As of February 29, 2020
New City of Woodruff Website
The City of Woodruff launched a new website the last week of February, completed by Spartanburg-based marketing company Aline. The domain of the website remained the same, cityofwoodruff.com. If local businesses, churches or non-profits would like to submit information for the City’s website, they can email Alyson Smith at asmith@cityofwoodruff.com.
Business License Amendment
City of Woodruff passed an ordinance to amend the business license procedure, as recommended by the Municipal Association of South Carolina (MASC). One change in the procedure that will affect local business owners is that all renewal business licenses are now due on April 30. Anyone doing business inside the City has to have a business license. MASC is working on an online payment portal but that is not active yet. City Manager Lee Bailey says that the intent is for everyone in the state to have the same business license model and make it easier for larger businesses to obtain a business license in one step.
McKinney Park Streetscape Connector Opening
On February 11, the city hosted a ceremony to celebrate the opening of the new McKinney Park Streetscape Connect. The streetscape walkway is a formal entrance to McKinney Park and leads to a new public parking lot next to City Hall. It also includes seating and lights, and features maroon and gold intertwine ribbons painted along the walkway to represent Woodruff. With this new parking lot, the downtown area now has 254 parking spaces. Lee Bailey, city manager, said that the city has bought additional land in the downtown area for more parking when the need arises.
Event Center Announcement
At the streetscape ceremony, Bailey announced that the City plans to open an event center on South Main Street in downtown Woodruff (between The Wine Gallery and Rotties 221 Biergarten). The city bought the building about a year ago for a special project with the goal to draw more business downtown.
City Appointments
At the January City Council meeting, city council voted on a resolution to appoint new municipal judges, city attorney and city chaplain for four year terms starting on year of mayor election. During this meeting, the council appointed Vickie Rae Smith and Whit Bishop as municipal judges, Terry Clark as city attorney and Derrick Scurry as city chaplain.
Getting Ready for 5G
City Council passed an ordinance to establish standards for small wireless providers with the future of 5G technology, as recommended by MASC. It protects the City from small cells going up in places where we don’t want them such as utility poles, certain buildings and within right of ways.
Author: Tracy Sanders
