Ken Burger died Oct. 20. He was the most interesting, special and unique son of South Carolina that I have ever known. Period.

If that sounds like graveside hyperbole, consider his one sentence bio: Born and raised in Allendale, Burger graduated dead last in his class at the University of Georgia, has been married five times, is a grateful recovering alcoholic, a cancer survivor and a happy man.

Journalist Ken was a stickler for the facts, so I’ll correct one and add a few. He did not survive cancer and his one line bio does not do him justice.

Ken was also bankrupt (he paid back every penny), lost two homes (one to fire the other to Hurricane Hugo), wrote three novels and two books of columns, was a Washington correspondent, was twice named the best sportswriter in America by the AP, went 200 miles an hour at Darlington Speedway, jumped out of airplanes when he didn’t have to, climbed mountains in Europe, had a $500 yellow Karmann Ghia convertible with no floor boards, started a golf tournament that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight prostate cancer, visited hundreds of men in the hospital to help them deal with cancer, was the unofficial interpreter in the Senate Press Gallery for Senators Hollings and Thurmond, covered more than 20 Masters golf tournaments, went to more Super Bowls, World Series and Final Four games and other major sporting events than most ESPN junkies have ever seen … and these are just a few of the highlights I know about.

Ken packed more living in his near 65 years than most folks would do in four lifetimes. He died just two days short of his 65th birthday and thus he didn’t get his final wish — to live long enough to collect his first Social Security check. He would have loved the irony.

I first met Ken when we were both young bucks in Washington. We had many great lunches. (He always had a club sandwich — “It’s a waste of time to read the menu, let’s talk.”) Years later when I was with the Palmetto Project, one of our lunches led to the Great Clemson-Carolina Food Fight, which collected food for the hungry. I had the idea, Ken wrote the column to get it started and when I marveled at the amount of food collected and his vital role, his dismissive response was, “Words, just words.”

Perhaps what was most special was Ken’s basic decency. He cared about — and listened to — everyone. More than anyone I ever knew, he treated everyone the same — from high-flying politicians to low-living deadbeats, the powerful to the poor, black and white, old and young.

His line was, “What’s your story? Everybody’s got one.” And he wanted to hear it and write it.

Ken once said that if you couldn’t tell a story in 500 words, you were just verbose. So I’ll leave it at this — he was my friend and I’ll miss him.

500 words, exactly.

Phil Noble is a businessman in Charleston and President of the S.C. New Democrats, an independent reform group started by former Gov. Richard Riley to bring change and reform. He can be reached at phil@scnewdemocrats.org.

We’ve just discovered something amazing that’s been around almost forever, and I can’t believe we never realized what we were missing.

Maybe everybody else already knows about it, but just in case you don’t, let me tell you.

Last Saturday, we drove up to Soapstone Baptist Church on Liberia Road near Pumpkintown. We could smell the food before we got out of the truck. And we walked into the church’s dining area and saw stretched out before us a feast.

Mabel Owens Clark, a longtime church member and resident of Little Liberia, is the chef who turns out some of the best food we’ve eaten.

There were smoked ribs, baked chicken, fried chicken, fried fish, fresh green beans, baked beans, fresh cream corn, steamed cabbage, squash casserole, turnip greens, candied sweet potatoes, potato salad, slaw, cornbread, rolls, iced tea, peach and cherry cobbler and if I’ve left anything out, please forgive me.

We feasted, as did many others sitting at the tables.

Soapstone Baptist Church has a small congregation now, and the monthly buffet is the primary support of the church.

Mabel cooks all the food herself, and on the third Saturday of each month, dinner is served at $10 a plate.

Not since I sat at my Grandmama’s table have I eaten real Southern cooking so perfectly seasoned.

In addition to an excellent meal, we were treated to an incredible view of the mountains. The church is built on a huge outcropping of soapstone and was established after the Civil War by freed slaves who settled on land bought from or received from former masters. Following the war, many landowners had land but no money to pay wages with. So former slaves worked in exchange for land.

They named the community Little Liberia.

