RIDGE SPRING, S.C. (WJBF) — Nearly the entire town government in Ridge Spring has walked away. Police officers, town hall staff, even the public works director — all gone.
Seven of Ridge Spring’s ten employees resigned after the recent mayoral election. That includes the police chief, town clerk, and public works director — leaving just two public works employees and one part-time officer.
“We’ve had a lot going on and there’s still a lot goes on in this little town,” Former Police Chief Ridge Spring Gerry Grenier said.
The former chief says he tried to leave the department in order before resigning.
“I had spoke to the one part-timer that was gonna stay on about coming back full-time and that we would swap positions that he could possibly come back on full-time and maybe even be the chief,” he added.
He says the mayor never gave him or his officers a clear plan for the future of the department.
New Mayor James Williams, who took office Monday evening, says he had no idea the resignations were coming.
“I’ve been hearing things here and there So, I didn’t feel comfortable enough to even comment off of any of the rumors that I was hearing due to the fact that I had not been sworn in yet,” he said.
Williams says communication with town hall has been broken for months — and residents were often left in the dark.
“It’s been non-communication — no communication at all. A lot of the information with council and mayor has not been related to the public,” he said.
Before stepping down, Grenier says he worked to modernize Ridge Spring’s police force. “I’m up to 74 cameras and six tag readers in this town — and for four square miles, that’s a lot,” he shared.
He also built the department from the ground up.
“I went from just me to six of us. And all three full-time officers lived right here in town” Grenier added.
Even without 24-hour coverage, Grenier says he was always close by.
“I live at the other end of the street. If something happened, they’d call me — and I could still get there five, ten minutes before the county did.”
For now, Ridge Spring is relying on Saluda County deputies to patrol the town.
“Any calls coming in from Ridge Spring are still being handled, and the situation is still being monitored by Saluda County. The water department is also being monitored by Saluda County,” the mayor said.
“The county ain’t staffed fully, they’re behind. And so, to say, well, we’re just gonna let Saluda County take it over is, that’s not a viable answer because it’s not a viable problem. ’cause they can’t keep their guy, their own people staffed,” Grenier added.
Ridge Spring’s public works team has largely walked away, and the former Public Works Director Mike Cook says politics forced him out.
“When you use politics as a weapon and disrespect people and attack people at town hall that are working very hard for the town, this is the outcome,” he said. “It affects morale. This is just a direct result of that kind of interaction.”
On whether the town is at risk without a licensed director, he said, “No, absolutely no risk. We have a guy who’s been working for the town for a couple of years… With anything dealing with regulations and safety, we have Saluda County lined up to help out.”
Meanwhile, the focus now is on restaffing town hall and rebuilding trust in the community.
“He needs to actually talk to my part-timer as far as the police departments concerned. So, they can make a decision. He can start recruiting help and make arrangements to start working full-time instead of just part-time, to get the keep the police department going or, build it back up.” Grenier said.
“I want peace, and we just pretty much just want to come together as one small knit community, go ahead and start working together. That’s all I want to go ahead and do here. Bring back community involvement,” Williams added.
The mayor says he’ll call a special town council meeting next week.
