Denmark City Council members gave their approval to move forward with a grant resolution to secure $377,390 for the construction of a new state of the art library through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Rural Development at their October 18, meeting.

The grant funds sought by the City of Denmark, through the U.S. Office of Rural Development, equal to basically half the amount needed to complete construction of the new library.

Bamberg County Administrator Rose Dobson- Elliott said the Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell and Aiken Library Association (ABBE) has already been sent a $396,000 grant for the new library through the assistance of Representative Bakari Sellers.

“Those funds are already in hand,” Dobson-Elliott said, adding “the City of Denmark doesn’t have to come up with those funds.”

George T. Smith, a Loan Specialist with the U.S. Office of Rural Development in Aiken, said by approving what he called “a punch list” for receiving the grant that night, the city would be signing off on 50-60 percent of the items it needed to secure the grant and the city was lucky to be receiving the funds.

“You were fortunate to get the last little bit of it,” Smith said referring to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Funds. Smith said “technically” the act ended on June 30th.

In other business

• City Finance Director Rusty Munoz reported the city received an “unqualified opinion” on its most recent audit. “The best they can give,” Munoz said. Munoz noted that an $892,000 or 14 percent increase in net assets was “a little misleading” in that $600,000 “a large portion” was grant money for the water wells project.

• In other financial matters, city council members approved the awarding of contracts for $4,999 each for repairs to the Dane Theater roof and Brooker Center roof to Robert Williams. It was noted that Williams did both jobs originally.

• Fire Chief Charles Breland said 14 people signed up for First Responders training at a cost of $150 per person.

• Police Chief Leroy Grimes reported that the department created 80 new case files for the month. It was requested that a bank account be set up for a $14,591 U.S. Department of Justice Grant for new lap top computers.

• The Denmark Christmas parade will be held on Saturday December 4, at 1:00 p.m.

In the public comments portion of the meeting; Denmark resident Vic Whetstone asked if council members could come up with a system to alert residents when the city water will contain sediments.