Soapstone Baptist Church is the oldest African-American church in the Upstate. There was a school located next to the church, and although the original building is gone, the structure that replaced it still stands.

Nearby is located the slave cemetery, part of the Heritage Corridor tour. Those who rest there were born into slavery but died as free citizens.

Old tombstones can still be seen there, although the engravings on some have faded over the years until they appear as faint tracings.

But they are still there, as is the church. They stand as a testament to remarkable people who not only survived, but thrived. Many of the great-great-grandchildren of the first residents have spread out over the country, completing college and relocating to areas offering more diverse opportunities.

Clark is a wonderful resource for all kinds of information about the area and well worth talking to.

The only Saturday when no meal is served is the third Saturday in December, because the kitchen is closed for the holidays.

This year the meal will be served in November, and the wise among us will get in line for the last buffet of the year.

Well, it took me long enough, but I feel I am finally getting over the cold that I have been in the process of catching for a month now.

Most people are around somebody who has a cold, catch the disease, then are over it. But me, I seem to be able to hang around with somebody who has a cold for several weeks before actually catching the virus. When I finally catch it, I take just as long to recover.

This cold was one which I measured in how bad it could get. I caught it from my father, who was over his version of the virus the next day. But me, I just started sneezing often for a few days, and gradually it got worse. Some nights I could hardly get to sleep because of sneezing at night.

Finally, I guess last Friday I caught the disease full-fledged. It started acting up as soon as I got to the Easley-Greenwood high school football game. My nose started running as if it were an Olympic athlete. I simply found a seat on the visitors’ side of the field and let my nose run through the game. I even left before the Green Wave scored their last touchdown because I was so miserable. I meant to stay behind and get comments from Easley coach John Windham, but I couldn’t imagine anyone having anything to say to me but “Please don’t breathe your disease onto me.”

So to keep my quotes from being about snot, I went ahead and left early.

I got home and did not get much sleep that night due to my cold. I awoke the next day for the Clemson-Miami game, which started at noon. I fell asleep around halftime, then dozed through the rest of that game, and later the Florida State-Georgia Tech game.

Sunday we had lunch served at our church. I stayed at home being miserable. My mother brought me home a piece of chicken for lunch, and I enjoyed it as if it were a full meal.

Finally I went to bed during the first quarter of Sunday night’s Carolina Panthers game. After sleeping a few hours, I woke up in the middle of the night and my nose actually was not running. I tried this new process that people are calling breathing. It felt good, and I worked a few word-find puzzles and got my first decent night’s worth of sleep.

I woke up Monday morning and was ready to take on the world again.

My birthday is Halloween, and for a while I was afraid that the newspaper would read “Ben Robinson would have been” today.

So I am back. I’ve decided not to get sick anymore, because quite frankly I do not enjoy it. I’m ready to take on the world again.

Time for new leadership?

[cointent_lockedcontent]Dear Editor,

The people of Pickens County can be proud of their combined efforts to question and hold accountable the six county council members for their overreach on the fire fees. The council members were forced by the outcry to “suspend” the fire fee and remove it from 2015 tax bills. But all should be aware, this is only a temporary stoppage. They have said that it will be handled in some other manner. So hold on to your pocketbooks, taxpayers!

It was apparent at the Oct. 19 meeting that the council attempted to avoid the citizens by changing the meeting time from 6:30 pm to 5 pm. But even with the time change, the auditorium was overflowing into the hallway with questioning taxpayers. The repeated answer that came from the council members to the many issues put to them was, “We messed up and didn’t think this through.” If the multitude of people had not contacted and questioned these council members, the taxpayers would have had this fee applied to be owed and paid forever. And now we, the taxpayers, must pay for the cost of recalculating, reprinting, re-mailing and refunding payments for this incredible and unexplainable blunder.

One council member claimed pride in having been on the council for 12 years. The citizens should wonder how, with this experience, the council could just “mess up” handling our business and finances.

Four members of this council are up for re-election next year. Those four districts are Easley (Jennifer Willis), Liberty (Neil Smith), Pickens (Randy Crenshaw) and Dacusville (Tom Ponder). Perhaps it is time Pickens County has new leadership.

