HORRY COUNTY PRIDE Leadership: Julie Harbin, Pam Creech, Stu Schnur, and Jim Paullin.

Joe Harbin, President, Blackmoor Property Owners Association, welcomed the attendees. Stu Schnurr, a former principal and school district superintendent, a homeowner in Blackmoor, and a founding member of HORRY COUNTY PRIDE, introduced the District 4 Councilman Mike Ryan (District 4 includes Blackmoor).

In his remarks, Councilman Ryan said, “What you’re doing tonight is extremely important….(the situation we have today) is like the St. James football team playing the Patriots.” He stressed the importance and timeliness of organizing the citizens of Horry County to support adequate funding for a strong infrastructure and sustainable natural resources and encouraged participation in HORRY COUNTY PRIDE. He praised the model of a “tribal summit” of HOAs and environmental groups and hoped that Horry citizens would move from a perspective of “not in my backyard” to “not in my County.” “Please get people involved in this and get it rolling” he concluded before leaving the group.

The charter members introduced themselves, starting with Pam Creech who has attended County Council meetings for twelve years and holds positions in Wildlife Pride, Wildlife Action, and League of Women Voters. She stressed the need for participation from diverse groups, where the people and knowledge needed to work on various issues can be recruited.

Jim Paullin, a former Raytheon executive in marketing and sales, explained that the “tribal summit” model worked in Mahwah, New Jersey where he organized 19 communities in a successful effort to address an equitable payback issue.

Julie Harbin, a former lobbyist for Direct TV in the telecommunications industry, told how she and one attorney were successful against the powerful telecommunications lobby, including the override of a presidential veto (President Bush, senior). She directed the successful Blackmoor effort for a $3 million bridge prior to development of Prince Creek West to keep construction traffic off their residential neighborhood. She and others were also successful in their efforts to get a turn lane placed at the entrance of the development, and a fire protection agreement with Murrells Inlet/Garden City that lowered ISO insurance ratings for residents from a 10 to a three, with resulted in significant reduction of fire insurance costs to homeowners.

Each of the attendees then introduced themselves and told of their concerns. Pat Lebitz of We the People, Nancy Cave of Coastal Conservation League and George Edwards spoke briefly of infrastructure and natural resource issues and their organizing history in the County.

Julie Harbin then explained the focus of HORRY COUNTY PRIDE is to organize a “citizens’ lobby for adequate funding for overall County infrastructure and natural resources rather than an individual organization’s needs. A petition and explanatory materials were distributed and discussed.

The HC Pride website, www.horrycountypride.com was introduced. It was recommended to change it to an .org address. Citizens can “join” HORRY COUNTY PRIDE from the website which will have updated information and links. It is hoped that the website will be an effective organizing tool and allow citizens as well as County staff and Council to learn more about infrastructure and natural resource issues.

Julie Harbin noted attendees’ frustration in working in the political environment. As a former lobbyist, she stressed that “political decisions are not made on the basis of common sense or even facts and figures. They are made on the basis of political necessities and political pressure. Political problems require political answers, and HORRY COUNTY PRIDE is going to give our politicians a lot of POLITICAL reasons to vote in favor of HORRY COUNTY PRIDE goals. Politicians need two things to get elected: money and votes. The citizens of Horry County represent the votes.”

The need for individual citizens, each representing one vote, to sign the Petition was stressed. Pam Creech observed that if the requirements listed in the Petition had been in place years ago, the problems we have now would have been prevented. She noted that 80% of the schools in Horry County are over 100% capacity. If the Council so chose, it could use ordinances already in place, such as average daily travel on roads, to halt irresponsible development. This was done to keep a “big box” store out of Georgetown County.

Julie Harbin explained that HORRY COUNTY PRIDE is a long-term effort to change the way planning and growth occurs in Horry County. Attendees were encouraged to use their positions within their organizations and everyday contacts (such as the doctor/dentist’s office, church and neighbors) to get signatures on the petition.

Other HORRY COUNTY PRIDE needs were identified:

• Get people to become members through petitions or website
• Identify other organizations interested in HORRY COUNTY PRIDE goals
• Return petitions by Oct. 31 (due to Comprehensive Plan timeline)
• Identify pro bono legal assistance
• Identify ways to cover costs of incidental expenses.

The meeting concluded each organization present agreeing to go back, gain their Board’s approval to support HORRY COUNTY PRIDE efforts, and to obtain their members signatures on the petition.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 at 4:38 pm and is filed under HCP Meetings.