By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter

jevans@thepccourier.com

PICKENS — Area schools are giving students the knowledge they need for the workforce, but more opportunities are needed to provide them with on-the-job experience.

By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter

jevans@thepccourier.com

PICKENS — The auditorium of the county administrative building was packed full of residents wishing to speak out against a proposed tire processing plant in Easley on Monday night.

But those waiting to speak didn’t have a chance after the Pickens County Planning Commission voted down the company’s application.

Advanced Resource Materials LLC hoped to build a facility at 165A Dancer Drive, a portion of the former Perception Kayaks facility. Regulatory consultant J.D. Daskalakos, speaking on behalf of the company, spoke before the commission and began by clearing up misconceptions about the proposed business, which was classified as a junkyard under county development standards.

“It seems like there’s obviously a lot of apprehension and some misinformation about what this project is about, what it’s intended to do and what its impact will be on the community,” Daskalakos said. “We’re going to be open and transparent.

“It’s an unfortunate drafting problem that the only place y’all felt we fit in the code was under a junkyard. We’re not a junkyard.”

The business would not store tires, he said.

“We process them,” Daskalakos said.

He said the company wished to provide a solution to the growing problem of waste tires which, when left outside and filled with standing water, can be “a mosquito breeding ground.”

“If it catches on fire, it’s a real problem,” Daskalakos said.

“We have a process where we can take the waste tire and basically not burn it — we decompose it with indirect heat and a chemical process,” he said.

That process produces a substance known as carbon char, “almost a black peanut brittle,” Daskalakos said.

The company collects that material and sells it to manufacturers, who use it to manufacture new tires.

The process also produces Tire Derived Fuel, which is similar to diesel fuel, and scrap metal, which can be sold off.

He said company officials know the community is concerned about odors produced by the facility.

“If you burn a tire, you’re going to seriously nasty uncontrolled emissions,” Daskalakos said. “Our process doesn’t produce (that).”

Any gas produced by the process is recycled back into the chamber, he said.

Area residents were also concerned about tires being stored outside.

Daskalakos said tires would be brought directly by trailer into the facility and forklifted into the chamber.

“There’s never going to be a tire stored outdoors,” Daskalakos said. “That’s what we’ve committed to DHEC, that’s what we commit to you, that’s what we commit to the community. Our idea is to be invisible to pretty much everybody except for the people that are working there.”

Air quality would be monitored by several systems, he said.

“If something goes wrong, we’re going to shut it down,” Daskalakos said. “Lord knows we’re not trying to make anybody sick.”

Proximity to both Michelin and Clemson makes Easley an attractive location for the business, Daskalakos said.

“This is the tire manufacturing capital of the world,” he said. “We are the solution. We’re not the problem.”

Commissioners had a number of questions for Daskalakos concerning the facility, including emissions, fire suppression, filtration and truck traffic.

Daskalakos said the company’s process essentially made the location a “zero-emissions facility.”

He said the understood concerns about traffic. The facility would receive about three trucks every two days.

The Easley facility would be a test of the system’s economic viability. Having many trucks waiting to enter the facility would not be good for business, Daskalakos said.

Planning commission chairman Bill Cato acknowledged the crowd waiting to speak. He asked if anyone wished to speak in favor of the company’s application. No one did.

After stating that it was the commission’s policy to only allot 10 minutes for the residents to address the commission in a public hearing, Cato said he believed the company’s application would not pass.

“All of these people out here, they represent Pickens County,” Cato said. “We represent them.”

He said the application did not meet the county’s requirements for setbacks.

“Nowhere close,” Cato said. “One of your setbacks is on the property line.”

Daskalakos objected, saying that the plans adhered to DHEC’s requirements for buffers.

“We’re not DHEC,” Cato said. “We’re Pickens County.”

Cato said the plant is too close to residences and two churches.

County planning staff also recommended to the commission that the application be rejected.

Had the facility met the requirements of the county’s ordinance, the commission would have had no choice but to approve the application, Cato said.

“The way this works is, if your proposal is totally in compliance with the standards ordinance, we can’t stop you — no matter how bad they want you not to be there, we can’t stop you, not really, if you’re in compliance,” he said. “Unfortunately, you’re not.”

Commissioners rejected the company’s application 5-0, with commissioner Dennis Reinert absent.

After the vote, the crowd gave the commission a standing ovation.

Daskalakos said he felt the development standards ordinance was penalizing the company and its plans unfairly.

