then after that is done again, they will up by the northwest recreation complex is where the hayride and those activities will take place during the evening.
[00:03:05] Speaker C: All right.
[00:03:05] Speaker A: And I'm sure that along with the vendors, you're going to have some places to give information about go Georgetown outdoor adventure trails.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: Yes, we'll have other agencies. We'll also be out there. But yes, we'll be talking about our goat program, which is the Georgetown outdoor adventure trails. We've started in January. And the group is, or the program is designed to get people outdoors, walking, hiking, running, biking, paddling, any type of outdoor activities. It also is out there to educate people about preserving the outdoors in Georgetown county and enjoying not just the county properties, but other properties that are in this county that offer outdoor activities. So part of these groups will be out there as well during the outdoor festival.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: And that has really taken off since January?
[00:03:57] Speaker B: Yes, it has taken off.
Last year when we started the whole program started last spring when we started working on the trails. And then this January, we started bringing in programs to promote, like I said, the area and get people out there. The first program we did was the hiking walking challenge. It was eight different locations throughout the county to get people out and walking. If you hiked or walked all eight trails, you received a t shirt, a gilt t shirt. This was very successful. The feedback was great. Cause one of the feedbacks was I went to areas of the county I've never been. Now that's part of it. And it was all over. So we had beach walks. We had walks on the walkamal neck. We had walks at Walkie Point. We had eight oaks. We have a lot of trails as well at eight oaks. To do so, people had to go there. And then we had a. We created a historic trail in downtown, starting at the old courthouse and going for 2 miles through the downtown historic area of Georgetown. So they did those eight. So that was very successful. And then now we started the fig goat iron goat challenge that started in June. The basis was to get people outside again and do activities on their own. They could walk, hike, run, bike, or paddle. And if you walked, run, or hiked 50 miles or you biked 100 miles or you paddled 20 miles, and then there's also combinations. I won't go through all the numbers, but you become a thick goat. Now, if you're really into it, you can become an iron goat, which is 500 total miles using anything. At this point, we have 65 participants, 42, I mean, fit goat and four have made iron goat.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:05:47] Speaker B: And so it's been a good turnout, and we've done logged 13,000 total miles with the group. And so this is going to run through December. And then we're going to take a two week break in January 15, start around January 15 to December 15 of 2025. We're going to do the same program, and we want people to sign up. It's almost. If you want to do the Figo, you could probably still sign up in October and finish by December. But the iron goat and the other activities, you'd have to be really dedicated. You need to prepare for next year. We hope to get eight or 100 people participating or more next year. And I think it's good.
Good event, but people been out. I know some people talked about one person, a county employee's lost over 30 pounds since he started the program. He said it gives him a motivation and a reason to get out and do it. Cause he's wanting to compete with himself and some of his other friends that are doing it. So he's competing with that. The youngest fig goat right now is eight. The oldest fig goat is 74.
One iron goat is 68. And the other iron goats are in their fifties and sixties. So all ages can do. But we have a good divide of the split from young kids to older people doing this.
[00:07:11] Speaker A: That's awesome. So if you're looking to get more information about goat, the perfect place to come and do that would be to come out to this outdoor festival.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: Outdoor festival.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: Talk to TL or one of our other staff members, get yourself set up for either the rest of this year or next year, and then we will go back. Let's talk about Halloween some more. So we did this for the first time last year. Forests. Forest. Our parks and recreation mascot forest. Not so scary Halloween trail.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: Right.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: So I remember last year, we didn't know what to expect if people would come out or not. But, I mean, there were kids lined up all the way, just around the property for hayrides.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: This was something quick that we put together within three weeks, like you said, the turnout was far better than we thought. We had a line probably 30 deep the entire time we were doing it. So we've made improvements. We learned from the first time we'll have more hayrides, and we haven't designed better to get people through, but so that it's still enjoyable.
They did do a hayride before COVID way back at Rocky Point. So that was the reason to start it back up last year. And we hope that this becomes an annual, annual event we are hoping to have. There are little feeding shelters, which is a bench with just a little roof over it. There's six of them throughout the trail where the Hayrides want to go. So we're out looking for people to volunteer groups or sitting groups or churches or something to come out and decorate them. Again, it's not so spooky, just a little bit spooky, but nothing to scare the little kids and have a little competition like that for people to come out.
