AIKEN --- The Aiken County Council moved forward Tuesday with plans to internally finance incentives for engine manufacturer MTU Detroit Diesel.

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Council members approved, with Councilman Willar Hightower absent and Councilman Scott Singer abstaining, a proposed ordinance to authorize agreements between Aiken County and the company. The financing would not use Special Source Revenue Bonds, as the council had originally planned. Instead, the county would finance the $1.1 million in incentives internally.

The company has agreed to make a $45 million investment in the county and hire 250 employees.

County Administrator Clay Killian said a special meeting and public hearing on the ordinance will be held at 6:45 p.m. Feb. 16. The council will give a final reading to the ordinance that night.

The council also approved lifting the hiring freeze for equipment and roll operators in Public Works to help ease road problems in rural areas.

Councilwoman Kathy Rawls said she has requested the positions be filled for months. The 700 miles of dirt roads in the county have been hit hard by heavy rains. The current crew has not been able to keep up with maintenance of the roads, Rawls said.

"There are places where streams and roads have become mud piles," she said. "It's really bad out there."

In other business, council members unanimously approved a resolution asking the U.S. Department of Energy, Congress and the Obama administration to continue to develop Nevada's Yucca Mountain as the preferred option for permanent storage of defense nuclear waste and commercial spent fuel.

Councilman Chuck Smith said the resolution is meant to encourage lawmakers to open up the site, which had been the planned national repository for nuclear waste for close to 30 years. Smith and Councilwoman LaWana McKenzie said eliminating the site for nuclear waste is a political move.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has deemed the mountain, about 80 miles outside Las Vegas, a safety and health hazard.

"We've been lied to, and we've been cheated," Smith said. "They say $100 billion has been put into making Yucca Mountain a waste repository for SRO (Savannah River Operations) and other communities. Sen. Reid is saying it's not safe for Nevada with no concern for South Carolinians."