Eleven days after Hurricane Helene ravaged Clinton, the City Council met in a fully lighted MS Bailey Municipal Building for its regular first Monday of the month council meeting.
Everyone said “thank you” to city employees and the outside crews that got 85% of the city’s power restored inside of three days.
Scott Williams of the Lydia Mill Church of God offered the prayer, at the behest of Council Member Anita Williams at the Oct. 7 meeting.
“This is one of the greats crises I’ve seen since I have been here,” Williams said of the hurricane devastation. “Tonight, we say thank you. We constantly pray for our city. We will rebuild, and I pray we will come back stronger.”
Mayor Randy Randall said the agenda was assembled quickly, and was light on action items, because council wasn’t sure it would be able to have a meeting. One thing left off was citizens addressing council, and the council amended the agenda to allow that comments time.
Council heard from citizens about Lydia Mill concerns and from Thomas Vance, owner of the building housing Kingdom Builders that was destroyed in the Aug. 27 fire on Musgrove Street.
“I just want to get as much information as I can get about how the city will build back, and how I can be a partner in that,” Vance said, after explaining Kingdom Builders’ role as a museum and community enhancement venue.
Council and the audience provided a standing ovation for retiring Clinton Police Chief Sonny Ledda, who delivered what he called “a message of gratitude.”
“I am a humble man,” Ledda said of the ability to be involved in local law enforcement for 18 years locally and 25 years total law enforcement experience. Ledda has become Laurens County’s emergency management director in his post-retirement career.
Ledda said he is most proud of the fact that in 25 years, he has never had a complaint filed against him for unlawful use of force or violating someone’s civil right. “That is a legacy I hope I leave with the Clinton Police Department,” he said. “I want to thank Almighty God, for 25 years and almost 60 years, I would not be where I am today without His Grace.”
Ledda said the City of Clinton “took a chance on me” in April, 1999, when he was hired. “Godspeed to the City of Clinton,” he said.
Mayor Randall said the City has been unable to schedule a “ceremonial retirement” for Chief Ledda - “fire and a hurricane disrupted services here; we are glad we will have you still in the county - we’re going to need you here - we seem to be drawing some emergencies here.”
Discussing Hurricane Helene, and the ongoing response, Mayor Randall said, “We’ve had an interesting month in the Clinton. I have been here 52 years and this is my first hurricane in Clinton, and the biggest fire I’ve seen. We just want to take a moment to say, ‘Thank You.’ Our employees under the leadership of Tom Brooks have performed in a historic way. That’s not just my observation but observations of people from all over the state. And it’s all our folks - people you don’t ever think about going door to door finding people - feeding people, cleaning up; you name it, it has been done.”
Randall issued a special thanks to Gov. Henry McMaster, State Senator Danny Verdin and State Rep. Doug Gilliam, and the city’s public power partners.
“Your power comes back on. Your power is reliable,” he said.
“The National Guard rolled in with giant generator to make sure the water was pumping and was running. You can do without power and natural gas for a while; but when you don’t have water, things get primitive real quick. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
The City has 4,200 electrical customers and all of them lost power after 5 a.m. on Sept. 27 as substations went down - 50% were restored within 2 days and 99% were restored as of last Monday. The remainder were individual property owners that needed specific attention. Many utility employees worked 16 days straight; council was told that a 4-man crew from Tennessee hopped on severely damaged Lydia Mill and had the community back up in a day, after they finally got here through heavily flooded Western North Carolina.
These are council members’ observations:
“We are a Community of One.” - Danny Cook
“The Police had something to deal with at QT - people were lined up all the way to Clinton High School looking for gas.” City staff should arrange a meeting with FEMA here in Clinton, to explain what the city can do and the city cannot do, so the citizens can get the real information. Citizens need to know about their utility payments, they are concerned about that - people have been very gracious, people helping each other, overwhelmed with the love and compassion citizens have shown to one another. “We need to be well-prepared. We are looking at another storm (Milton) possibly coming through here. I experienced Hugo in Winston Salem, so I’m familiar with seeing the area torn up.” - Anita Williams
“Thank God for showing his face over South Carolina. People don’t realize what they can do to help each other until a tragedy happens. I saw Tom Brooks with a hard hat riding with his crews - what other city manager does that?” Citizens were feeding kids, churches came together, and people at the parks were feeding each other. - Robbie Neal
“We were near Ingles and a line of utility trucks was coming in” and it was like what you see in World War II movies when a line of tanks is coming into a town bringing freedom, there were people celebrating - “I felt like doing that. I remember our great leaders and we wonder where are they are going to come from? We’ve still got them. We need to take what we have learned and carry it on. Learn from it. These storms are going to come into our lives, but we need to have the Spirit of God in them.” - Gary Kuykendall
“I’ve always said Clinton has got the best employees; 30 years ago a state senator told me Clinton is one of the best cities, the way it is run, the leadership and employees. This a strong community and we have proven that. Very few communities have had the kind of adversity we have had. Tom Brooks has done a tremendous job of leadership, and his staff is second to none. We are a strong nation, you saw that with so many utility companies pouring into here. That’s what makes our nation so strong, and we owe this all to our God. We’ve got a lot to do. We had some good plans that got interrupted, but these will be back on pretty quick. We have a lot on track about the city that is positive for us.” - Ronnie Roth
“I hope my brevity is not misinterpreted - our staff has worked tirelessly for 16 days now … stagger the vacations and take some time off. Most humans are much more good than they are negative. I, personally, have done nothing — thank you for all you have done.” - Megan Walsh
For his part, Brooks said “the list goes on and on and on of people I would like to thank” and expressed appreciation to Clinton’s public power partners — “Steve Bagwell, in Rock Hill, asking, ‘Do you need more people?’”
He said Clinton has signed a contract with the SC Department of Transportation to remove trees and yard debris, if the City and its residents can get the debris to the side of streets and roads. This might have to be done with the help of contractors, since there are legal issues with public work on private land - “We will work it out.”
In particular, Brooks thanked Carolina Concrete. “Michael Addison got on that front-end loader when the winds started and kept the streets clear. They donated that” essential equipment.
