Town board welcomes Weller, says goodbye to Hehn
The Highlands Board of Commissioners underwent a slight changing of the guard on Thursday night as newly-elected Jeff Weller took his spot on the dais in place of departing commissioner Marc Hehn.
Mayor Patrick Taylor recognized Hehn’s four years of service to the board and presented him with a plaque to commemorate his dedication to the town.
“Anyone who is willing to step up and commit to running for election, and then get elected, is someone that clearly loves the Town of Highlands,” Taylor said. “Marc and I didn’t always see eye to eye on every topic, but we were able to work together and take steps to move Highlands forward. We all appreciate all that Marc has done over the last four years.”
Hehn, who chose not to seek re-election in November, said that he is going to continue his work advocating for workforce housing especially as it relates to professionals in the medical field at Highlands-Cashiers Hospital.
“Housing for our hospital staff is something I was focuses on when I was elected and it’s still an urgent need,” Hehn said. “Our hospital is vitally important to the community and we need medical providers now more than ever.”
Hehn also took time to thank the Town of Highlands employees for their hard work during his tenure.
“In my professional career I ran the biggest sewer and water utility in the state of South Carolina, and I know how hard it is to work for a municipality,” Hehn said. “What our staff here in Highlands get accomplished, with what they have to work with, is incredible.”
After Hehn stepped down from the board table, Weller, and commissioners Brian Steihler and John ‘Buz’ Dotson, who were both reelected in November, took their oaths of office in front of Macon County Clerk of Court Shawna Lamb.
String lighting banned
Prior to the swearing in ceremony, the board conducted a public hearing regarding exterior string lighting in the business district.
Town planner Michael Mathis presented an amendment to the town’s Unified Development Ordinance that would ban exterior string lighting. Mathis noted that the planning board had approved the changes to the UDO and his staff recommendation was also to approve the changes.
Only one member of the public spoke during the public hearing. Jim Lewicki asked the town leave the string lights in place at the businesses that already have them.
“I just served on a grand jury, was stuck on it for a year and a half, and the amount of crackheads and bad people we dealt with was alarming,” Lewicki said. “I deliver the newspaper between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. and I am always looking over my shoulder. Bad people like dark places and I don’t think we should be creating more dark places.”
Commissioner Dotson asked police chief Andrea Holland how many calls the department receives each year regarding people lurking in dark areas around the business district. Holland noted that there are calls where prowlers and other loiterers are reported, but those calls amount to “two or three a month, maybe.”
“A lot of times those calls end up being people walking home, or back to wherever they are staying, from one of the bars in town that are open late,” Holland said. “We have had people end up on the wrong porch, or at the wrong building, but it’s not something that is a widespread problem.”
The board voted unanimously to approve the UDO changes prohibiting string lighting in the commercial district.
Town attorney Bob Hagemann then informed the board that the current lights could be eliminated without amortization, since the use of string lights does not affect the use of the property. The board voted 4-1 to have the current string lights removed by Jan. 15, with Hehn being the dissenting vote.
Swimming pool donation
Town Manager Josh Ward presented a budget amendment to the board to cover the cost of replacing the swimming pool heater at the Highlands Recreation Center.
According to Ward, the heating unit went down last month and made the pool unusable for water aerobics and other activities. Avid swimmers Art and Angela Williams, owners of Old Edwards Hospitality Group, approached the town with a $30,000 donation to help replace the heating unit.
“The Williams’ have been very generous in making this donation and it allowed us not only to replace the broken heater, but to replace it with a better system,” Ward said. “The new system will have two heating units, rather than one large one, so if one goes out the other can pick up the slack. We tested it, and one of the smaller units can keep the pool at 82 degrees, which is the temperature it needs to be at for the water fitness classes to continue.”
The budget amendment Ward presented was to accept the Williams’ donation, and appropriate $9,000 from the maintenance budget to cover the total cost of $39,000 for the new heating system. The motion to approve passed unanimously.