[00:08:57] Speaker A: More Scooby Doo, less thaw.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: Yes, that's a good way to put it. Yes. So it should be a really good event. We hope that other people in the community participate and want to be active in us providing this event, but also people come out and enjoy the event.
[00:09:16] Speaker A: Okay, great. Well, if Halloween is your season, if you want to get involved and help the kids, have a great time on October 26 at Forest's not so scary Halloween Trail. Sorry, not so spooky Halloween trail. Right.
Reach out to TL and he would love to get you set up as a volunteer to decorate one of these stations.
What else can you tell us?
[00:09:39] Speaker B: Tl we're also looking for maybe food vendors, anybody like food trucks or something that may be interested. They can contact us at the county parks and rec and they can send, they're interested. They can send an email to the goatherd. One
[email protected].
[00:09:59] Speaker C: Dot goat.
[00:10:01] Speaker A: H e r dtcounty.org is the email address to reach Tl at. If you want to get involved with either the goat program or one of these wonderful activities that we have coming up on October 26.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: And also, if you want more information on the trail status of what we do, we have our facebook page, the go to that we publish on the goatherd on all our activities.
[00:10:25] Speaker A: And later this month, we're going to have your very own
[email protected], goat, where you can find all the information about the program, the maps and everything.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: Right?
Right.
[00:10:38] Speaker A: Tl, thank you so much for joining us. I can't wait for the event on the 26th.
[00:10:42] Speaker B: Hope everybody comes out and hopefully the weather will hold out and we'll have a good event.
[00:10:45] Speaker A: Fingers crossed.
[00:10:46] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:10:47] Speaker C: Our next guest is Aphra McRae, who is probably our most in demand staff member at this time of year. She is our voter registration and elections director, and she is here to tell us everything that we need to know before early voting starts. I can't believe it. It starts this month.
[00:11:03] Speaker D: It does it's already here. It does. It does. It begins on October 21 and will run until November 2 from 830 to six. And that is at all four of our early vote locations. So that's. And the Andrews Recreational center, the Chappie recreational center, the Waccamaw Recreational center, and the county elections office. All of that information can be found on our website and at scvotes Dot gov Dot. When you arrive to the polls, the lines will probably be longer than you have seen them in the last couple of years. We ask that you not only bring your photo id, but please bring your patients, as our staff will be pretty backed up for those two weeks. So bring your patients with you. We are ready and willing to meet your voting needs, but you probably will see a line when you arrive, but.
[00:12:01] Speaker C: Hopefully not as long as the line that they may see. If they choose to vote on election day, that's probably where we're gonna see.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: The real lines, I would guess.
[00:12:07] Speaker D: Well, I'm believing that early vote is gonna capture most of the voters. So the long lines that we saw in 2020, I don't think we'll see those kind of lines. There will still be a wait, however, but we have four early vote locations. Keep in mind, in 2020, we only had the 30 day absentee in person voting, one location. So a lot of people showed up in 2020 and the line was wrapped around the building. They got discouraged, they encountered voter fatigue, and so they left the lines and went to vote on election day. Our four early vote locations is pretty much going to take care of a lot of debt.
[00:12:50] Speaker C: So no excuses not to come out and vote.
[00:12:52] Speaker D: Nope.
[00:12:53] Speaker C: Plenty of opportunities. Locations close to you?
[00:12:56] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:12:57] Speaker C: And there are sample ballots already posted online if people want to get familiar with what is on the ballot.
[00:13:05] Speaker D: Right. And we encourage that, especially with the ballot questions. You will see the constitutional amendment question. You will also see two of the local referendum questions on the ballot. They are pretty lengthy. I believe that the county is going to provide a handout for voters to view while they're standing in line in the event that you are unsure or still unfamiliar with the ballot questions. Because keep in mind, you guys only get three minutes in the voting booth. And while we're not aggressive with that rule, we do want to keep that in mind since we know we're going to see longer lines than normal. So I encourage everyone ahead of time. As Jackie just said, they are available on the county's website, ttcounty.org vote yes. Please visit that website if you are unsure about your districts, because they are all in one. All of the sample ballots are in one file. Give us a call and we'll tell you exactly which one is yours. That way you don't have to filter through all 112 pages and you get to what you need. Exactly. But we do encourage you to view your sample ballot.
[00:14:16] Speaker C: You also can go to the state's website. What did you say that one was?
