Present: Mayor Henry Fields Jr., Mayor Pro-tem Lloyd Tootie Griffith, Council Members Adam Major, Frank McClure, Henry Tuten, Ronald Williams and Nat Shaffer. Also Clerk/Treasurer Christine Parker, Police Chief Tyrone Smith, Fire Chief Dobie Hiers, Town Attorney Kevin Brown, Public Works Director Bobby Edwards and Clerk Nancy Loadholt.

Visitors: Brenda Willis, Alexander Campbell, Kathleen Myers, Rick Jessup of Leary Construction Co.Inc., Daryl Williams and J.W. Alls.

Meeting called to order at 7:00 pm. Pledge of Allegiance. Invocation was done by Tootie. Mayor Fields thanked everyone for coming and hoped to see more citizens attending the meetings in the coming year. Mayor Fields stated, "We had a very good year last year and hoping for even a better one this year."

Mayor Fields recognized Mr. Rick Jessup from Leary Construction Company. Rick said Regie had called him about inspection of the water tanks. Rick explained he had inspected a water tank last April for the town. He stated his crew actually enters the tank to inspect and power wash and drain it. Other companies may use robots. His price for the 75,000 gallon tank is $2,450.00 and $2,750 for the 200,000 gallon tank. DHEC stated we must have this done within a year from their last inspection. Mayor Fields mentioned the Town has other quotes but they would only inspect. Henry Tuten questioned if they were approved to do this work by DHEC. Rick assured the Council he was qualified. Motion made by Frank and Nat seconded. All in favor.

Mayor Fields recognized Bryan O'Hara with Chaos and Speed. Bryan presented the Council with a proposal as requested in order to be considered for a CDBG loan. Bryan explained he does repairs on Motorcycles now, but with the loan he could purchase parts and accessories to sell in the shop and have an inventory. It would create two full time jobs and one part-time. Ronald asked for a specific amount and Bryan said $49,230.00. Motion made by Frank to get one representative from each of our three financial institutions to form a committee to consider it and make their recommendation to us. Tootie seconded. All in favor. Mayor Fields appointed Nat and Ronald to be on the committee. Nat gladly accepted but explained the Council will be the ones to make the final decision after the committee submits the results.

Mayor Fields introduced Nancy Loadholt as a new administrative employee for the Town of Varnville. He also stated Irvin James had been hired to work for the Street and Sanitation department.

Daryl Williams and J.W. Alls of The Martin Luther King Jr. committee stated they were having a calendar event January 17^th at 3:00p.m starting on Pine Street. Pastor Tommy Kelly will be the Marshall of the parade and Patricia Brantley will be the Grand Marshall. Their organization has given 46 scholarships in the county. They do lots of work with youth. We all need to come together as a town and for the youth. Their motto is TEAM WORK WILL MAKE A DREAM WORK.

Minutes: There was a correction to the December 7, 2009 minutes. Kevin said the minutes stated the Council voted not to re-zone Ed Simmons property from residential to general commercial. This was incorrectly stated. Frank said the minutes should have stated due to "lack of action." Kevin said just say no action was taken. Motion by Frank and seconded by Nat. All in favor.

Financial Report: Clerk presented the financial reports. "Please focus on the statement titled Profit and Loss dated July 2009 through December 2009. As you review this please remember some items are one time payments which were due before the end of December." Several items were pointed out. Adam questioned when we would receive monies from the County for taxes? Clerk stated we receive usually a month behind. Mayor Fields stated to the Council that Ms. Parker has been a big asset to the Town of Varnville since she has been here and has been a big help to him and I know she has been helpful to the Council. "I have enjoyed working with her and I just hope the relationship will continue. She has done and is still doing a great job. We really appreciate it."

Police Report: Chief Smith reported 32 calls in the past month. He had ll arrests. One arrest of a peeping tom resulted in one officer injuring his elbow. He went to the emergency room and was given the night off and he returned to work the following day. Chief Smith asked to go into executive session later to discuss a personnel matter. Mayor Fields thanked Tyrone for doing a great job and keeping him informed.

