Road Maintenance Shenanigans

Lexington County Council Road maintenance “Shenanigans “

Yes, Lexington County council has decided after 46 years to not renew an agreement to maintain Roads in a city that has worked well, unless …. blah blah blah. Hidden in some county council members statement is the real reason for their actions but not out there where we all can understand, because it’s a “fast one“ they are trying to pull. By the way, has the constitution, declaration of independence, the Bible, been rewritten in the last 46 years? No.

So what’s wrong with the 1978 agreement, nothing really. But according to Lexington County Council statements in the February 28, 2024 WLTX Rachel Ripp article, Lexington County “ it can’t keep up with the cost of paying for this”. So is this a tax issue, the county council, who some will be up for re-election this year, don’t want to deal with ? Raising taxes before an election brings out opponents, and those anti-growth opponents have earned some power and lots of support. So how do you please a loud, vocal constituency and resolve this issue of cost escalating to maintain roads, without an accompanying escalation in revenue to pay for it? Especially when that constituency did not vote to approve the past Penny tax or the capital project sales tax. You blame it on someone else, shift the blame and the cost to others. Sounds brilliant, until the others say no. Then the other side of the story the county council members left out, comes out.

Being my past as a municipal elected official and knowing more of the story that some county council members are not being truthful about, I decided I would speak to some of those comments being made and finish their statement.

Will be addressing at least four articles and or posts I have read including the WLTX article, Lexington chronicle article and from a couple social media sites. Will be long and may be four separate articles here at any LINC publications that they run it in and will put more data about housing permit in Lexington County versus municipality, county millage rate for the years since 1978 and escalating cost of repaving road since last millage rate increases And other factors that show their explanations and statements don’t add up on a website sincetruthmatters.com. along with my articles.

But for now, let’s go back to the WLTX article comments made by Lexington County council members. It was stated in that article “unincorporated areas of Lexington County didn’t want to continue to be annexed into municipalities“. That may be true for a majority of residents and some areas, but I also know many resident who do want to be annexed into municipalities and get the added services that the municipalities offer. Not all municipalities are the same, offer the same services or can even annex in the first place without permission of the property owner. Another reason the old agreement worked and the new one doesn’t, it penalizes some municipalities for what the some county council members misbelieve is an issue with other municipalities. More about this issue and Swansea in another article. “She explains when property becomes annexed, the new agreement is a tool to help preserve the Lexington County ordinances“. Not sure what she is referring to, but if the property or subdivision is annexed Into a municipalities after it is developed, the road and the development density meet the county standard/ordinances when completed, then nothing about the property or development has changed, all is “preserved “, as was in the county or in a municipality. So why not continue to maintain the roads for those county residents?

If the land is zoned and undeveloped and the county denies the development, let’s say a subdivision out in the county and then the developer goes to the municipality adjoining that property and ask to be annexed so they can build and the property owner and the municipalities agree, then this is the “boom “that someone reacts to. Cause and effect, but we should expect better out of our elected officials, right? Well OK, maybe not, yes, we are all human. But reactions have to be countered by understanding of consequences of those actions. That did not happen, in my opinion, occur, before the decision by Lexington County council to not continue the 1978 agreement.

You’ve heard it said in the past to “follow the money“ and I will remind you throughout this debate “ it’s always about the money, it’s always about the power and if it isn’t, it’s about the power to control the money”.

According to the WLTX article it will be “up to these towns and cities to figure out how they take care of the roads“ in other words they can raise taxes to pay “for this” but not us.

So I will continue the next few weeks with articles about passing the “Tax buck “ on to others, the “ us versus them “ mentality that some county council members and the anti-growth mentality is creating in the county between incorporated and unincorporated residence of Lexington County, proper planning and higher density levels (building up or building out).

According to all data, census track prediction, people are moving to the south, to South Carolina and to Lexington County. Growth is coming, will come and this is not going to stop it.

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Well, it must be Election time here in Irmo again.

October 15, 2025

Yes, I got a campaign brochure in my newspaper box the other day, I guess there is a good reason to keep those things. And thank you Councilwoman Barbara Waldman for it — you have my vote. Some things have changed and some things stay the same. Years ago, when you first ran, and being a neighbor of an individual who I assumed talked to you into running for his benefit, I did not vote for you. But over the years of your service, especially after seeing you stand up to the “bully” attempting to pressure you into seconding some ridiculous item he had on the agenda — and you refused — my opinion of you changed. Since your election, and seeing you do what you truly believe is in Irmo’s best interest, you have gained my trust and therefore my vote. I won’t spend much time commenting on the other candidates — that will be their job to introduce themselves and attempt to convince you to vote for them. But I will mention two of them. One, Gabriel Penfield , who has my other vote, has worked hard during his years of service to the town — improving and making better the things that he could. He is a great council member, has a good heart, and is there to make Irmo better. I will write more about him later. The other candidate, whom I will also write more about later (not too positively, however), is the one I wrote about before — being deceitful about where he lived and not residing at the address he listed on his candidate form. If you remember, he claimed to live in a house in Rose Oak that he hadn’t lived in for a couple of years, and at that time was actually living outside the town of Irmo. Anyway you look at it, it was not honest — it was deceitful. And even if someone who evidently doesn’t know the difference between dishonesty and being truthful tried to claim it was a “minor clerical error,” we all know better. We aren’t ignorant as he believes we are — that’s why he was a one and done. We’ve got two great candidates who have proven they put Irmo first. I urge you to vote to reelect Councilwoman Barbara Waldman and Councilman Gabriel Penfield. Thank you for your consideration. — Hardy King

American Virtues – 2025 Commencement Address

September 23, 2025

The following is adapted from a speech delivered on May 10, 2025, at Hillsdale College’s 173rd Commencement Ceremony.

The Significance of the Recently Released Russia Hoax Documents

September 23, 2025

Within hours of her 2016 presidential campaign loss, a devastated Hillary Clinton attributed her defeat not to the American voters who rejected her, but to Russia, echoing a campaign theme she had been developing for months. “Hillary declined to take responsibility for her own loss” and “kept pointing her finger” at Russia, according to Shattered, a 2017 book about her campaign—“Her team coalesced around the idea that Russian hacking was the major unreported story of the campaign.”