[00:14:19] Speaker D: Sbvotes dot gov dot.
[00:14:21] Speaker C: And you just enter your Social Security number, your birth date, and it pulls up to your ballot for your specific address exactly as it will appear in the voting booth.
[00:14:30] Speaker D: It actually slightly different. So their simulation of the ballot is still the same, but it looks different. So if you voters tend to be more confident when they can view exactly what their sample ballot looks like.
[00:14:51] Speaker C: I didn't know that was different.
[00:14:53] Speaker D: Yes, it is. It's very, it's different also in terms of the questions, they're all, if you go to scvotes dot gov and nothing against scvotes dot gov comma, all of the information that you will ever need as far as resource right is there. But if you want to view your sample ballot exactly as it will appear in your hand and on the ballot marking device, I recommend looking at the sample ballots that SC votes provides in PDF form.
They're more, they look more accurate, they're more real. The questions on the ballot are bundled together and it's hard to understand. But if you look at the ballots that we have provided, it's more clear. It's more clear what they look like, what the projects are and so on and so forth.
[00:15:49] Speaker C: Well, that's great information. I consider myself to be an informed voter and I didn't know that.
[00:15:53] Speaker D: Yes. Thank you.
[00:15:55] Speaker E: Yes.
[00:15:56] Speaker C: So what else do people need to know before, you know, they get started with early voting or they come to the polls on election day?
[00:16:03] Speaker D: I encourage everyone to check their voter registration. I know today is Friday and the in person voter registration deadline is today by 05:00 p.m. so if you haven't voted in a very long time, you may have been removed from the rolls. So it's very crucial that you call us, go to scvotes dot gov comma, check your voter registration so you know your status.
If you are sure of your status, I would check it anyway just to make sure that you, that we have all of the information that's correct for you, such as maybe your name has changed, maybe you have moved.
Just anything that would cause a delay for you on election day. You want to give us a call to get those issues squared away. Now. Be proactive.
[00:16:56] Speaker C: Absolutely. So, afra, I think that probably wraps it up. Thank you so much for that. Wonderful.
[00:17:04] Speaker D: You're welcome. Thank you for having an overview of election day. And if I have missed anything that maybe a viewer wants to know, give us a call. 8435-4539 you can call now to vote absentee. The deadline to return your absentee application is October 25 by 05:00 p.m. so keep that deadline in mind as well. Also remember, November 5 is the general election day. Know your voting plan, know how you're gonna vote, whether that be early, vote absentee or on election day. Know when you're gonna vote and know your status. If you can take care of those three items, you are vote ready. We encourage you to come out and vote.
[00:17:51] Speaker C: And I know that after election day is over, you are going to be breathing a huge sigh of relief. Are you going on vacation after that?
[00:18:00] Speaker D: I'm thinking about where I'm going right now. I'm thinking about taking a trip in November and December. I think we all are in the office because this is crunch time for us. It's extremely busy. It's emotional for candidates, it's emotional for voters. And so there's a lot of emotion at work because we have to not match that emotion because it can be contagious and that takes a lot of work. But we're prepared.
[00:18:31] Speaker C: Do you and your staff enjoy your very well deserved vacation after election day?
[00:18:36] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[00:18:36] Speaker C: And thank you for everything that you do.
[00:18:38] Speaker D: Thank you. I appreciate that.
[00:18:40] Speaker E: Thank you.
[00:18:40] Speaker C: Well, now we've heard all about early voting and election day. So here to give us some more information about a very important topic that you'll see on your ballots in November or in October this month, if you choose to vote early, is our county administrator, Angela Christian. So, Angela, we are going to have two referendums, two very important referendums on the ballot about sales taxes. Can you tell me about these two issues and what people can expect to see and what they need to know before they check that box that says yes or no?
[00:19:10] Speaker E: Thank you so much for having me this morning. I think important things that we want the public to know before they go to vote, vote their choice.
And I think logistically, just talking about on the ballot, the two questions for lost and CPST, now for people who.
[00:19:34] Speaker C: Don'T know, assume we don't know what lost in CPSD are.
[00:19:38] Speaker E: For folks who are voting on the local option sales tax and the capital project sales tax, the two questions are on the very bottom of the ballot. There is a section called local issues.
And that's the part of the ballot we want to call your attention to.
We've come to understand that about 60% of the folks who vote in Georgetown county vote straight party.