Public Works: Director of Public Works, Bobby Edwards reported he's working with Jason with Infinity about the water meters readings. Jason will call back by the end of the week. Bobby is doing everything possible to get our new system working correctly and hopefully by the end of March problems will be eliminated. The biggest problem is some meters have water in them and we should have a plastic top for the meters instead of cast iron. There was a general discussion of replacing meter tops and raising them out of the ground. Nat mentioned he remembered the sales pitch that none of this would happen. Bobby said this is a new reader than they had before. We have to get more serial identification numbers in the computer. Bobby told the Council he had bids on a sewer pump for the lift station. It was also mentioned the time clock outside was broken and needs to be replaced. Bobby had prices on a time clock which would require each employee to have a badge and instead of clocking in and out, just swipe the card. Mayor Fields said we could use the time clock inside the Town Hall. Frank liked the idea of having a badge and said let's look at this and get more information. Bobby brought to the Council's attention that we must do something about the issue with the 911 addresses. Nat said we have discussed this before and we have an ordinance about this matter. Give it to the chief and issue a citation. General discussion by Council on this matter. After a lot of discussion Frank stated we have already agreed on the 30 days and then they will get a citation. Starting March 2010 anyone without a 911 address posted in a place not visible from the street will be issued a citation.

Fire Department: Chief Hiers said they had 20 calls in December. 10 in town and 10 out of town.

6 Structures, 2 alarms, 4 car accidents, 3 canceled calls, 3 landing zone setups and 2 – lst responder calls.

Frank asked about the canceled calls on Dobie's report. He reported that this would be calls from Hampton and then canceled. Dobie thanked the Town for what they have done for the firemen in the past year and mentioned the new bunker gear lifted the morale of the firemen. Mayor Fields thanked the fire department for the excellent job they do.

Old Business: Discussion of the land donation. Kevin Brown reported to the Council about the land from an environmental aspect. There is stuff piled and buried out there. We would have the liability. Nat said I think Kevin is giving you his legal advice and I think there is value in everything. I feel we should take the land and turn around and sell it. Use the money to beautify the town. Henry said he didn't think there was anything buried there which would be an environmental problem. Motion made by Henry Tuten to accept the land. Seconded by Nat. All in favor. Matter turned over to Kevin Brown to process the paperwork.

Mayor Fields said next venue of business is the sale of the police car. General discussion. Put sign on car and park out front. If not sold by April Council meeting, a decision will be made as to disposing of the car.

Individual Report: Frank stated we haven't updated the codes for 15 years. I move we make this the 1^st reading to adopt the updated code of ordinance book and the 2^nd reading in the next meeting to give you a month's time to review. If there are any questions or corrections we will discuss at next meeting. Basically the new code's updates a lot of stuff by reference to the old code. In the old code for example, the maximum fine was $200.00 and now it's $500.00. Replaces all ordinances through September 6^th of 2009. Seconded by Henry Tuten. All in favor.

Frank made the motion to accept the Auditor's report for the fiscal year 2008-2009 and Nat seconded.  All in favor.

Henry Tuten wishes everyone a Happy New Year.

Tootie stated we made it through 2009 and look forward to another good year in 2010. "I really like the motto, The Team Work Will Make The Dream Work. I think someone did some heavy thinking in that and I look forward to working with everyone and wish everyone a Happy New Year."

The Boy Scouts of America will celebrate their centennial February 8, 2010. Formed in 1921. Mayor Fields read a proclamation from The Coastal Carolina Boy Scouts of America. Motion made by Tootie and seconded by Nat to make February 8, 2010 as the Boy Scouts of America Centennial celebration day in the Town of Varnville. All in favor.

Executive Session: Mayor Fields said Officer Smith made a request to go into executive session to discuss a personnel matter. Motion made by Adam and seconded by Tootie. A motion made by Nat to come out of the executive session meeting. The meeting was reopened. Mayor Fields stated we went in to discuss one of our policemen and it was recommended Jamie Singleton be terminated. Ronald Williams stated let it be known that I abstain from the voting of the firing of the police officer.

Mayor Fields stated at this time we need to reappoint Ms. Parker/Clerk Treasurer, Kevin Brown/Town Attorney and Tyrone Smith/Police Chief. Motion made by Henry Tuten and seconded by Tootie.

Meeting Adjourned.