The citizens of Pickens County deserve more responsible and logical public servants. We must continue to monitor and hold accountable these elected officials.

And thank you, Pickens County Courier, for your excellent reporting on this issue.

Clova Vaughan

Easley

Surely, we are better than that

Editor:

I watched with interest last week as Hillary Clinton testified before the Benghazi Select Committee. The loss of four lives in Benghazi was indeed a tragedy, and we need to do everything possible to prevent any loss of life. Conservatives have certainly investigated this tragedy, perhaps to an extreme.

While we had no control over the attack in Benghazi, I am perplexed that in South Carolina, a state controlled by conservatives, we refuse to prevent similar tragedies that occur every week. More than four people die in South Carolina every week because they do not have access to healthcare.

A study done on Massachusetts residents after the implementation of Romneycare — the basis of Obamacare — concluded that for every 830 people having access to healthcare, there will be one fewer death per year. Thus, if we expand Medicaid and insure at least 172,640 people, we will save four lives per week. I have heard several estimates of how many would be covered by an expansion of Medicaid — the actual number would depend on the policies implemented by South Carolina — and the lowest estimate I have heard is 200,000.

Four lives per week, every week. Every week we don’t expand Medicaid, we allow four more citizens to die. Citizens that we have the ability to save!

We can do this without costing the state any money. The cost would be paid by the federal government. In fact, this money would boost the South Carolina economy.

Some will argue that they don’t like Obamacare. Then we can call it something else. Others states have put their own brand on their Medicaid expansion.

Some will argue that we don’t want to accept federal money to expand Medicaid.

Well, we had no trouble asking for federal assistance to repair damage done by the recent flooding. Could it be that the assistance for the flooding damage will assist many folks, both rich and poor, while Medicaid assists mainly the poor, who have little voice in our state government?

Surely, we are a better state than that!

Carl Fortson

Seneca

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I know where I’m sleeping tonight. And so do most of you. It would be nice if everybody could say that, but in Pickens County, they cannot.
Years ago, when our first child was still a baby, we stood in the front yard and watched our home containing everything we owned burn to the ground. We lived in a rural area, and the fire truck wasn’t coming. We had no fire insurance. We were left with our lives and the clothes hung on the clothes line.
Fowler’s former high school agricultural education teacher came to our rescue and offered a place to live for a month to give us time to get ourselves together. It was a challenging time, but we were fortunate in that Fowler was employed and we had a car.
In our very own county, there are 1,900 school age children who are homeless. That’s not counting the rest of the family. They’re often hungry. The figure is shocking.
We have single mothers with children who camp out, bounce from relative to relative if there are any in the picture or live in cars, if they own one. We have veterans whose lives have been shattered by war.
In this county, as in many in the state without mass transportation, car ownership is the last vestige of security a family may have.
One major illness, death, job loss or loss of child care can mean the difference between whether or not you can feed your children or put them to bed in a home instead of a car.
Some families in these situations stay fairly transient, because the biggest loss of all would be to lose their children. So they hide out in plain sight.
There are many fragmented efforts made in attempts to help families in these situations. Most address one or more of the consequences of being homeless. But few if any have a plan to change the circumstances causing homelessness.
Until now. Family Promise of Pickens County is a year old now, and the organization is helping people change their lives.
It’s a clear demonstration of the old proverb, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Friday night, Cardboard Box City a first-time fundraising event for the homeless in Pickens County, will happen in Gateway Park next to Clemson Presbyterian Church in downtown Clemson. It’s sponsored by Family Promise of Pickens County, a nonprofit with volunteers from more than 14 churches of different denominations. Family Promise screens families and offers shelter, job training, food, transportation and counseling to homeless families. They help with finding affordable housing and in other ways to give families a way out of despair and into new lives where hope replaces desperation.
Anyone who wants to help can rent a space on site in Cardboard Box City and spend the night in a cardboard box of their own design. Although a space rents for $500, no amount of money will be turned down.
Schools, church groups, businesses and community organizations are all involved, putting together enough support to sleep in a box in the city.
A local businessman, who wants to remain anonymous, has challenged area businesses to sponsor a box home in Cardboard Box City. He has pledged $5,000 if his challenge is answered.
It’s not too late to get your name in the pot. If you don’t have time to build a box, there are some loaners on location. You can register online or at the site.
Meals on Wheels will be on hand running a public soup kitchen from 6-7 p.m. And there will be other special events before everyone goes to sleep.
For more information. visit familypromise.pickens.org or contact the event leader, Tom von Kaenel, at (864) 643-9197 or tom.vonkaenel@yahoo.com.