I think it's important to understand that this does not indicate a vote one way or the other when folks decide to do that. So you got to do a little work. You got to get to the bottom of the ballot to vote your choice.
[00:20:34] Speaker C: Yeah, this is not a partisan issue. So if you vote straight party, it is not going to give any sort of a vote on these two local questions. Yes, there's also, I believe, a statewide amendment that's on there. And I think we also have school board elections, which are nonpartisan. So if you do choose to vote that straight party ticket, it is very important that you scroll down on the ballot and if you want to vote on these issues, you have to actually punch that button because these are nonpartisan issues.
[00:21:03] Speaker E: Absolutely. And I think that's important for folks to know so they know how to navigate sample ballots are available. And I think that's been talked about.
[00:21:13] Speaker C: Earlier, talked about that a little bit. But for people who hopefully we've done a good enough job educating people before now that they've at least heard a little bit about the local option sales tax, the capital project sales tax, and they know the gist of what these do. But just in case we missed somebody, tell me, let's start with the local option sales tax. What does this do and why do people care?
[00:21:38] Speaker E: The local option sales tax is the perfect one to start with.
In a nutshell, the best way to explain it is you get a credit on your taxes that you pay. It literally says credit for lost. If this is approved by the voters, this will apply to personal property. This will apply to a house, a car, a boat, a truck, a plane. It will apply to all of that.
What's so cool about this one is even though there are so many things that are exempt, like groceries and going to the pharmacy, drugs, those kinds of things are exempt. Those situations where you do pay well, there are some important folks that come into our county called tourists that also pay this special tax.
We estimate that 40% of this tax will be paid to by tourists. So they get to leave a little extra something. If this is improved by the voters in Georgetown county, that we can put toward operational or capital costs or just taking care of things that we need in Georgetown county.
[00:23:06] Speaker C: So basically that revenue comes in and we use it to offset what was being paid by residents on property. Taxes and for general government operations.
[00:23:15] Speaker E: Yes, absolutely. And I think that's important. It certainly helps keep our taxes down because we can use those monies to take care of special things that we need to. We're certainly seeing more demand by folks that come here, love it here, and they get to share with keeping Georgetown beautiful.
[00:23:39] Speaker C: It almost sounds counterintuitive. Add a new tax to lower taxes. But that it's legitimate. That's how it works.
[00:23:47] Speaker E: It very much does. This is a special circumstance. It's why 43 of the 46 counties have already done it and we would like to be the 44th.
[00:24:00] Speaker C: Yeah. And I'm told that none of those counties has ever asked to repeal it. They've all been happy with it.
[00:24:06] Speaker E: Yes, yes. And I think it's real important because you get something you're investing back into the community.
[00:24:13] Speaker C: And you and I were chatting a little bit earlier and you were saying that you've been getting a lot of questions about, well, how much am I going to save specifically for my property, for my car?
[00:24:22] Speaker E: Well, thank you so much, because that's an important question.
I want to direct you to going to the website www.gtcounty.org, backslash. Lost. Lost. And on that particular website, there's a great calculator. You can put your numbers in. You can only change one number on that spreadsheet and it will calculate and will tell you about your particular situation. So you, and it has different tabs depending on whether it's your house, it's rental property. Commercial businesses also would benefit from this. So I think those are important things. Everybody's situation's got to be a little bit different. So we want to direct you to that website so you can see approximately how much the credit will be.
[00:25:23] Speaker C: But for most people, I think what people in our financial offices and things have been telling us is the average person in Georgetown county is going to get back more in property tax relief then they are going to spend in property taxes. Math is not my strong suit. That's why I write and do things like this. But you would have to spend a huge amount of money to pay more in taxes than what you would get back.
[00:25:50] Speaker E: Yes. And you would see the credit. You will spend less in sales tax than the credit will be on your property tax.
[00:25:58] Speaker C: So for residents, even with a new sales tax that you're paying on taxable items, you're earning money on this. And we tell people that and they honestly don't believe us. They're like, well, this, this sounds like some government double talk, but ask people in other counties that have it. And I mean, they'll tell you they.
[00:26:15] Speaker E: Get that credit and that's why it's so important. We really want to direct people to the website so they can see exactly how it's calculated. It is in the state law of how it has to be done. So there's no magic to it, but it is very defined how it works.
