Thank each of you for your support to maintain Edisto Beach as the town that we all know and love.

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1 Good evening, I am Mayor Jane Darby. With me this evening are our councilmembers, Mayor Pro Tem Crawford Moore, Susan Hornsby, Jerome Kizer and Patti Smyer. Also the department directors, Chief Brothers, Chief Conley, Patrick Brown, and Bob Daub with Town Administrator Iris Hill. Each of these people has performed to an exemplary level to keep Edisto Beach as the small town that we love even through the extraordinary challenges presented by the storms, state legislation and needs of our citizens during the last three years. It would be impossible to individually list each of the town s accomplishments of the last three years so I will only give a brief overview of the state of Town. Our town was impacted by three years of storms. In 2015 we were flooded by the combination of Hurricane Joaquin and the flood, this was followed by Hurricane Hermine, Julia and Hurricane Matthew in 2016 with an additional blow by Hurricane Irma in Each of these storms caused damage to our infrastructure, our beachfront and homes. Since our economy is based on tourism and the businesses to support tourism, our town as well as our citizens and businesses suffered negative financial impacts. After Matthew our infrastructure could not support habitation for our citizens for approximately a week. We faced flooded streets, as well as, flooded septic tanks. Lift stations were buried and filled with sand. Water wells were not functioning. Businesses were damaged and closed which put people out of work. Streets were impassable due to debris, downed power lines and road damage. We had no electricity or communications. The Town lost about $706,000 in local accommodations taxes, $763,000 in hospitality taxes and gross ATAX revenue losses were about $15,000. We have 2181 housing units of which 1900 homes are seasonal rental units and could not be rented. The State Park was closed for almost 1 year. Then a tornado struck the Live Oak camp ground during Irma which further impacted their ability to function. However we were able to recover from each storm within each year by using prior year funds, filing damages with FEMA, and the assistance of the state, county and our citizens. We were well on our way to normalcy when Hurricane Irma occurred. Fortunately this storm was not as catastrophic but we had to start again at square one and repeat the recovery efforts of the previous year. We are pleased to report that

2 with the closing of the FEMA file on Irma that our prior year funds will be returned to the prestorm balance and our tourism revenue is trending upward which is good news for the town, our businesses and our homeowners. As part of a regular maintenance plan, mitigation to prevent losses and repairing of the beach, a nourishment of the beach was completed in 2016 and Concurrent with the building of the beach, the groins were reprofiled to retain and capture beach sand. Even though Irma destroyed some dunes, the damage could have been much worse. However the dunes did the job of protecting property, the recovery was quicker, most of the sand was recovered and property loss was minimized. Flooding through each of the storms was a problem and especially critical in several areas of the town. Since 2011 we had been working to secure a project to address the flooding on Myrtle Street. Through perseverance we secured the necessary funding through grants and the cooperation of the SCDOT, so that this project has been bid, awarded and should start this summer with completion by October. Included in this project is the additional project of paving the south end of Myrtle Street. In further recognition that a band aid approach is not sufficient for our flooding issues the town is projected to complete a hydrological study this year in order to comprehensively address the flooding issues. During the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Matthew, DHEC surveyed our beach to set new jurisdictional lines. Due to the timing and perhaps faulty methodology, the new lines had a severe financial impact on much of the front beach. Even though the town according to law could not represent our citizens, we attended the DHEC hearings, wrote letters to our legislators, coordinated efforts with SC Beach Advocates and testified before legislative committee hearings. The legislation that penalized our front beach owners was modified and provided relief for our homeowners until 2024 which is the next state mandated beach front jurisdictional line evaluation. Since our infrastructure was severely damaged during the storms and was aging we were faced with continuing to repair our wells and water delivery system or making improvements. Financially it made more sense to build a town reverse

3 osmosis system which would have the added benefit of drinkable water, included the cost of two deep wells, additional storage capacity for improving the quantity of water and a new control system versus replacing each individual component which would also have been very expensive without providing good water. Even with a law suit filed by a few citizens which was eventually dropped, we were able to negotiate the bond market for an attractive rate, sell revenue bonds and contract for a guaranteed price of $7.2 million. The timeline for the new water system to come on line is the late spring. Additionally the water lines on Point St. and Jungle Shores were completed with more water line replacement scheduled in the future. We have also been working with our legislators to change some legislation to allow for more flexibility in the expenditure of ATAX. We are the only county with a coastal tourist destination that is under TERC oversight which makes it difficult to provide an optimal tourism environment and the necessary services to support tourism. Currently, in subcommittee is a bill S917 which passed the Senate as presented but then went to the house where amendments were added that would only benefit Charleston and Horry counties. We plan to attend the subcommittee hearing at the end of this month and have approached legislators about our need for the Senate version of the proposed legislation. Our sewage system and pump system has been an ongoing concern especially since one of our pumps and the holding pond are located on Tract M which borders the golf course in Wyndham. The pond is part of the golf irrigation system and was to be maintained by an agreement with the owner which was not honored. To secure the ownership of the system, the town successfully negotiated a property trade of 3 town owned lots on Jungle Road with an appraisal value of less than $150,000 each and which would not fulfill any goal of the town. In return the town took title of Tract M which had an appraisal value of $1,100,800 and would allow for the protection of the holding pond with the pump house. We also purchased the McLeod property for $180,000 which now makes Bay Creek Park whole.

4 We continue to work to bring our ordinances in compliance with state legislation. We have updated our beach management plan, approved a memorandum of agreement with SC Parks, Recreation and Tourism to partner with us to work jointly on beach monitoring and management, updated our Emergency plan, passed a golf cart ordinance and adopting the standardized business license structure. The new flood maps have been adopted and should provide an insurance savings for most of our citizens. We constantly strive to enhance our citizens quality of life by providing the highest quality of services that reflect our community s desires. Important components of this goal are outreach and education. We work daily on our outreach by establishing a working relationship with our federal, state agencies, legislators, adjacent governments and county government. Mutual agreements for fire and police have been signed. Funding was secured from Charleston County to fund Hwy 174 litter removal. We make presentations to various organizations. Additionally our staff participates in professional organizations often at the leadership level. We continue our education through participation in the SC Municipal Association s classes, completion of the NIMS classes for incident management and staff development. Finally in closing I would like to express the gratitude of the town for the tremendous support we have received which far surpasses the negativity of a few. Our recovery and accomplishments have been aided by the National and State Guards, SC DOT, SC PRT, SC EMD, SCDNR, Governor McMaster, Colleton County and our legislators. The Presbyterian Church operated the Point of Distribution to provide necessities for the residents of the island. The Edisto Ministerial Association accepted and distributed donations. Our restaurants, businesses and volunteers provided food and labor to feed the emergency workers after the storms.

5 Thank each of you for your support to maintain Edisto Beach as the town that we all know and love. Respectfully submitted, Jane Darby June 14, 2018