Special Election to be part of the General Election

The Corinth-Shiloh tax vote won’t be cast this summer.  Chairman Durham of County Council held firm to his belief that, for all concerned, the November General Election is the better time for the voters inside the volunteer fire district to decide if they’ll accept higher taxes in exchange for the better protection to be offered by paid, full-time fire fighters.  Durham’s stance that a July 30 special election would be an inopportune time to gauge a substantial reading of the Corinth-Shiloh proposition, and he got backing last night from Hart and Mize.  Which added up to a 3-2 vote, with Davis and Elliott voting in the minority.  The outcome is a blow to Chief Christenbury and his supporters.  They want an earlier referendum so, that if it were successful, the new tax could appear on this year’s property tax bills.  By waiting for November 5, the earliest Corinth-Shiloh could enact a larger budget would be commensurate with the 2025 property tax season.  Often apart on important issues, Matthew Durham and Julian Davis may have achieved a common ground last night by agreeing that the time is now for Oconee County to seriously consider infusing its rural fire departments with more money and resources to better protect homes, businesses, and the like.  The point was driven home by Danny Delgado, a long-time Corinth-Shiloh fire fighter, who sought to demonstrate last night that the county’s $60 thousand a year allocation to his fire station pales when contrasted to the hundreds of thousands of dollars that the county supplements the operations of the county’s municipal departments.  Yet, as Delgado explained, in the case of Westminster’s full-time paid department, Corinth-Shiloh’s cross-trained volunteers actually handle more calls in a part of the county where public services struggle to keep up with the growth that has spurted out from a growing nearby Clemson University.