Clinton City Council applauded and thanked three police officers and citizen Natasha Mims for their quick work on Valentine’s Day morning that saved the life of 11-year-old A’Rhyan Anderson.
The youngster was waiting at a bus stop when he was set upon by four dogs. Mims, even though she has an arm immobilized from surgery, fought off the dogs and Officers Barnes, Galloway and Harris applied first-response first aid.
They came before the council as an agenda-added portion of a work session the council was having about municipal government and economic development last Monday night.
Clinton Police Chief Sonny Ledda said in his discussions with the family and the trauma surgeon, it was obvious that Officer Barnes setting a tourniquet and the response of Officers Galloway and Harris after Mims’ 911 call, and Mims fighting off the attacking dogs gave A’Rhyan who has undergone multiple surgeries a fighting chance of survival.
Ledda said, “I know police departments around the state, and I would put our folks up against any in the state in this situation.”
Mims said it was remarkable how quickly help came after her call. “I want you to know what a hero you are to us,” Mayor Randy Randall said.
“I am terrified of dogs,” Mims said, “so I am proud of myself. I saw four big dogs what I thought was eating a trash bag, but they were mauling at him. I have one arm and I didn’t know what to do, nobody came out to help, so I said to myself, ‘I need to do something.’
“I got a lot of meat on me, so let them enjoy off me.
“I thank God that He was with me because if He wasn’t I don’t know what would happen. 911, they got there so quick and I said, ‘Thank God.’ What I seen that day, I have never seen in my life. I was willing to sacrifice my body for that child.”
All the council members came from behind their large desk in the council chambers to greet Mims and thank her and the Clinton Police officers. The boy’s injuries are documented in Facebook posts.
This was the council’s regular quarterly work session, scheduled in addition to its first Monday of each month (except holidays) regular meeting. The next Clinton City Council meeting is March 4.
“That is an amazing testament to looking out for each other and the police department for having such quick work,” said Naomi Reed with SC Municipal Association who followed the police chief’s presentation.
A former Fountain Inn municipal official, Reed covers 15 counties and 91 municipalities representing the Municipal Association. Her presentation focused on the Council-Manager form of government used in Clinton and 34 cities in all in South Carolina. The Mayor-Council and the Council forms are the other two government forms governed by the state law commonly known as Home Rule (1975). She said Council-Manager dictates that the council handles policy and the manager handles administration.
The council hires the manager, the attorney, and the city judge; and Reed said sometimes council members ask her, “Is that all we do?”
“Policy setting is very important,” she said. “That lets the manager know the expectations; when that is not known, that’s when things get chaotic.”
Another important council function is approving the budget as recommended by the manager.
Meanwhile, the manager position has 3 pages of responsibilities as outlined in state statute.
“It is important for council members and the manager to understand state statutes … (also) goal setting sessions are critical,” Reed said.
She discussed the Statement of Economic Interest that municipal officials must file with the State Ethics Commission and ways that local governments can retain employees in light of hiring pressures from industries and business in a community.
The council also held a wide-ranging discussion about the Clinton Economic Development Corporation.
This comes as the council faces a critical vote at the March 4 meeting on an ordinance assigning properties to the CEDC for marketing and sale.
Mayor Pro-tem Ronnie Roth expressed concerns about the council “turning loose” of control of residential development land - saying all housing should come into the city as R1 zoning and if developers want it to be R3, high density, they should make that case directly to the council - and Council Members Anita Williams and Robbie Neal expressed interest in the proposal to sell a house on North Broad Street that once was the Clinton Museum.
“These decisions freeze the council out, and we need to be sure future councils have input in decisions,” Roth said about residential growth. “We have some concerns about what type of residential (comes into the city) going forward. We have plenty of patio homes. In Fountain Inn, they have patio homes and apartments everywhere and their population has doubled and they are building on to the high school. We need to make decisions on growth (like that) going forward.
“Let the CEDC run with what they’ve got. … If the CEDC is selling it, we don’t know who’s buying it.”
In a separate matter, council was told there are no deed restrictions that would prevent the sale of the former Clinton Museum building, which is between the Fire-Police Station and Broad Street United Methodist Church.
Because of handicapped accessibility and repair costs, the general view is this is not the best place for a general Clinton Museum, the council was told. The City also has a Textiles Museum in the ground floor of the MS Bailey Municipal Center, also on North Broad Street.
“I was on council when we tried to make it a museum,” Mayor Randall said. “A lot of money was spent trying to make the building useful, but it came up against a lot of roadblocks. We have the textile museum downstairs, we can expand that … but the Museum was rarely open. It’s been a tough thing trying to do something really good. For a few months, it ran well, but that’s been more than 10 years ago; it all started 20 years ago.”
The GoFundMe here.
