Chapin Town Council held its first strategic planning retreat this year at Saluda Shoals River Center Feb. 28 to identify goals and see what areas in the town need focus, with improving technology being targeted among the key areas.

“The focus of our meeting was on the foundational changes needed to strengthen and position our town for the future,” said  Town Administrator Nicholle Burroughs. “As a small organization that has grown rapidly to respond to the increasing needs of the community, we have a significant amount of work and investment that will be completed in the next couple years.”

During the meeting, in which the mayor and all four members of council were present, Burroughs presented council with comments from each department of the town, including finance, planning and zoning, utilities, engineering, maintenance, public works, wastewater and plant operations, court and police. Burroughs met with each department to find out strengths and weaknesses in addition and what they would like for the future. 

After the presentation of the findings and the town audit, council discussed their thoughts and how they envisioned the town’s needs and wants. Burroughs said that a report of the meeting will be available to the public soon, listed on the town’s website.

“The first step is creating a dialogue and creating expectations and visions,” said Burroughs. “We had been performing at status quo and what was working [for the town] but not providing the tools to help the staff.”

Some of the major points council agreed were of higher importance were technology capabilities, safety hazards, staffing and retention (especially within the police department), device storage, procedures and processes and issues within the utilities and public works departments. 

“I think the focus is foundational changes and a lot of focus on technology. We need to adequately prepare staff in order to perform,” said Burroughs, adding that there hasn’t been “a significant investment in technology in several years so now the opportunity is available at a level to perform at a level of excellence.”

There was mention of possibly live streaming council meetings and moving to electronic devices for council members opposed to paper. The electronic devices would help significantly with storage, as there is an overflow of records in storage right now. 

Technology would also be of importance in the utility and engineering departments when it comes to equipment. 

Safety hazards were also brought up, particularly within the utilities department. Council also mentioned having a policy for cutting off utilities to homes and having exceptions, especially when it comes to elderly citizens. 

Looking at the police department, the town currently has eight officers, with one on medical leave and another out for training. While the town’s police department received a $70,000 grant for car cameras and body cams, the town is having problems with retention due to the pay and level of pay. 

Overall, council was in agreement that the town has continued to operate in a status quo mode. The expectation coming out of the retreat is the town will begin to tackle some of these areas of need within the next two years, while longer-term goals will likely extend into the three-to-four-year range.

Some of the one-to-two-year goals presented included attending a Municipal Association of South Carolina conference, adopting a unified development and zoning audit, hiring a special projects/grant writer, recruiting a hotel, developing a wayfinding and branding storage plan and identifying key areas for annexation.