April 27th RCC Meeting Minutes

Officer Boyd/City Of Columbia

• He complimented Rosewood on working to keep crime down by keeping their car doors locked, alerting their neighbors if they see anything suspicious, and keeping CPD alerted of any criminal activity.
  • We have had 404 citations since January along Rosewood. They are out enforcing traffic.
  • 1 auto break-in that was unforced entry. A reminder to all residents and their guests: never leave your car unlocked or leave valuables or weapons in your car, especially in plain sight.
  • 1 stolen vehicle that was related to a domestic incident.
  • 1 residential break-in. A reminder to keep your doors secure and locked and not post publicly on social media that you are going on vacation and that CPD officer property checks.
• He let us know that 5 suspects for local crimes have been arrested since April 1^st.
  • There were 2 suspects arrested for burglaries throughout CPD south region.
    • 1 suspect was caught because he was selling the stolen items on Facebook marketplace.
  • 2 auto break-in suspects.
• This is the time of year where lawn care and equipment thefts start to increase.
  • Officer Boyd suggested to take photos of your specific lawn equipment (or other equipment) and if there is a serial number on it, to write it down and keep it somewhere in case of theft.
  • Trailers and other construction equipment are also hot ticket items to get stolen. If they have any identifying information, it’s a good idea to have photos and any serial numbers written down.
• Front porch Roll Calls are back!! You can contact Officer Justin Boyd or Officer Chris Morris to see what dates are available.
  • Officer Boyd: Phone- (803) 873- 8594, Justin.Boyd@ColumbiaSC.gov
  • Officer Morris: Phone (803) 315-5428, christopher.morris@columbiasc.gov

Richland County Sherriff Department Updates

• Captain Marcus Kim did not have much to report for the county and neither did Deputy Nate Gamble. Only 1 auto theft.
• It’s early, but Captain Kim wanted to mention that National Night Out will be August 1^st at 5:00 PM at the Sub Station II by Lower Richland High School. He would love it if the community came out to support them. We will share more details and a copy of the flyer once it’s closer to the actual event.
  • We will still have RCC/South Kilbourne’s National Night Out event in October to beat the heat.
• Contact info:
  • Captain Marcus Kim- over region 1. Phone: (803) 600- 9328. Email: MKim@RCSD.net.
  • Deputy Nathanial Gamble. Phone: (803) 465- 2811. Email: NGamble@RCSD.net.

Allison Terracio with Richland County Council

• With regards to discussions about the Airport beacon height, a meeting was held earlier in April between the city and the county at the airport about the prospect of cutting trees down along the disc golf course or raising the beacon height so it can rotate 360 degrees and get a clear signal and not be blocked by the trees.
  • Raising the beacon height will potentially raise the allowable tree height to approximately 343 feet above median sea level.
  • The budget for raising the beacon will hopefully make it on the agenda this budget season, which is coming up. If not, the potential timeline would be later this fall.
  • There is an airport commission meeting at noon 5/8/2023; however, this project might not be on that meetings agenda.

Mike Ely/RCC Updates

• Will Brennan was not able to attend this meeting, but has emailed with Mike to give some City Updates.
  • A request has been made to schedule another water meeting with the City of Columbia to update us on the water pipe replacement project hopefully by the end of May. An event will be created on Facebook as well as shared from the City of Columbia and RCC once details are set.
• Former RCC President was walking with the nature trail and met with 2 city sewer workers who are looking at areas to remove some trees with roots that are blocking storm drains that run under the nature trail.
  • You may have seen manhole covers along the nature trail or a storm drain in case you didn’t know that anything ran under the nature trail.
  • They are having to remove some trees to clear the roots, but will minimize any damage to the nature trail and RCC will hopefully have a planting event where we can plant smaller bushes and shrubs to fill those areas back in.
• With the grant money received from Columbia Green, we have hopefully 75 trees and bushes for our next planting event (has not been created yet). In our last planting event, more than 100 trees and shrubs were planted, all of which are native species that will help the nature trail continue to thrive and foster a healthy environment.
  • Keep an eye out for the next planting event, we would love to see a big turnout. Both to help plant the items and it’s also beneficial for people to learn about the native species.
• The paw path fountain in Rosewood Park has been turned off and the pump removed for the time being. The pump kept malfunctioning and has been removed. A new drinking fountain for both humans and pets will be coming soon. We will share more updates when we have them.

Upcoming Important Dates

The date and time of our next quarterly meeting has not been scheduled but should be in July. Email/website/Facebook notification will go out when it is scheduled.