CEDC commits funds to paving plan

The Clarendon Economic Development Corporation (CEDC) Board agreed to commit $20,000 per year to the city’s Master Paving Plan during a called meeting Tuesday.

The figure represents approximately ten percent of the cost of the bond payments the city would face if local voters approve the $2.5 million in Certificates of Obligation necessary to implement the plan when they go to the polls September 13.

“We’ve all heard the complaints about the streets,” said CEDC Vice President Will Thompson. “We’ve heard it from locals, and we’ve heard it from visitors who say, ‘You have a nice town, but…’”

Thompson said that the CEDC vote doesn’t take any money away from the city budget and that the money, which is funded by the CEDC’s half-cent sales tax, will only add to the city’s ability to fund the project.

“Regardless of how the city vote turns out, we think it [the street paving] is important,” he said. “It will make the city look more attractive and will encourage visitors to see more of our city and its historic homes. Anything we can do to pull more people off the highway is positive.”

The CEDC decision represented the first step in what board members see as a move away from helping individual businesses to doing more community development projects to benefit everyone.

“We felt like it would make more sense if we could benefit all rather than a few,” Thompson said. “We think that’s the best way to spend the taxpayer’s money.”

Officials at City Hall reacted positively to Tuesday’s decision, saying the CEDC’s use of sales tax revenue to support the project would ease the burden on local taxpayers.

“It will represent a savings to the citizens of Clarendon,” said City Administrator Sean Pate. “If we didn’t have this help, then taxes and sewer and water rates would have to go up more.”

Pate said without the CEDC funding, ad valorem rates, for example, would have to go up 18 cents per $100 valuation instead of the proposed 15 cents. He also said the use of sales tax helps spread the load for funding the paving project.

“Everybody is going to help pay for this – property owners, renters, and even people from out of town who shop our stores,” he said.

Pate said even though some areas of the city would not be paved under the program, future growth and economic development of the city as a whole depends on the success of the paving program and on community support.

“The big picture is the streets are a building block for the future success of this municipality,” he said. “The streets now are a detriment to our community.”

“Everything to come is based on the foundation which is the street program,” Pate said. “It goes to the attractiveness and the overall appeal of our town. It takes every part and everybody working together.”