Tega Cay council reviews four‑year capital improvement plan; fire chief requests architectural funds for station expansion

Tega Cay's City Council held a workshop March 31 to review department requests in a draft four‑year capital improvement plan. Department heads outlined needs across fire, police, public works, parks and utilities and answered council questions; no votes were taken during the workshop portion.

Fire Chief Hasty asked council to fund architectural drawings to expand Fire Station 1 at 1195 Stonecrest, saying the department needs additional training and sleeping space after call volume rose sharply. "Our call volume has increased by 215% since I've been here," he said, and added that constrained classroom space and training geometry make in‑house recruit training difficult. Chief Hasty said architectural plans would give the city a concrete scope to pursue grants and better cost estimates; staff used a placeholder of about $280,000 for design and a worst‑case retrofit estimate of about $2.8 million for budgeting purposes.

Police Chief Brian Crosby described routine vehicle replacement needs (three to four patrol cars annually) and higher upfitting costs. He asked the council to pursue a state grant for a new records/CAD system and requested a victim advocate position—proposed as a sworn officer embedded in investigations—to provide on‑scene crisis intervention, court accompaniment and follow up for victims. Chief Crosby said a victim advocate improves services and can increase prosecution rates; he provided four‑year victim contact counts to support the request.

Public works highlighted fleet and equipment replacement, including a broken leaf‑collection vehicle, seasonal constraints on parts availability and a long‑term request for a street sweeper (around $275,000) that may require a short‑term capital lease. Development services described reliance on a third‑party building inspection contractor (about $11,000 per month) and proposed adding an in‑house inspector to increase proactive code enforcement. Parks and Recreation reviewed a long list of projects including parking‑lot repairs, playground rehabilitation at Runny Park, Turner Field lighting risks and pickleball facility ADA work after a complaint.

Tega Cay Utility Department (TCUD) staff asked for continued reinvestment in wastewater and water infrastructure: cured‑in‑place pipe (CIPP) work, manhole lining, lift station upgrades, and compliance work tied to the Windhaven tank. TCUD stressed grant timing constraints and noted some requests are compliance‑driven rather than discretionary.

Council thanked department staff and asked staff to bring prioritization detail and timing to upcoming budget workshops so council can weigh funding tradeoffs and possible use of reserves, short‑term leases or grants. Several council members asked for the CIP items to be prioritized by risk and seasonality (for example, scheduling pool or lighting work outside recreation seasons).