Concerned with Collins’ Turkey Trip

Dear Editor,

I have become worried about Rep. Neal Collins’ recent trip to Turkey that he claims “has been a political, cultural and economic tour.”

After reading all his posts and viewing all his pictures he posted on Facebook about this trip, it became obvious to me that Collins has buried his head in the sand and is in denial of what Muslims believe and what “taquia” means to Muslims.

“Taquia” is permission for a Muslim to lie under three conditions including advancing the cause of Allah and to deceive your enemies. It becomes very difficult to trust Muslims, because you don’t know if they are saying what they really believe or they are lying to Americans until they are in a stronger position within the government to fight and express their true feelings of establishing a caliphate.

I have to question Collins’ loyalty to the safety of Pickens County citizenry, as well as the safety of the citizenry of state of South Carolina and the United States of America. Did he really mean it when he swore to protect our country from all enemies, both foreign and domestic?

Here are Collins’ Facebook status quotes:

“This is an example of what I learned on this trip. My ignorance. My racism. My fears have been challenged. I know I am a better person.”

So after all these years of being a Christian and being surrounded by Christians his whole life — now that he has been around Muslims, he is a better person?

Collins wrote on Facebook that he stayed with “a wonderful Muslim family” and that “the whole family denounced Muslim extremists.” When he calls these Muslims “God-fearing people,” he is either ignorant of Islam and their ideology and beliefs and ignores the fact that Sharia law and the Constitution cannot coexist or he is complicit and is a Muslim sympathizer.

The Atlantic Institute is who sponsored the majority of the costs for Collins’ trip along with other S.C. legislators. The Atlantic Institute supports growth of Muslim Gulen charter schools here in the U.S. There is one in Greenville operating now. Many of you may know, Collins is on the House Education Committee, and this sends up red flags to me. Was their purpose to soften him up?

Please don’t vote to re-elect this man to the S.C. House, Easley voters!

Johnnelle Raines

Pickens

You can’t raise cattle inside city limits. Most people would agree on that.

[cointent_lockedcontent] Most land producing cattle or other stock in Pickens County has an agricultural deferment, which means the land is taxed at a lower fee because it meets the criteria for agricultural use.

Until now, no fire fee was applied to agriculturally deferred property. That’s because the S.C. Forestry Service takes care of fires breaking out on unoccupied acreage. Unoccupied by humans, that is.

Cattle and other farm stock don’t just amble around in a pasture eating grass. Pasture grass isn’t enough to take stock through a winter. You have to have hay, among other things, to sustain a herd.

And if pasture land is separate from hay production land, the property owner will now be hit with a double whammy, as each parcel will be charged an extra fee.

Some who run small operations to supplement retirement income will have a difficult time paying the fee.

Where they’ll come up with this kind of money is anybody’s guess.

Two letters to the editor in last week’s paper gave stark examples of how the fire fee is affecting owners of such property

Marie Vaughn of Easley wrote that because her several small tracts of land are being taxed separately, the fee increases her tax burden by 900 percent. She says she doesn’t understand why she is being asked to pay the fee at all since her property is protected by the South Carolina Forestry Service, funded through state tax.

Another letter written by Ruth Clark of Pickens says the county can collect an additional $1 million if 50,000 people pay $20 for each one- to five-acre tract of land.

If anyone is interested, they can go online and see how much profit is possible for a cattle production. There’s a pretty narrow profit margin.

If a farmer produces his own hay, it can cost as much as $435 per acre in seeding, fuel, fertilizer, lime and weed control. That’s not counting labor. And that’s just to produce it.

