Eye on Beaufort

Beaufort Mayor Billy Keyserling is practicing his pucker with the American Diabetes Association’s Kiss a Pig Campaign finish line less than a week away.

Keyserling is closing in on his 40-pound weight loss goal and has racked up more than $460 in contributions per pound lost. But some last-minute inspiration from Disney’s classic character, Mickey Mouse, could have contributors digging a little deeper in their pockets.

Gullah Festival organizers concerned about tour ships docking at the
waterfront seawall inside the event's gates need not worry — no such ships
are scheduled to visit Beaufort this weekend, said Beaufort Parks
Superintendent Liza Hill.

City Council members and Gullah Festival vice president Charlotte Brown
spent a chunk of the May 12 council meeting hashing out ways they could
prevent ships from letting tourists into the festival for free.

Council members said at a Tuesday workshop that in the future, they will
avoid last-minute stress by ironing out festival issues long before the
event.

The Ridgeland Police Department will soon replace the videotape recording equipment in its patrol cars with digital cameras.

The Ridgeland Town Council authorized $60,000 Thursday to outfit nine of its 18 patrol cars with digital cameras, said town manager Jason Taylor. The funds will come from money seized from drug traffickers.

Town officials decided to upgrade because it has been too difficult to find VHS tapes, Taylor said.

“We never had any reason to switch until (VHS) became completely obsolete,” he said.

The Beaufort Redevelopment Commission is going to ask business owners along Boundary Street if they are willing to chip in so plans to revamp the gateway into town can proceed.

Right now, the city is $3 million short for a $25 million plan that would include a median, bike lanes, a pedestrian walkway, other streetscape improvements and a roundabout at Ribaut Road.

Redevelopment Commission members decided Thursday to research an additional tax on commercial property along that road and created a subcommittee to survey business owners.

Former Beaufort Mayor Bill Rauch feels selling lots in the proposed Southside Park to raise money for its development would be breaking a promise to Mossy Oaks voters and that other ways exist to raise capital. He sent his thoughts on the park situation in a letter to the Beaufort Gazette:

Before the Beaufort City Council starts counting the money from the lot sales at Southside Park they would do well to consider the costs.

Billy Keyserling has been working out at the YMCA gym every morning, not only for his health but for cash.

Beaufort’s mayor is competing in a diabetes fundraiser competition and is soliciting donors to pledge money per pound he loses.

The Kiss-a-Pig campaign is an American Diabetes Association fundraising competition. Keyserling will be competing against other community leaders from Georgia counties and he’s Beaufort County’s first contestant. The campaign ends May 25.

The Lowcountry Council of Governments drew closer Wednesday to implementing a transfer of development rights program for the Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort.

The South Carolina Military Base Task Force awarded the Joint Land Use Study Implementation Committee $250,000 for the TDR “bank,” which would help transactions between the land owners selling the development rights and the developers who would buy the rights to build with more density elsewhere.

Those “additional revenue sources” the Beaufort Redevelopment Commission seeks to finish the Boundary Street Construction project could come from the $787 billion federal stimulus bill that Pres. Barack Obama plans to sign Tuesday.

Some Beaufort residents want permission to put bigger sheds on their property. The city allows outbuildings up to 120 square feet, but the Zoning Board of Appeals has been getting more and more applications for bigger sheds.

Planning director Libby Anderson suggested at a Beaufort City Council meeting Tuesday that the city change its rules to allow sheds with square footage as large as 3 percent of the property they are on.

“(The Zoning Board’s) thinking was large lot, large shed; small lot, small shed,” she said.

Revenue shortfalls have forced local governments to look at drastic cost-saving measures, and “consolidation” may be the name of the game as the City of Beaufort tries to keep their budget out of the red. Just last week, Beafort city manager Scott Dadson asked the city council to prioritize city services and decide which ones could be eliminated, outsourced or consolidated.