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Greg Oliver

Central Mayor Mac Martin, left, and State Rep. B.R. Skelton, who represents the Clemson area, enjoy a conversation following the inaugural Central State of the Community address on Thursday at Southern Wesleyan University. Pickens County School Board Chairman Jim Shelton, who also served as guest speaker along with SWU President David Spittal and Martin, is pictured in the background.

CENTRAL — Central Mayor Mac Martin, Pickens County School Board Chairman Jim Shelton and Southern Wesleyan University President David Spittal all used one word to describe Thursday’s inaugural Central State of the Community Address: historical.

The trio, who served as guest speakers, said the event is now allowing the town to showcase itself to others, to let them know about the growth that has occurred and will continue to occur. Martin told the approximately 85 in attendance at the Commons dining area at Southern Wesleyan University that Central has come a long way in the past four years alone.

“I knew the town had a boatload of money,” Martin said, regarding his view of the town when he first became mayor four years ago. “I was wrong.”

Martin said he realized something was amiss when, during a listing of goals at his first meeting, one council member said the town had not experienced a budget increase in nearly 14 years. However, services in the town had increased during that time.

“That was my wake up call,” Martin said.

The Central mayor, using the Clint Eastwood movie “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” as a reference, referred to the bad as sewer lines and water lines, installed in the 1940s and 1950s that needed replacing; the ugly when he learned the town had no money on hand and the good when he began formulating changes that included a budget that showed where revenues were going, a restructuring of water, sewer and sanitation where citizens pay according to how much water they use and obtaining grants that led to the downtown Streetscape project, new police vehicles and a used 110 foot ladder truck.

“My plan was to start downtown and work our way out,” he said.

Martin said future goals for the town include getting the new recreational complex “up and running,” and rotating police patrol cars without increasing the budget. But the mayor said he is most proud of how town employees and citizens come together for the good of the community.

“There is a strong sense of volunteerism and community,” Martin said. “Town employees have always done more than their share.”

While Shelton said the School District of Pickens County faces its own set of challenges, including reduced state funding, resulting in personnel cuts that included school level technology support; a reduction in district services and a decline in the district’s on-time graduation rate, he said there are plenty of positives.

He pointed to the district’s $365 million facilities improvement plan, which includes construction of four new high schools over the next three years, massive renovations and upgrades in technology and security as prime examples.

“We’re in the process of building seven brand new schools from one side of the county to the other,” he said.

The school board chairman said the new Daniel High School, set to open in August 2012, will be constructed on 64.7 acres of the existing site and that property across the road “could make an excellent freshmen campus, as we’re seeing across the state.”

One of the byproducts of the district’s new construction and renovation efforts is the removal of portable classrooms.

“This will provide us with more space,” Shelton said. “There were 21 portables eliminated, resulting in the addition of 54,816 square feet and extra growth in each attendance area, including Central Elementary School.”

Audience members were also informed that technology upgrades, in which the district pumped $7 million in 2007, allowed the district to install student laptops in each classroom, refurbish labs with new computers, provide teacher amplification systems in each classroom and card readers for keyless access to buildings.

Academically, Shelton said the district saw increases in student achievement when it comes to SAT and ACT scores. It is these achievements, both academically and facilities-wise, that Shelton feels Pickens County residents should get excited about.

“We’re all stakeholders,” he said.

Spittal said Central is “all about relationships — the longer you live here and the longer you associate with men and women gathered in this room.” He said that same attitude applies to Southern Wesleyan University.

“We believe in the potential of people,” Spittal said. “There’s no greater resource than each other. It’s the potential of people that makes things happen.”

Spittal said SWU offers 35 undergraduate majors and four graduate degrees and students enrolled come from 23 states and five countries. There are 150 scholar athletes in 10 sports, and the total campus enrollment has grown from 350 in 1994 to just under 700 today.

Spittal said 160 students were living on campus in 1993. However, the school’s addition of a residential campus has increased that total to 400 today.

“When you have students living on campus, they tend to spend their money in town,” he said. “It creates a greater opportunity for students to become a part of the community.”

Spittal said the campus master plan, adopted in 1999, has already produced the Student Village Apartments, Newby Education Center, for aspiring teachers; the University Dining Commons, which seats 500 students; and Mullinax Residence Hall, a hotel-type facility that can also be used in the summer for visitors. The Newton-Hobson Chapel and Fine Arts Center was completed in 2008 and 68,000 people visited the facility during its first year.

Future plans call for a physical education and wellness center, including a 3,500-seat gymnasium for the Warriors basketball team, a running track and walking area.

“As soon as the economy begins to heal, we can look into how we can make that happen,” Spittal said.

But Spittal said the number one mission and purpose of SWU remains the same as it has since the institution was founded in 1906.

“We want our students to serve God and their community,” he said.

greg@dailyjm.com | (864) 973-6687