Cutting, raking and bailing are a whole separate operation. And if the hay gets rained on, it has to be tethered to dry it out before it can be bailed. Otherwise it will contain mold.

If the farmer doesn’t own the very expensive equipment necessary for this operation, he must hire someone else to cut and bail the hay.

Last year, it cost approximately $20 per bale to have a hay field mowed and baled. The bales could be sold for about $45 each.

Some years drought has prevented harvesting a fall hay crop. So even though the production costs are the same, the fall crop is lost.

If it becomes too costly to grow crops or raise beef and pork, how can someone in Pickens County with a small operation justify continuing?

Does every member of county council live in town? I don’t know.

In a county with a population of roughly 120,000, it would be safe to say at least half of the population is scattered among the many rural areas. Many of those living in rural areas do have small farming operations, even if it’s just a garden spot. There are people all over the county raising cattle, goats, sheep, hogs and chickens.

There are people selling fresh eggs and produce every week at the flea market. Has anyone checked the cost of a good laying hen lately? Go to a farm auction and check it out. It will be an eye opener.

The flooding in the Midlands and Lowcountry of our state will have a devastating effect on fall hay production as well as other fall crops. Those people will still have to find feed supplies for their stock. Otherwise the market will be flooded with stock farmers can’t afford to feed, which will send profit plummeting.

I can remember when extreme drought conditions here brought us help from other states in the form of hay.

We were among those who went to the railroad tracks in Easley to get a ration of hay bales donated by Kansas farmers to feed our stock.

I’ve never forgotten how grateful we were for being helped at such a critical time.

So next time, as there will surely be a next time, before an additional burden, such as the new fire fee, is approved, I would urge council members to see if the fee would be punitive for some of the population.

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In defense of school board

[cointent_lockedcontent] Dear Editor,

I have been reading in the newspaper about the test scores for the School District of Pickens County. They have improved. High school students who are bound for college take the SAT and/or ACT college entrance exams. Pickens County students scored an average of 1501 combined in math, reading and writing on the SAT.

That was a 12-point improvement this year, and our district ranked fifth in the state out of 84 districts. On the ACT college entrance exam, students scored 22.4 combined in math and English. Our students ranked fourth in the state on that test.

All high school students had been required to take the high school exit exam, but the state legislature replaced that with the ACT Workkeys test. This exam tests all 11th graders and measures their qualifications for hundreds of entry-level jobs, focusing on applied math, reading for information and information location. Our district ranked eighth in the state on the Workkeys exam.

Our students are some of the brightest in the state.

These are superior achievements, and credit belongs to our students, teachers, parents, administrators and the school board.

But the AdvancED monitoring report dated March 24, 2015, is about the board of trustees. In an earlier report, they threatened to withhold accreditation. AdvancED’s focus should be on academics. Has it occurred to AdvancED that a more-involved school board that listens to the public is the reason for the improving academics?

Dan Winchester

Pickens

Panama and Turkey can wait

Dear Editor,

I have read two articles lately about Easley Rep. Neal Collins. Seems he has recently been to Panama and Turkey “representing” South Carolina. OK, that’s fine. Nice vacation spots, I guess. He said the widening of the Panama Canal would help Charleston. But Mr. Collins was elected to represent Pickens County at the state level. Roads, bridges, education, local government funding, DSS and so many other core functions of the state are in a mess, according to the news I read.

Why is Mr. Collins traveling all over the globe, at least partially on the taxpayer dime, when there is so much that needs attention here at home? I believe there is plenty of work to do right here in South Carolina, and there is no justification for a state representative to travel anywhere in search of things to do. Mr. Collins, I say stop ignoring your Statehouse duties in favor of searching the globe for busy work. Please stay home and resolve the problems right on our front door. People are suffering in South Carolina. Panama and Turkey can wait.

Weldon Clark

Liberty

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The rubber boots in the closet aren’t put to use too often. The last time I wore them was on Ocracoke Island the week after Hurricane Sandy. We’d gone by boat out to Portsmouth Island, south of Ocracoke, to collect shells dredged up by the hurricane from the bottom of the ocean. We needed the boots because the water closer to the beach was too shallow for the motor to be used and we all had to jump out and pull the boat ashore.

