Palmetto warehouse to cost city $5.7 million
City Council voted to issue bonds to buy the Palmetto Compress warehouse Tuesday.
The purchase will cost the city $5.65 million, Mayor Steve Benjamin said, according to Free Times’ Eva Moore, who reported the news via Twitter.
The vote follows a week after City Council voted to buy the historic building, which has been a source of controversy in city politics lately.
First, an Ohio developer wanted to build a student housing complex on the site, but those plans were nixed. Later, the building’s owners said its maintenance had gotten too pricey, so they, too, planned to demolish it.
—Thad Moore, News Editor
Cold snap might mean lost money for farmers
Thought walking to class in the cold this morning was miserable? Try growing strawberries in it.
The owners of Cottle Strawberry Farms have been dealing with the issue all week, and while they don’t expect their berries’ quality to suffer, they do think they’ll make less money this year because they won’t have as much time to pick them, The State reported.
Throw in the wind, and farmers have to work long hours to protect the fields.
The state Department of Agriculture hasn’t gotten any reports of major freeze damages.
“This has been a different winter,” farm owner Joy Cottle told the newspaper. “It’s nail-biting time for all farmers.”
—Thad Moore, News Editor
Number of state employees drops as population grows
Since 2000, the size of state government’s payroll has been dwindling.
The number of state employees has fallen 15 percent over the last 13 years, The State reported. That’s a drop to 66,303 workers in the 2012-13 fiscal year, down from 77,782 in 1999-2000.
Over the same period, South Carolina’s population has grown by 18 percent, and critics are charging the state with making its employees do more work without getting more pay.
In four of the last five years, including this year, most state employees won’t get a raise, according to The State.
—Thad Moore, News Editor