News

Residents and visitors to Batesburg-Leesville are in for a celestial treat on Monday, August 21st. For for the the first time in nearly 100 years, a total solar eclipse will pass over our region. The Town is working with the Batesburg-Leesville Branch of Lexington County Library for a viewing party. We are still working on the details, but check out the save the date flyer below. We hope you make plans to join us for this historic event. 

The Town would like to invite everyone to the annual National Night Out event at Leesville College Park on Tuesday, August 1st from 5pm to 8pm. The event is co-hosted with Lexington County Sheriff's Department. There will be tons of activities, food, and fun. Hope to see you there. 

Click here for tonight's presentation. 

Town staff will be conducting Hospitality Tax Information Sessions on Monday and Tuesday (June 26th & 27th) starting at 6pm in Council Chambers (120 W. Church Street, Suite B). These sessions are designed to provide more detailed information regarding the H-Tax, how it can be used, and early plans for its use in Batesburg-Leesville. The sessions will begin at 6pm with a presentation by staff with questions to follow. Town Council members may be present, but these events are not designed to be official Council Meetings, nor will any action be taken even if a quorum is present. Monday night's presentation is geared towards the businesses that will be impacted, whereas, Tuesday's session is for the general public. 

Hope you can join us. 

Town Council was informed Monday night that Advanced Disposal will be increasing its garbage and recycling collection rates beginning July 1^st. The current rate of $9.37 per household will increase to $9.71 per month, according to the information provided to Council.

“We are implementing a 3.6% increase in conjunction with the BLS CPI figures for 2016,” wrote Hardee Horne, Municipal Marketing and Governmental Affairs Manager for Advanced Disposal, in a letter to the Town. This increase is the first increase in more than three years.

“This is a trend we are seeing with many of our service providers; prices for goods and services are going up across the board,” remarked Ted Luckadoo, Town Manager. “We have always directly passed the cost of this service to the customer, and in July, residents and businesses with Town garbage service will see the 34 cent increase in their bill.”

Advanced Disposal became the Town’s garbage and recycling service provider in 2013 when it bought out Southland Sanitation. The Town’s current contract expires June 30, 2018.

Town Council met Monday evening in a special work session to discuss the continued development of the Town’s Strategic Plan, the budget, and to receive information by staff regarding the development and implementation of a Local Hospitality Tax. The hospitality tax presentation was requested by Council in January to determine the feasibility and utilization of a local hospitality tax program.

The information presented to Council for consideration included the law, its intended uses, and potential impact on the Town. A local hospitality tax is an optional 2% sales tax added to prepared food and beverages only and is designed to provide revenue for projects related to tourism, revitalization and growth.

If the hospitality tax is adopted, for example a meal purchased within the Town costing $10.00 will include an additional charge of 20 cents. However, families and individuals that purchase unprepared food from grocery stores, food meant to be cooked at home, will not experience the new charge.

According to state law, municipalities may impose up to a 2% local hospitality tax on prepared food and beverages whose revenue must be used exclusively for tourism-related facilities, infrastructure, advertisement/promotions, and other tourism-related activities. Nearly half of all municipalities in South Carolina currently collect a local hospitality tax with Batesburg-Leesville being one of the largest remaining that does not.

In addition, Council was informed that a local hospitality tax is projected generate more than $400,000 annually in revenue. Potential projects mentioned in the presentation included new Town entrance signs, new Christmas lights, park improvements, façade improvement grants, and the development of a Hospitality Tax Master Plan.

The general sense of Council was optimism about the ability of the local hospitality tax to revitalize and grow the community without placing that burden solely on the backs of town property taxpayers. Since a local hospitality tax is paid by everyone who consumes prepared food and beverages, visitors and tourists will share in the maintaining and repairing of Town infrastructure and facilities that they also enjoy.

Council intends to hold a series of community information meetings to further discuss the local hospitality tax and its utilization. These information sessions are expected to be held throughout the summer at various locations and times to be announced.

The Town of Batesburg-Leesville presents this year’s Water Quality Report for 2016. Our goal is and always has been, to provide to you a safe and dependable supply of drinking water. As noted in the report no violations were found. Readers can access the full report here. 

Water customers in the Harbour Watch area may find a copy of their water quality report here. 

The Town of Batesburg-Leesville recently installed new recycling cans in the Batesburg and Leesville Historic Districts. Funded by a grant from PalmettoPride, these cans are helping make it easier for residents, businesses and guests to recycle first.

“We started a recycling push two years ago in our parks and at Town Hall,” said Ted Luckadoo, Town Manager. “We’ve seen great success from those efforts, and now we are taking it to a new level.”

The bright blue containers are intended for aluminum cans, paper, plastic bottles, and glass. Crews from the Town’s Street Department will maintain the containers with Advanced Disposal handling the recycling.

“Recycling is a win-win for everyone,” stated Mayor Rita Crapps. “It helps keep our community clean; it’s great for the environment, and for protecting resources for future generations.”  

The Town is planning a community-wide clean-up event as part of its grant commitment from PalmettoPride. Over the last two years, the Town has received nearly $10,000 for recycling efforts throughout Town.

Town Council will be meeting Monday night to conduct regular business starting at 7pm in Council Chambers (120 W. Church St., Suite B). Afterwards, Council will meet in a special work session to begin discussing the 2017-2018 Town Budget. Council does not intend to take a vote on the budget during the work session. The evenings agenda is below. 

The Batesburg-Leesville Police Department’s phone system will be getting an upgrade this week that will leave all administrative lines down for about an hour. The switch is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, April 19^th at 11:00pm. All administrative lines, including the main line, 803-532-4408, will be down during this transition. There is no anticipated outage with the department’s 9-1-1 system, since it runs on a completely different system. 

“We are excited to have this last update scheduled and ready for transition,” said Chief Wallace Oswald. The new IPFLEX backbone is an all fiber optic connection that will enhance the department’s phone systems in a way not possible before. The Police Department has been running on a system that’s more than 20 years old, finding qualified technicians and parts to maintain the system has been difficult.

This is the department’s final scheduled upgrade to complete its transition to the new IPFLEX system provided by AT&T.