The boots will be in use this week, even though the torrential rain has finally come to an end. We have to go out into the woods and check the pasture fence.

There are lots of pines and other trees in close proximity to the fence line, and periodically after heavy rain and high wind some trees will come down, often atop the top strand of wire. It takes an entire day to cut up an entire pine tree and remove it from the fence, but it has to be done.

It’s also likely that since the ground is so soft some fence posts may not be completely upright, as the weight of the tree may bend them over.

If this event in the pasture on Fowler Farm was being covered by Jim Cantrell, he would say the fence has been compromised by the heavy rainfall.

Although we only have three horses now, and their brains are reported to be the size of a walnut, they clearly believe the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence and will leave their comfy home to find out if this is true.

On the brighter, side it is possible they may not notice the fence has been breached, but you never really know.

So inevitably after a weather event, it’s necessary to do a complete fence surveillance.

Hence the boots.

You may wonder why the boots are necessary after the rain has stopped. Should you care to walk through the soft ground surrounding the hay barn, you would soon have the answer to this question.

It is not unknown to have the shoes sucked off your feet by the heavy gumbo around the barn.

If that happens and balance is lost, it is possible to fall flat on your back in the mud and remain there until a rescue operation can be mounted.

It is not my life’s ambition to list among my achievements that a tractor was used to pull me from a mud bog.

Granted, it would add to the collection of family farm history to be able to include such an incident, but it’s my belief there’s already a pretty complete collection of similar stories.

And so it’s a good thing there are rubber boots in the closet. It’s always better to have them and not need them than to need them and not have them.

Saitta talks SDPC audit

Dear Editor

The school district’s 2015 financial audit is complete, and the district’s budget ended the year in surplus of $3.8 million. Unfortunately, $3.3 million of that surplus was spent on building maintenance and equipment. Staggering building costs continue to eat up the budget.

Savings increased $550,000 in 2014-15. It is safe to say the district has built about $4 to $5 million in savings. This is a far contrast to 2010 when the district was facing a $2.75 million deficit and had negative savings, having to borrow money to meet payroll late that year.

Total spending this past fiscal year was $193.4 million — that’s $11,690 per student.

The budget is still generating surpluses and building savings. This is due to five primary reasons:

1. Unlike surrounding school districts and in the face of opposition, our school board bit the bullet and made permanent reductions in spending in 2010 and 2011. As a result the budget deficit that year and for years to come was wiped out.

2. As the economy rebounded and new revenue started to flow-in in 2012, 2013 and 2014, the board limited annual spending growth, and surpluses and savings began to build.

3. A by-product of this fiscal austerity was it altered the culture by making employees more cost conscious. Looking at the details of the audit, actual spending for hundreds of items were below budgeted expenditures. The district leadership and employees have done a good job of keeping actual spending under budgeted spending the past few years.

4. The economy is now in the seventh year of its upswing, so revenue has been growing steadily for years now. The TIF lawsuit help boost revenue too.

5. While I didn’t agree with this, about 55 teaching positions have been eliminated the last two years, and that has created savings, too.

Combing through the 102-page audit, total debt of the district is $303.1 million. That is down from the peak of $382.5 million in 2007.

Under the stress of rising retirement costs, the contribution the district pays into the state pension has risen from 8.05 percent in 2007 to 10.75 percent in 2015. The pension system is woefully under-funded, so taxpayers as well as employees are having to pay more. The district’s portion of the liability is $142.7 million.

By the way, 31 percent of the state’s pension assets are now invested in the stock market. It has another 31 percent invested in even riskier assets like hedge funds, private equity and debt, as well as commodities. It is assuming a 7.5 percent annual return on its investments.

The financial condition of the district has improved significantly the past few years due to economic growth and improved budget management. Longer-term, the bond debt is still staggering, more than $300 million. The pension liability is probably $250 million given market returns are likely to fall short of 7.5 percent. The audit doesn’t mention the district’s long-term medical liability is, but it is undoubtedly high (probably north of $200 million) and going higher because ObamaCare continues to ratchet up medical costs.

