Sumter's 'mini-stimulus'

Gina Vasselli / The Item Work on the Pinewood Fire Station continues Wednesday morning.

What is the status on the LOST projects?

By GINA VASSELLI
Item Staff Writer
gvasselli@theitem.com

About a year ago, Sumter voters were heading to the polls to decide, among other issues, whether they wanted to pay an additional 1 cent on every dollar they spend locally. The estimated $75 million generated from that penny during the next seven years would go to fund 16 projects, such as renovating rural fire stations, constructing a new judicial center and creating four new softball fields and a central tower at the Patriot Park Sportsplex.

The Local Option Sales Tax was approved by a margin of just 821 votes, out of 39,364 cast. Starting on May 1, Sumterites began paying that additional 1 cent on goods and services.

At the time, local officials touted the fact that the projects would be funded by Sumterites and then used by Sumterites.

But the projects are also being primarily built by Sumterites.

Hawkins and Kolb Construction Co., a Sumter-based company, has been the general contractor for four of the projects.

Chris Hawkins, one of the owners, said those projects alone probably put 300 to 350 people to work.

"Eighty to 85 percent were local people in the community," he said. "It helped put food on the table."

And with the unemployment rate in Sumter hovering near 14 percent, jobs are hard to come by.

Buddy Ward, a builder working on one of the rural fire station projects, said these kind of jobs are really helping local builders and subcontractors.

"Construction-wise that's really the only thing," he said. "The only money that's out there is Penny for Progress or government money."

Hawkins said the penny sales tax has acted as a "mini-stimulus for Sumter."

"That's what I would say it is," he said. "It's definitely helped local construction."

County Administrator Bill Noonan said all 16 projects have been addressed in some way, and many are close to the point where construction can be started.

"All of the projects are in motion," he said.

But the projects will not all be worked on at once because the county has to wait for the money from the sales tax to start coming in.

Deputy County Administrator Gary Mixon said the goal is to have all the projects at a point so that, "Every couple of weeks we're rolling out with something else" as the funding becomes available.

To help the construction money stay local, Sumter County Council amended its procurement code, which sets the policies for how competitive contracts are awarded. The amendment, which was adopted on Feb. 24, gives preference to local and minority-owned businesses.

Council Vice Chairman Eugene Baten said the amendment was not done specifically for the Local Option Sales Tax projects but those projects were on council members' minds.

"That was one of the key elements in it, but we would have made that decision anyway," Baten said.

The amendment says all invitations for bids will encourage the use of local subcontractors and requires all the bidders to list the subcontractors they will use.

"If there are nonlocal subcontractors identified, the bidder shall provide some explanation," the amendment says. Not providing that information could disqualify the bid.

It also allows the lowest local bidder within 5 percent of the lowest nonlocal bidder to match the nonlocal bid and be awarded the contract.

Baten said council "knew that the Penny for Progress was going to generate a lot of business," and "we wanted to make sure that we looked out for the local contractors."

And Kenny Brice, the co-owner of Sumter-based KMB Electric, said having projects like the Patriot Park Sportsplex to work on definitely helped. The baseball/softball section of the complex was opened in time for the 2009 Dixie Girls Softball World Series in late July.

"I'd have been out looking for something to do and there wasn't much out there," he said. "With the economy down that really helped."

Contact Staff Writer Gina Vasselli at gvasselli@theitem.com or (803) 774-1214.

Keep up with the projects at www.pennyforprogress.com