“It talks about junkyards and it talks about storage,” he said. “We do neither.”

After the meeting, Daskalakos said the company was left with several options.

“No. 1, appeal this decision,” he said. “No. 2, we could revise the application and come back. No. 3, we could just take the position that the junkyard ordinance does not apply, we’re in compliance with preexisting DHEC regs — come and stop us.”

The company had already received DHEC approval, he said, and is fully compliant with both EPA and state regulations.

He said the county needs to fix its ordinance.

“The way that ordinance works is that any tire dealer is technically a junkyard, because they’re storing tires,” Daskalakos said.

He said he didn’t think it would come down to litigation.

“It’s technically an option, but that’s just not the way we want to go. We’re trying to be good neighbors,” Daskalakos said.

By Greg Oliver
Courtesy The Journal

goliver@upstatetoday.com

COUNTY — School District of Pickens County officials recently told school board members that their decision to consolidate schools earlier this year has resulted in nearly $1 million in savings.

According to the report presented by human resources director Stephanie Lackey and finance director Clark Webb, the school district saved approximately $964,275.90, compared to the nearly $800,000 originally estimated.

“We looked at each school, each position and what displaced people were placed in a position,” Webb told the board during a special called meeting. “They were placed in a position that was vacant, and we did not hire anyone that was leaving a position due to retirement, other jobs or other reasons.”

Last spring, the board voted to close A.R. Lewis and Holly Springs elementary schools at the end of the 2015-16 school year. Students who formerly attended Holly Springs and lived east of U.S. Highway 178 are now attending Ambler Elementary, while those west of the highway are now attending Hagood Elementary.

Figures presented by Lackey comparing last school year to the current year show Ambler Elementary has increased from 240 students to 325 students and from 12 classroom teaching positions to 15, while Hagood Elementary has increased from 280 students and 14 classroom teaching positions to 454 students and 24 teachers. Pickens Elementary School also saw an increase from 455 students and 20 classroom teaching positions a year ago to 493 students and 24 teaching positions this year.

Lackey said the numbers are for students from 5-year-old kindergarten through fifth grade and do not include 4-year-old kindergarten students.

Webb said a total of 19.5 positions from the closed schools have also been placed, and Lackey added that 10 teaching positions throughout the district that were vacant due to retirement, relocation or other factors were filled by teachers or staff impacted by the closings.

Board trustee Alex Saitta, who represents the Pickens area, said while it appears the transition is “smoothing out,” he still has concerns.

“The parents, teachers and students are resilient, but I’ve talked to some who are unhappy,” Saitta said. “Going from the five schools to the three schools, there are 78 less students now. I suspect many of them were unhappy and didn’t hang around to complain, but voted with their feet and left.”

While saying the three schools “were held harmless to some degree” on the district’s staffing standard and student-teacher ratio, Saitta expressed concern about next year.

“The standard will be fully implemented then, and those students will lose a total of seven teaching positions, plus some (full-time support employees), and class sizes will be larger,” he said. “Those schools also don’t have extra classrooms, and this building program was to take care of a generation of needs and growth. These three schools are close to maxed out now.”

Saitta, who was vocally opposed to the consolidation, said the board was shortsighted in its approach. The trustee said that looking ahead over the next 10 years, sprawl from Greenville and growth from Clemson University will impact the county.

“The cost of real estate in those areas is skyrocketing, and the housing economics of it all will push families toward the center of the county,” Saitta said. “The next choice for Greenville is west, and it’s going to move this way. People are willing to drive further, and the mistake being made here is that we’re cutting it too close by closing all these schools. I would not have closed all these schools, and I would reopen one of them tomorrow.”

Saitta recalled when the argument was made for constructing new schools in the county that those facilities would attract industries — something he completely disagreed with then and now.

“I look at companies, and they will come because their costs are low, infrastructure allows them to get their product in and out and they can hire labor that is cheap and utilities,” Saitta said. “Second or third down the list is they can have a nice new library or new schools.”

But fellow board member Phillip Bowers argued that the district was able to achieve a savings of nearly $1 million through consolidation, something he said was “a pleasant surprise” the first year since it went into effect.

“It’s great we improved efficiency and saved money while delivering better service to students and taxpayers,” Bowers said. “The report underscores the wisdom of eliminating inefficient facilities and redirected limited tax dollars to higher-priority needs. Almost a million dollars can now be put to better use and expand opportunities for all students in the district by compensating teachers as deserved, expanding opportunities at our world-class career center and investing in maintenance on efficient facilities instead of throwing money away on outdated relics or raising taxes.”

