Breaking down the 3rd penny: 13 quality-of-life projects proposed in Sumter

Completing The Sumter Item's four-part series on the third penny is the quality-of-life category, the largest list with 13 of the 34 total planned projects throughout the city and county.

A third round of a 1% Capital Sales Tax is being proposed to continue a one-cent tax that funnels money to 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 bring in $117 million over seven years for 34 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. Because it is a sales tax, anyone spending money in Sumter County helps fund the initiative, not just residents.

The projects listed on the referendum are in order of start date.

Part IIII: Quality of Life

Thirteen projects are planned to enhance residents' quality of life with the third penny sales tax. Of those, six are in the county, four are in the city, two are in the Town of Pinewood, and one is a joint city-county project.

According to County Administrator Gary Mixon during an Oct. 11 Sumter County Council meeting, the first project will be the 12th on the overall list. At a cost of $1.75 million, the Bobby Richardson Park, next to the Palmetto Tennis Center, will see improvements to include installing new fences on six baseball fields along with high wall netting.

Two new gymnatoriums will be constructed in the rural communities in the county, specifically in the Rafting Creek and Shiloh areas. The gyms will be constructed next to the community centers.

This was a request heard from community meetings held earlier in the year and will cost $3.5 million for both gyms.

The construction of two new community centers was also a request heard from the rural residents of the county. For a total of $1.8 million, the Delaine and Dubose areas will see a new community center through the third penny.

Something that's been brought to Sumter City Council's attention for several years is the South Sumter Gym, which was in need of many repairs. As a proposed penny project, marked as No. 16 on the list, a reconstruction and expansion of the current facility is planned for a total of $3.5 million.

Following that, Patriot Park will see a 90-acre expansion at a cost of $900,000. Plans for the park include walking trails and a community amphitheater, as well as an additional entry point on Loring Mill Road.

A total of $1 million will be used to complete improvements to support the Sumter Museum Complex, which includes the Sumter County Museum, Sumter Military Museum and Sumter County Jewish History Center in downtown Sumter.

Back to back, some accessible playgrounds will either be built or see improvements from the third penny.

The second penny's Shot Pouch Greenway project would see more construction from the third penny with an additional Swan Lake Trailhead and accessible playground to the Swan Lake area at a total of $1.85 million.

In addition, $1.8 million will be allocated to make countywide improvements to rural playground systems by installing modern, ADA playgrounds at community centers, and then $4.75 million will be used to enhance citywide playgrounds updated with equipment accessible for all children.

The Pinewood community will also see new construction for a park. At a cost of $1.3 million, a new Pinewood Sports Complex will be constructed with a community park, walking trails, playground, outdoor basketball courts, a picnic shelter, stage area, concession stand and parking.

Another portion of the 3.4-mile-long Shot Pouch Greenway will see another addition with a Shot Pouch Park and Greenway Trailhead Enhancement project at a cost of $2.5 million. The project will include a new park and access on Broad Street, which will include a playground, pump track, modern skate park and event space.

"It will really be a nice feature for the Sumter community in a very visible area of Sumter on Broad Street," Mixon said.

The final two projects of the third penny are a continued effort from the past two pennies to remove distressed structures in both the city and county.

Approximately $2.5 million will be used for communitywide acquisition of distressed structures to remove the structures that degrade neighborhoods and major corridors. An additional $16,500 will be used to remove 11 blighted structures in Pinewood; it will be leveraged with Community Development Block Grant funds of $164,439.

Ready for more projects

With a packed list of community developments ranging from the construction of parks to gyms, trail heads and more, past contractors for the first and second penny shared they will vote "yes" to the third penny.

Chris Hawkins, of Hawkins & Kolb Construction, has witnessed how Penny for Progress benefits the community and his business. With just under 40 employees on the payroll of his family's business, he knows firsthand as the general contractor for a large project that there's plenty of work to go around.

"It's not only keeping our employees busy, but it's keeping the subcontractors steady as well - the electrical contractors, the heating and air contractors, the plumbing contractors and so on. It's keeping the money in Sumter County, and one project might affect 150 to 200 families," he said. "Common sense tells you it helps us out in construction big time."

When the first penny was approved, Hawkins & Kolb was the general contractor for Phase 1 and Phase 2 of Patriot Park.

"Look at the enjoyment it gives local families, and the amount of people - and money - that park brings in for softball and baseball tournaments. And the restaurants and hotels are filled," he said. "That's a no-brainer."

Claude Newman, president of CNA Construction, and his company have worked on parks and road improvements in Sumter through the penny sales tax referendum.

"I know it's helped me and other contractors in Sumter a lot," he said. "The stuff we've done has really enhanced Sumter."

Because of the first penny and work on Patriot Park, Newman was able to retain employees instead of laying them off when the recession hit in 2008.

Today, CNA Construction is a family business with about 90 employees and has done work at Dillon Park, Patriot Park and Bobby Richardson Park.

Tony Truett's Triple T Electric Inc. has done subcontracting work on Dillon Park's renovation, Patriot Park and other projects funded by Penny for Progress.

"We've done a lot of projects. It's definitely brought more to small business owners like myself," he said.

The company has 18 full-time employees whose workload was boosted thanks to past penny projects in the last 10 years.

"We're just here to serve our community," Truett said, "and we're proud to do work for our local government agencies."

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