Breaking down the 3rd penny: 5 public facilities projects proposed in Sumter, majority in city limits

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Of the 34 projects proposed for a third penny sales tax, five will include new public facilities coming to Sumter County.

A third round of a 1% Capital Sales Tax is being proposed to continue a one-cent tax that funnels pennies to an initiative to fund community projects over seven years. This initiative is referred to as "Penny for Progress," which is a referendum Sumter voters approved first in 2008 and again in 2014 to fund capital projects on the same penny sales tax that never increased; it has remained at a one-cent sales tax since 2008, the same penny being taxed today.

The third penny is projected to allocate $117 million in seven years to fund 34 Capital Sales Tax projects at a total of $107,266,500 in projected revenue.

Of the 34 projects, 13 fall within the county, while 12 are in the city. In the Sumter County towns, one project is in Mayesville, and four are in Pinewood. The remaining four are joint city-county projects.

Although Penny for Progress has kept a one-cent sales tax for 14 years, it's up to Sumter County voters to continue that same penny to fund community projects that fall under four basic categories: public safety, infrastructure and transportation, public facilities and quality of life.

To prepare voters for the referendum question that will appear on their midterm election ballots on Nov. 8, The Sumter Item will break down the projects by category in a four-part series. The projects listed on the referendum are in order of start date.

Part III: Public Facilities

Five projects are planned for the public facilities category. Of these, three are in the city, one is in the Town of Mayesville, and one is a joint city-county project.

At a Sumter County Council meeting on Oct. 25, County Administrator Gary Mixon presented council with a presentation on the public facilities category.

The first public facility building to see movement will be a South Main Street building, marked as No. 13 on the overall list.

The project will be a $2.75 million renovation to a South Main Street building to house government services. Mixon said this will be used for the Santee-Lynches Regional Council of Governments to relocate them back downtown; no address was provided.

"They were relocated some years ago because of a fire, and we had negotiated the purchase of this particular piece of property," Mixon said. The relocation will move almost 300 employees to downtown Sumter.

A new Mayesville Town Hall is planned as the 18th project to begin construction. This facility will be a $1.5 million project to construct a new town hall and community space in Mayesville. The property of interest is adjacent to the old site in the center of town, Mixon said.

After Mayesville's Town Hall construction, downtown Sumter will undergo accessibility renovations thanks to an allocation of $1.75 million from the penny. The money will be used to improve Historic Downtown's public parking and pedestrian accessibility to better connect retail and public services buildings.

Later down the road, coming in at No. 25, new construction will begin for Public Services. A $5.5 million project will consist of construction for a new public services administration building to support the infrastructure needs of the community.

"This is a new building for the City of Sumter to replace the old Public Works building," Mixon said.

The last public facilities project is a joint city-county effort allocating $1 million from the third penny to renovate a Central Carolina Technical College classroom in the school's Health Sciences Center building in downtown.

Mixon said the building is on Main Street, and it will be used to help the science center while also adding more parking, landscaping and sidewalk access.

The Sumter Item's four-part series will continue Friday with the final category, quality of life.

Some projects that fall under the final category include public facilities. However, the projects fall under quality of life because the facilities will serve as a recreational resource for residents.

The information for this article was provided by Sumter County Government and City of Sumter.