Lexington County Republican Party 3rd Vice-Chair John Allen brought a controversial Town of Lexington development before the Party Executive Committee Monday evening. It appears “no one was asked” whether they wanted the project. Photo Michael Reed.
The Lexington County Republican Party (LCRP) was quite active at their regularly scheduled monthly meeting held Monday evening at the Lexington County Chamber of Commerce building. Among the major topics discussed were the censure of Lexington County Senator Katrina Shealy and a controversial town of Lexington proposal for development of a 93 acre property.
Shealy was censured in a near unanimous vote of 49-2 following discussion of her most recent flaunting of the Republican Party platform concerning its Pro-Life stance. That flaunting due to two votes in favor of abortion in the SC State Senate.
The second major topic drew concerns from a clear majority of the precinct representatives. That topic being a proposed “secret” land development deal Lexington Mayor Steve MacDougall is pushing. Allen mentioned that the development was not new as was indicated by the Mayor but had been underway for many more years.
House District 85 Representative Jay Kilmartin confirmed that the town had their hands out for State taxpayer money already. How much? It was mentioned the State legislature has been asked for $10 million dollars associated with the project.
Left unanswered at this point are whether or not there are any financial incentives for those associated with the project at the town level or related; Why a secret “gentlemen’s agreement” was not disclosed earlier; transparency with taxpayer money, and other questions.
Third Vice-Chair John Allen had the attention of the entire body of Lexington committeemen when he delivered a very detailed and pointed critique of the proposal. The Standard has obtained a copy of his address and is in its entirety below without comment or investigation at this time.
Speech of John Allen, Lexington County Republican Party 3rd Vice Chair:
Since I attended both meetings addressing the proposed 93 acre marina resort development spearheaded by the Mayor, I’d like to carve out some time to talk about it. The people of Lexington have been blindsided by this project, and so far we have more questions than answers.
The first public meeting to discuss this project was on May 16th, at Pilgrim Lutheran Church. During the meeting the Mayor announced this development. He relayed how this project had been part of his vision plan for the town since 2012, and he had been diligently meeting with the property owner, Mr. Meekin, in order to convince him to develop his property.
After many meetings and taking Mr. Meekin out to breakfast, Mr. Meekin finally agreed to use his property for the development only after the Mayor guaranteed it would provide generational wealth for Meekin’s family.
The Mayor admitted that he and Meekin had a “gentleman’s agreement” to keep these meetings and discussions a secret from the people of Lexington until an agreement to annex was formed.
My sister, Sarah Grace, was the first to ask a question during the Q&A portion of this meeting, and asked, if the Mayor had already secretly agreed to this project without the town’s knowledge or consent, then for what purpose are these meetings if we the people have no say in this development.
The Mayor replied that these meetings are simply to “inform” the people of the development, and to allow them to discuss and ask questions.
Many others began voicing their concerns and questions, mostly regarding population density, overcrowding on the lake, and most of all, the traffic problem, to which the Mayor replied – “There isn’t a traffic problem.”
One gentleman in the crowd also addressed the condition of our roads, and why our taxes haven’t been used to fix them yet. The Mayor denied there being any taxes in place for the roads, other than the gas tax.
When my sister Sarah Grace stood up again to remind the gentleman and the Mayor that we do indeed have the Hospitality Tax, which was pushed through specifically under the guise of being used to fix our roads, the Mayor replied — “The Hospitality Tax is voluntary. If you don’t want to pay it, just don’t eat at restaurants in town.”
Fast forward to the special called Town Council meeting last week, Tuesday May 30th, at Town Hall. After a private executive meeting was held with Mayor and members of Council, the public was allowed in the room to observe the council’s questions and comments with the Town Administrator Britt Poole, Director of Transportation Randy Edwards, as well as other officials, including the town’s Planning Commission.
When the meeting went to public commentary, I was the first to speak.
I addressed council expressing my concerns about the lack of transparency regarding this project, in particular the Mayor’s secret dealings with the property owner, and when I asked if the Mayor or anyone on council was financially benefitting from this project, the Mayor yelled — “What an ABSURD question. That is an ABSURD question.”
