Residents urge street acceptance, raise flooding and police-equipment concerns at Easley council meeting

Multiple residents addressed the Easly City Council during the public-comment portion of the Jan. 22 meeting, pressing the council on neighborhood street acceptance, flooding and cost questions about police data equipment.

Sherry Pauley, speaking for Northview Subdivision, asked the council to adopt Resolution 20-25-19 and accept the subdivision’s streets into the city road network. She said the subdivision represents about 500 registered voters, roughly 200 single-family homes and 86 townhomes and that residents had worked for a year to prepare streets for acceptance.

Vanessa Giles criticized a prior council vote to deny rezoning of a property she said has a history of flooding and contended that the council had "failed these citizens" by not pursuing additional information or cost-sharing with the developer. She said growth has increased since 2017 and warned that larger projects (she named a proposed $3 billion data center in Spartanburg) could increase local development pressure.

Rick Tate thanked first responders and raised questions about police data systems. He said it was his understanding that the county provides equipment and access to certain police-data services at no cost and asked why the city would pay to buy its own system. "On the surface, it would seem like, why would you pay for something you're getting free?" he asked, urging prudence with taxpayer money.

The council subsequently approved Resolution 20-25-19 to accept certain roads from Olive Street LLC into the city network. No roll-call tally was recorded in the transcript; the presiding official stated the motion carried with no opposition.