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Article published Jun 21, 2003
Sanford: Public Safety Department to charge fees
for traffic control at games, festivals
PETE
IACOBELLI
Associated Press
COLUMBIA -- Those state troopers
who get you through traffic at football games and festivals in South Carolina
could soon cost universities, parades and boat shows money, thanks to a budget
veto by Gov. Mark Sanford.
The first-year Republican governor crossed out a
section of the $5.3 billion state budget bill Wednesday that prevents the state
Public Safety Department from collecting fees for working events that range from
Clemson and South Carolina football games to the Golden Leaf Festival in
Mullins.
"It's an invaluable service, not only to our fans, but to the other
teams," South Carolina athletic spokesman Kerry Tharp said. "It's too early to
say what we'd do without it."
Sanford said he vetoed the measure because
Public Service, which oversees the state Highway Patrol and its troopers,
"should be able to assess reasonable fees for support provided to special
events."
Sanford spokesman Chris Drummond said Thursday the governor wasn't
demanding the agency collect fees, only giving some discretion to director
Boykin Rose.
"I think (Sanford) wants the agency head to have some
flexibility instead of having his hands tied," Drummond said.
The budget
provision had said, "The highway patrol must not charge any fee associated with
special events for maintaining traffic control and ensuring safety on South
Carolina public roads and highways unless approved by the General
Assembly."
Such trooper traffic work typically costs the patrol about $1
million a year in manpower, agency spokeswoman Sherri Iacobelli
said.
However, Col. Russell Roark, who'll take over as head of the patrol in
July, says it's hard to put an accurate figure on the service because if
troopers weren't near parking lots at South Carolina's Williams-Brice Stadium or
Clemson's Death Valley, "they would be on the highways patrolling."
An
example of the real cost, Roark says, comes from the recently concluded Atlantic
Beach Biker weekend last month. Seven of the 16 regularly assigned road troopers
in Clarendon and Sumter counties were assigned to the Grand Strand festival.
"That left four in one county and five in the other to work the roads," he
said.
Roark says 89 troopers generally work South Carolina football games,
while 96 are assigned to Clemson's Memorial Stadium on game days. Those
assignments are usually 10-to 12-hour shifts.
Statistics from 2000, the
latest available from the Public Safety Department, showed the "personal service
cost" to the agency for the 13 Clemson and South Carolina football games was
$236,854.80.
Other pricey traffic jobs that year were listed as the Memorial
Day Biker weekend ($47,370.96) along the Grand Strand, the Southern 500 at
Darlington Raceway ($23,466.17) and the PGA's Heritage golf tournament
($18,894.40) on Hilton Head.
"That's all part of our mission, a function of
our jobs," Iacobelli said.
The agency stats also had troopers working at the
Ninety Six Fishing Rodeo ($134.96), the Greenwood Festival of Flowers ($539.84)
and the Saluda Christmas Parade ($151.83).
The Department of Public Safety
will work with other agencies to determine what, if anything, to charge, Roark
said.
There is no established fee structure set up to recoup costs for
traffic control.