He then proceeded to state that his comment at the first meeting about traffic was taken out of context, and when I replied that I was simply quoting him, he bellowed — “Do NOT interrupt me or I will have you removed from this room! I will NOT be interrupted.”
At which point the room erupted in sarcastic laughter, incredulous sneers, and uproarious boos.
Many others from the crowd came forward to express their extensive concerns. My sister Sarah Grace, who wasn’t planning to speak, decided to address the council to clarify exactly how this project was conceived.
Was it, as council had stated, a project routinely brought before them by a property owner wishing to develop his land, OR, as the Mayor had stated, a vision of his to which he finally convinced the property owner to agree?
When Sarah Grace pointedly asked if the members of council were aware of or involved with the meetings between the Mayor and Mr. Meekin, there was deafening silence from the board.
Mayor Pro-Tem Hazel Livingston was finally the first to speak for herself, stating she was not involved in the meetings, and was unaware of the magnitude of the proposed development.
Ron Williams also private messaged my sister on Facebook saying, “I, like Hazel and Todd stated, didn’t know it was this magnitude. I remember Marina, hotel, and a convention center. We talked about it in 2022 I think for a few minutes but got told we had to move on and come back to it. The back to it never happened.”
After much hemming and hawing, the Mayor once again mentioned the “meetings we had with Mr. Meekin,” to which Sarah stopped him to clarify, “Who’s we? The council?”
To which the Mayor replied, “Me and Mr. Poole.”
So according to the Mayor, the clandestine dealings with the property owner only involved the Mayor and Town Administrator Britt Poole, without the knowledge of the council.
This same Mr. Poole stated during the meeting that there was a “large demand” from the people of Lexington for more meeting spaces in town, which was reasoning for the proposed 50,000 square foot convention center, the cost of which would be roughly $30 million.
I don’t know about y’all, but neither I nor anyone I know was ever asked nor surveyed about a need for a convention center, when we have access to one just 15 miles away in Columbia.
And, might I add, part of the $30 million for this new convention center includes the cost of building the surrounding roads to it. So we would be spending millions on NEW roads, despite already being taxed to NOT fix the roads we currently have.
As I said, it was stated during the meeting that this development, like any development in town, was brought before the council as a “proposal” for review, and that no agreement had been made.
This is quite a different tune than what the Mayor was humming during the initial meeting, and a far different sentiment than what he expressed during his WIS TV interview, where the Mayor stated, and I quote, “It will absolutely be the largest asset we have in the town.”
And I also quote, “If it was up me to we’d break ground tomorrow… ground breaking will probably be, you know, 18 months to 2 years down the road.”
And I quote again, “This is going to create a one-of-a-kind destination on the lake, and I want to thank everyone involved in getting things to this point. To say we are excited would be an understatement.”
So my question is, who is we? The Mayor and the property owner? The Mayor, the property owner, and Britt Poole? The Mayor and Town Council? Is there a clamoring from the electorate in favor of this vanity project that somehow we all missed?
To conclude, I can tell you right now, “we” is NOT We the People of Lexington. I have talked to hundreds of citizens in this town, and not ONE person has been in favor of this project. Not one.
I’m confident that if you asked anyone to list the Top 20 things that Lexington needs, becoming Myrtle Beach 2.0 isn’t one of them.
Rest assured, much of the expense of this project WILL land on We the People, the tax payers. Because the government has never made money — it can only take OUR money, and spend OUR money.
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The Standard has written about this issue on two recent occasions, once following the May 16th meeting and the other in a June 3rd article. This topic will again be reported on as more information becomes available.
Michael Reed is Publisher of The Standard newspaper, print and online. You may find our videos available on Rumble. The bulk of TheStandardSC video media channel has been censored by dominant social media groups like YouTube. YouTube, owed by Alphabet (Google), removed and destroyed all of our video work without permission or remuneration. That has stopped all potential donations from our many supporters on that venue. If you want to continue to see independent thought and reports please “like”, comment, share with a friend, and donate to support The Standard on this page to assure the continued availability of news that is ignored too often by the dominant media.
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