[00:26:38] Speaker C: And so for the second referendum, it is the capital project sales tax. Georgetown county has had one of these before, so hopefully voters know a little bit more about that. But tell us about, I guess, some of the projects that are on this list and the benefits that could exist for residents if they choose to put this in place.
[00:26:58] Speaker E: I like to explain it as this is taking care of some basics.
If you look at the list, it's not a whole lot of fancy stuff. It's approximately $80 million worth of projects in the first part and 42 million of that is in water and sewer.
[00:27:21] Speaker C: Which people who already have those things, they have access to water and sewer take for granted. But I mean, some people on areas that have those, they may not realize that they're so, such a large portion of Georgetown county doesn't have access to this. Can you speak to that a little bit?
[00:27:39] Speaker E: Yes, it is.
We are the low country and we have areas that aren't the best.
There a well, is that an appropriate item for those particular areas? And they have very limited access to fresh water.
I think what was important to the group that was working on CPST was about health and about safety, and those were important things. And one of those important things has to do with water and access to water for your community. I think it's important that we point out that this isn't so much about water in new places that haven't been developed. This will directly benefit folks who already live here. And I think it's important that we make that distinction. It's not for new folks that are coming. It's for folks that are already here.
[00:28:49] Speaker C: They would have been here for a long time in many cases.
[00:28:52] Speaker E: Absolutely.
We're helping our neighbors. We're helping our neighbors. And I think that's important that we point that out.
[00:29:01] Speaker C: So all of the projects that are on this project list, and we can only fund the projects that are on this approved list that was picked by a commission, primarily health and safety projects. They are all listed on our website, gtcounty.org, cpST for capital Project sales tax. And they will also be listed in the ballot. So that is going to be a very long ballot. Question?
[00:29:28] Speaker E: Yes. Yes. Again, we want to prepare folks, certainly if you have time, that you make it a priority to read the ballot before you go so you're familiar, you can vote quickly. You've had an opportunity to study it, ask questions, send it to us, send information, and we'll be glad to respond if you need additional information.
All that information certainly is on the website. You can find out details on every project, and we encourage people to do that.
[00:30:07] Speaker C: And also for people who do still have other questions, we do have two public information sessions on these two referendums left happening this month. So the first one is going to be at Howard auditorium on the 10 October at 05:30 p.m. that one is also going to be live streamed, so you can watch it on our YouTube channel, YouTube.com gtcountysc.
Walt Ackerman is going to be. He is our sales tax expert, I would say.
[00:30:35] Speaker E: Absolutely.
[00:30:36] Speaker C: So he's going to be talking about this and answering questions. So if you would like to attend, you are welcome to come ask any questions you have and talk with our staff. We will also have one at Waccamaw Regional Recreation center on October 15 at 05:30 p.m. and it'll be the same thing. This one won't be live streamed, but you can go in person and ask your questions. So, Angela, what else do we need to let people know before election day?
[00:31:03] Speaker E: It is important for everyone to vote their choice. This is an important time in Georgetown county. We are certainly trying to move the county forward and this is the way to do it.
[00:31:19] Speaker C: Onward, onward.
Thank you, Angela.
[00:31:22] Speaker E: Thank you.
[00:31:24] Speaker C: Thank you for joining us for this month's episode of first Friday with Georgetown county.
As always, I'd like to end with a few events that we have coming up this month. Georgetown County Council will meet twice this month on October 8 and October 22. Prior to the meeting on October 8, money Council will have a workshop beginning at 04:00 p.m. the topic will be a solar farm that was on last month's agenda. As we just discussed, there are still two public information sessions on the proposed capital project sales taxes coming up this month. The first will be on October 10, Howard Auditorium. For anyone who can't make it in person, this meeting will be live streamed and will be available to watch on our YouTube channel. The address for that is YouTube.com gtcountysc.
The second sales tax meeting taking place this month will be on October 15 at Waccamaw Regional Recreation center. Both of those meetings will begin at 05:30 p.m. also on October 10, the Georgetown County Planning Commission will have a workshop. That meeting begins at 05:30 p.m. at county council chambers. The planning commission's regular meeting will take place on October 17 at 05:30 p.m. in county council chambers and the Parks and Recreation Commission will have its quarterly meeting in open House on October 21 from 05:30 p.m. to 07:00 p.m. at Andrews Regional Recreation center. For more events, please check out the calendar on our
[email protected].