Bowers said the district had estimated not only $800,000 in savings the first year following consolidation, but an increase of $1.2 million the second year and $1.5 million for the third and all subsequent years.

“We’re well ahead of expectations,” he said. “While the report only listed savings resulting from personnel changes, there are several million more in savings because we won’t need to perform large-scale capital maintenance on two 60-plus-year-old buildings. When everything is totaled up, it looks like we’re on track to save about $10 million over five years.”

Although Lackey said individual school principals have latitude to use full-time employee positions in the manner they desire, some for classroom teachers and others for reading coaches, she said schools that are overstaffed are being addressed for next school year.

“We knew that was going to happen with all three consolidated schools,” Lackey said. “We will try and rectify that. We’re going to pull it back, and the principals and I have already started those conversations.”

Lackey said Ambler Elementary is overstaffed by 1.5 positions, Pickens Elementary by 2.5 positions and Hagood by three classroom teachers. Pickens Elementary and Hagood Elementary, according to Lackey, have instructional coaches and reading interventionists that are above their typical staff.

Lackey also provided a traffic report on the consolidated schools. She said Ambler Elementary, Hagood Elementary and Pickens Elementary, despite increased student enrollment due to the consolidation, are experiencing slight fluctuations in car and bus drop-off and pick-up times for students.

School board chair Judy Edwards commended Lackey and Webb for their report.

“All of this sounds like good reports for our consolidation,” Edwards said. “It sounds like it’s going well.”

goliver@upstatetoday.com | (864) 973-6687

Follow on Twitter @JournalGO

PICKENS — A ceremony is planned this Sunday, Oct. 16, to dedicate the new Dacusville Fire Substation.

Community members are invited to join the celebration at the new station, located at 120 Hamilton Road in Marietta.

Festivities will begin at 2 p.m. Refreshments will be served from 2-4 p.m. The dedication ceremony will begin at 3 p.m. Multiple people will speak about the new substation and the Dacusville community fire protection.

Once speakers are finished, a plaque will be presented that recognizes all those who were involved in the substation planning and construction. Coupled with the dedication, there will also be a fire hose uncoupling ceremony, similar to a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

PICKENS — Alex Saitta is running for re-election for the Pickens seat on the Pickens County School Board.

He and his wife, Carmen, have two daughters. Scarlett is in ninth grade at Pickens High School, and the other will follow next year — Amber is in eighth grade attending the Youth Leadership Academy charter school.

In 2010, when Saitta became the chairman of the board, the graduation rate was 71.2 percent. The board set a goal of 80 percent, and over the next few years it beefed up remedial reading, lowered class sizes, expanded the career center and hired graduation coaches. The graduation rate is now nearly 83 percent.

“I know what it is like to be a parent of children in school,” Saitta said. “When our girls graduate Pickens High, I hope both will be part of even larger graduating classes.”

Saitta strongly opposed the closing of any schools and voted against closing Holly Springs and A.R. Lewis elementaries.

“Taxpayers just spent $6 million to renovate the schools, and we’ll be paying off that loan until 2032,” Saitta said. “I voted against closing the schools. No one would spend their own money that way, and it shows how some decisions lack simple common sense.”

A former financial analyst, Saitta now prepares tax returns and manages rental properties. He has become the financial conscience of the board fighting waste, protecting classroom funding and advocating smaller class sizes.

“I proposed and voted to add many classroom teaching positions in the 2011 to 2013 school years, and have never voted to eliminate even one,” Saitta said. “Since then, the new board has fallen back into the bad habit of eliminating teaching positions — 65 the past three years, and I voted against all of that.”

In the wake of closing schools, eliminating teaching positions and having blocked attempts to bring Christian prayer back to school board meetings, Saitta sees himself as a watchdog on the board, looking out for the public’s interest.

“The question all voters need to ask themselves is this: Do you trust the school board to do the right thing when you’re not looking?” he said. “The public needs a trustee who is their eyes and ears, does his research, and has the courage to speak up when the board is ignoring the wishes of the people.”

By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter

jevans@thepccourier.com

COUNTY — There are many advantages to living in the more rural parts of Pickens County.

But when you’re trying to find forever homes for dogs and cats, a lack of visibility isn’t one of them.