By JIM FAILE

DARLINGTON - Darlington County Council devoted a good portion of its regular meeting Monday to filling seats on 11 county boards and commissions, including new seats on nine boards and commissions whose membership has been expanded.

In the process, some current members of panels whose terms were not set to expire for a year or more were removed from office.

All of the new appointments made Monday take effect on July 1, county officials said.

Council made the appointments under a new county ordinance adopted last February that sets the size of most county boards and commissions at eight members, with one member representing each of the eight county council districts.

Under the old system, council as a body elected members of the various panels nominated by council members with no requirement that each council district be represented. Most of the boards and commissions affected by the change currently range from five to seven members.

Last August, Councilwoman Anne Warr of Lamar proposed enlarging the county planning commission to eight members from five with each council member appointing someone from his or her district. The idea, she said, was to ensure that each council district was represented on the boards and commissions. But during council’s discussions, the idea grew to encompass the other boards and commissions as well.

Currently, a number of boards and commissions have more than one member coming from a single council district.

In cases like that, it became necessary to remove some members so that each council district could have one. And while some of those members who were removed were nearing the end of their terms anyway, others still had another year or more to go in their terms. In some cases the choices became difficult.

For example, the planning commission is currently made up of five members, with three of those members residing in council District 2, represented by Councilman Dannie Douglas of Society Hill.

Douglas chose to leave Dr. Richard Antrum on the commission, which means members Edward Krajack and Grady Culbertson will be removed. Krajack’s term expires at the end of June anyway. But Culbertson’s term was not set to expire until June 30, 2011.

“You put them on there, and then I’ve got to be the one to take them off,” Douglas said.

In another example, Councilman Alex “Buz” Shaw of Hartsville, who represents District 7, will have to decide whether to keep Judy Norwood Knight or Bill Segars on the Darlington County Historical Commission. Both are from District 7, and their current terms expire in 2011.

Some others who were removed were serving terms that were not set to expire until 2012.

The process, at times, became confusing as council members tried to decide who to leave in and who to take out.

Council did not fill all of the seats Monday. Some members were not prepared to make appointments and asked that those appointments be carried over until another meeting. Trying to fill seats on the Alcohol and Drug Citizen Advisory Committee became so confusing council members finally decided to postpone all of those appointments until later.

The appointments were just one of several end-of-year housekeeping matters council took up Monday.

In other business, council gave its consent to an application from Time Warner N.Y. Cable LLC for a state-issued certificate of authority to provide cable TV service for the Hartsville franchise area formerly served by Adelphia Cable. The measure simply allows Time Warner to continue providing cable service in the franchise area previously served by Adelphia. Time Warner acquired much of Adelphia in 2006.

The county receives 5 percent of the gross annual revenue from the former Adelphia service area in the Hartsville area, which equated to $144,135.75 in franchise fees for the period from June 2007 through May 2008 and $154,120.09 for the period from June 2008 through May 2009, according to County Administrator Phyllis Griffitts.

Council also amended and renewed an agreement between the county and Progress Energy for the use of the Darlington County Jetport to permit aircraft providing support equipment or personnel for an emergency response in the event of a large fire at Progress Energy’s H.B. Robinson Nuclear Plant near Hartsville. The agreement, which previously renewed automatically year-to-year unless amended, allows Progress Energy to land aircraft at the jetport should an emergency situation occur. It also provides for periodic planned drills and exercises involving the jetport.

The amendment to the agreement calls for it to be reviewed annually before renewal and allows the parties to amend it by mutual consent or to terminate it with 30 days written notice.

And members approved an agreement between the Darlington County Fire District and Sonoco to provide required physicals for full-time, part-time and volunteer firefighters who serve with the fire district or Sonoco. The fire district and Sonoco will split the cost of the physicals.
The fire district has identical agreements with the City of Hartsville and the Harris Creek Fore Department in Chesterfield County.