Many state and local governments look the same way, better in the short-run, but buried in debt and having made too many promises they’ll never be able to afford in the long-run.

Alex Saitta

School board trustee

Pickens

A challenge on fire fee

Dear Editor,

I write this letter to the editor in hopes it will reach each person in Pickens County owning open land. Pickens County Council has applied a “fire fee” on all open land in the county. This will be found on your tax bill for 2015. This fee is applied to all plots; for example, if you own three plots of land 5.1 acres or more, you will pay $80 on each piece, coming to a $240 tax increase. Council passed this scale: 0.1 to 5 acres $20, 5.1 to 20 acres $80, 20.1 to 100 acres $160, 100.1 to 1,000 acres $240, and greater than 1,000 acres $320. So if you own one, acre you pay $20. If you own 1000.1 acres you pay $0.32 per acre, or $320. How can this scale be justified? The population of Pickens County is about 120,000 people in the 2014 census. If 50,000 people pay a one-acre fire fee of $20, this will bring in about $1 million, and of course this is only a small amount to what real income will be from this fee. County fire fees do not go to city fire departments. We now have 13 county fire stations, but more will be added in the future.

I ask you to contact county council members. The six members are listed below, along with their districts and phone numbers.

Ensley Feemster — District 1, Clemson, (864) 654-3862.

Trey Whitehurst — District 2, Six Mile, (864) 639-6035.

Randy Crenshaw — District 3, Pickens, (864) 868-2879.

Neil Smith — District 4, Liberty, (864) 878-6026.

Jennifer Willis — District 5, Easley, (864) 859-6096.

Tom Ponder — District 6, Dacusville, (864) 430-1386.

I challenge you to let your council know your view on the decision council has made. I also ask that each open land owner come to the county council meeting scheduled for Oct. 19 at 6:30 pm. Rules for speaking are that you must sign up before the meeting. Call (864) 898-5856. The location is the Pickens County administration building at 222 McDaniel Ave in Pickens.

Ruth Clark

Pickens

More on fire fee proposed by county

Dear Editor,

An in-depth news reporting of Pickens County Council’s decision to apply a fire fee charge on all unoccupied agricultural property is needed.

The fire fee charges now being added to the existing property owners tax bill for 2015 are:

1. 0 to 5 acres, an additional $20 is applied

2. 5.1 to 20 acres, an additional $80 is applied

3. 20.1 to 100 acres, an additional $120 is applied

4. 100.1 to 1,000 acres, an additional $240 is applied

5. 1,000+, an additional $320 is applied

As a retired senior citizen living on a fixed income, the county council has increased my property tax burden by more than 900 percent.

My property is in various small separate tracts, and as such, I am forced to pay this fire fee on each parcel of land.

My property already has rural fire coverage provided by the S.C. Forestry Department, which is paid through my S.C. state tax. And Pickens County has a tax millage applied to cover fire protection, which I already pay. So why is additional money required of me to pay?

One of my small tracts of mountain forest is land-locked, with no road access. When I asked the rural fire chief how a fire on this would be handled, he said the S.C. Forestry Department would be called in to work it. So why am I charged a fee for non-existent help?

When I spoke with council chairwoman Jennifer Willis concerning these fire fees, I asked what recourse I have as to appealing the extra cost. In a rather callous response, she said there is no recourse, and I quote, “You have to pay it.”

The next Pickens County Council meeting is October 19 at 6:30 p.m. in Pickens. But I’m concerned that many taxpayers will be unaware of the egregious fee and higher tax bills since the mail has not yet delivered these. The county council members must be made to explain and be held accountable to the voters and citizens of Pickens County for this attack on our pocketbooks.

I and other affected agricultural land owners in Pickens County need to know how six individuals can arbitrarily impose the taking of money without clear discussions, notifications or citizens voting approval.

Please, I implore you to research these issues and be a part of the upcoming meeting on Oct. 19 at 6: 30 p.m. at 222 McDaniel Ave. in Pickens.

Marie Vaughan

Easley