The Denmark Public Works Department is “moving in the right direction” and is ahead of the 90-day extension granted to the city by the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) to make corrections on its water department audit according to the department’s director.

“I feel personally we are ahead of that,” city of Denmark Public Works Director Cedric Hudson, told Denmark City Council members at their July 16, meeting Monday night. Hudson noted that all the city’s hydrants have been flushed, the meters are being calibrated, “a good” water quality program is in place and a water loss program is also in place.

Hudson noted that a meeting with DHEC officials was held on May 15, and the department was in correspondence with DHEC officials by phone and letters. He said an “in-house meeting” of the department was held Friday with Administrator Heyward Robinson.

“We’re going in the right direction on the audit,” Hudson noted, adding the department will ask DHEC officials for “guidance or direction” when they are in this area.

Hudson’s update was due in part to a question imposed by Councilwoman Bonnie Love, who wanted to know if DHEC officials had been back to see if the department had corrected the problems it had been fined for allegedly not doing.

Also during the meeting:

• In the financial report it was reported that revenues and expenditures were higher than anticipated. The water fund was lower than anticipated as far as revenues were concerned. It was noted in the water fund that more money was spent than taken in during the year, with the bulk of the access put back into the water department for improvements.

• Council members approved the transfer of the title to an ambulance truck to Bamberg County. The truck will be transformed into a mobile command center with a grant that has already been received and will be centrally housed at the Bamberg County Airport.

• Council members deferred action on a request from the Denmark Police Department to designate “The Image Club” and the” Voorhees Road Pool Hall” public nuisances until some follow up on both establishments can be made.

• Council members received as information an announcement from Administrator Heyward Robinson that a groundbreaking ceremony will be held on Friday, July 27, at 11:00 a.m. for the new public library next to the fire station in Denmark.

• In his mayor’s report Mayor Gerald Wright presented certificates to the staff that worked with the Denmark Summer Recreation Program held again this year at Denmark Technical College. The mayor called the third year the program was held “very successful.”

• In discussions of the County’s proposed one cent sales tax Councilmember James Robinson stated the city of Denmark should’ve gotten more than it did. Mayor Wright stated a number of items the city could’ve asked for are already being worked on.

In the public comments portion of the meeting:

Sheryl Robinson stated that the city of Denmark’s proposed capital improvement project would have been a capital improvement project, if more money had been asked for to improve the Dane Theatre. She asked Council members to “look into” the cost of rewiring the Dane Theatre and improving the acoustics.

The Rev. Rufus Jamison complained to Council about trees blown down by the storms a week ago that allegedly have not been removed yet. Jamison also noted that several houses on Cypress Street had no water because all the houses were on the same cutoff vale. “That needs to be fixed, that shouldn’t be,” Jamison said, adding “nobody is seeing that the job is being done.”