Clinton City Council reworked its agenda Monday evening to bring a city manager’s report about the Aug. 27 fire that destroyed four Uptown buildings to the forefront, prior to an executive session.
City Manager Tom Brooks made comments, then introduced Fire Chief Jeremy Marshall and Main Street Director Jim Spry for additional information. All — along with each member of the city council - expressed appreciation for the firefighters, first responders and volunteers who responded, many from outside Clinton.
Marshall said estimates are that 1.5 Million gallons of water were pumped onto the fully involved blaze at the House of Pizza, and in an all-through-the-night effort to deal with hot-spots. The City of Clinton’s water treatment plant was pumping 1,000 gallons per minute, and tanker trucks from Clinton and surrounding areas were being quickly drained of their water.
No one died and there were no life-threatening injuries. Full recovery, however, may take years.
Spry said, as one part of the recovery, local musicians have volunteered their time and talents for a Rock 4 The Block, noon to 8 p.m., fund- and awareness-raiser on Sunday, September 22, at The Depot.
Council Member Danny Cook started the meeting with a moment of silence for the affected business owners and employees, and for the Nation at the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11/01 attacks on America.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how many volunteers we had that night; retired firefighters coming through,” Marshall said of the Aug. 27 inferno. “When something like that happens, people you don’t expect show up; 87 was where my (firefighters) number stopped, not including volunteers. We had four ladder trucks on the scene that night, and the staff stayed there all night, until 9 - 10 the next morning for some flare-ups.”
Mayor Randy Randall has been in touch with Gov. Henry McMaster, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, and the Laurens County Legislative Delegation in search of funds to finance the clearing and cleaning of Musgrove Street.
Randall said, “Our whole city performed so well. Everybody was working. We were in Newberry at a meeting and we hustled back. I had calls from Goose Creek, Bishopville, from the mayors there. The mayor of Fountain Inn shows up with Gatorade and water. We had so many calls asking, ‘What we can do?’. It starts right here with all the folks, people were running up, folks were saying, ‘I just ordered 100 hamburgers at McDonalds’; everybody pitched in to do everything they could. Mayors get to talk on TV a lot; and I tell folks all the time, our folks are just unbelievable.”
In other business, the closed session for council was to discuss the Catawba Nuclear Plant contract with the PMPA (Piedmont Municipal Power Agency), the city’s electrical supplier, and no action was taken.
Council heard about a community business expo coming up Nov. 2 at Dance South, between Clinton and Joanna; approved a resolution appropriating $2,500 as a match for a potential hometown economic development grant of $25,000 to develop a pocket park on North Broad Street; adopted an ordinance waiving an electrical fee for customers in the core business/historic district of Uptown Clinton, to encourage economic development; authorized a bid award for water lines along East Main Street for Clinton Commons and looping the water system with Springdale Drive; and annexed a lot on Jacobs Highway.
Council members’ comments rounded out the meeting, and again the councilmen and women praised the efforts of first responders and the Greater Clinton Community. Mayor Pro-tem Ronnie Roth, himself the owner of a long-time, family Uptown Clinton business, said about the fire, “We have a lot of assets and we got those assets in there. Tankers were going all night long. They had a chain set up on the tankers bringing the water in; that was refreshing the water by bringing those tankers in there. This is what makes a small community so great. We can come together. Going forward, we’re going to stick this out, together.”
