Highlights from Town Council Meeting of June 28th

Highlights from the Seabrook Island Town Council Meeting on June 28, 2016:

Carl Simmons, Charleston County Building Services Director, presented a plaque to Mayor Ciancio to commemorate the Town’s graduation to the next level in the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System (CRS).  (Improvements in CRS ratings, which are tied to community performance in activities for Public Information, Mapping and Regulations, Flood Damage Reduction, and Warning and Response, lead to increasingly higher discounts on the price of Flood Insurance for a town’s citizens.)

The Town of Seabrook’s new Class 5 rating means that approximately $200,000/year, somewhat more than in the recent past, will be returned to residents in the form of discounts on their Flood Insurance policies.  (Take a look—Flood Insurance policies clearly display the amount of the CRS Discount in the “Premium Calculation” section.)

Next, Erik Glaser of Glaser+Company CPAs presented results of the Town’s 2015 Financial Audit.  He said the audit concluded that there were no control weaknesses or recommendations to be made, adding that this “unqualified” conclusion represents the highest level of assurance regarding the Town’s fiscal operations and its controls for “oversight, prevention, and detection” of potential problems.  Mayor Ciancio and the Council will review the report and, upon approving it, decide on an approach for making the information publicly available.

John Gregg reported that the Public Safety Committee has participated in joint Planning Committee meetings with both Club and SIPOA and is currently reviewing and updating the “Flooding” safety booklet recently mailed out to all residents. Disaster Awareness Day on June 16 was very well attended, with the audience highly engaged in the program.

During this Council meeting, the Town approved funding to be able to contract for services from the AirMedCare Network.  The Town will have much to say about this once contracting is complete.  Very generally, the service agreement means that Seabrook Island property owners will probably have to pay nothing out-of-pocket (i.e., after insurance coverage) if/when Charleston County 9-1-1 or EMS requests air ambulance services for us.  There is much more to the program—watch for details.

Mayor Ciancio recapped a number of recent activities.  He noted that discussions are occurring with Citadel Business School about conducting an Economic Impact Study of Seabrook/Kiawah contributions to the local community.  He is meeting with the Johns Island Community Association about shared concerns and the potential for future teamwork.

Mayors Ciancio and Lipuma (Kiawah) have met with Stephen Thigpen, Charleston County’s Director of Transportation Development, to present results of traffic studies predicting how the proposed Cross Island Expressway would reduce traffic on Johns Island’s primary roads.  Thigpen said that, while he is not empowered to add the Cross Island to the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments’ list of priority projects, he told the Mayors the steps to take to request adding the project to the list.

Town, SIPOA, and Club representatives to the advertising agency selection process have agreed that Lou Hammond & Associates is the preferred provider; next steps will be for each entity to execute a contract with LH&A—as the Mayor said, the goal is to create “three slices of a pie to make a whole.”

Randy Pierce reported that the containment of dogs on the beach’s off-leash area is going well; about 15 Town citations have been issued to help offenders realize we are serious about enforcement.  Acknowledging that signs indicating the off-leash area are so far inland that it is difficult for beach walkers to read them at low tide, Council approved funding to place two warning buoys at the low tide mark to help keep people aware of the boundaries.

-Submitted by Tidelines Staff