What happened at the July 1, 2008 Council meeting on Carolina Station…

Carolina Station gained final approval from County Council members by a vote of 6-5. Disappointing…but not discouraging. 6-5 is a far cry from the overwhelming approval developers are used to getting in Horry County.

The actual vote..
FOR: Allen, Foxworth, Frasier, Grabowski, Hardee, and Prince.
AGAINST: Barnard. Gilland, Ryan, Schwartzkopf, and Worley. Please remember to thank them.
(Council email address: countycouncil@horrycounty.org.)

With each vote on Carolina Station we made progress…
Although disappointed, we were not surprised by the outcome last night. Let’s be sure and acknowledge the progress we’re making.

1st reading 5/13 was approved by a vote of 8-3.
2nd reading 6/17 was approved by a vote of 6-4.
3rd reading last night was approved by a vote of 6-5.

And…last night the president of the School Board and several members showed up and officially requested a deferral of the final vote to give them time to negotiate a plan to pay for the estimated $125M needed to build four new schools for the development. The fact that Council members denied their request speaks volumes about their need for our support.

Acknowledgment
We want to acknowledge each of you who wrote letters, or called the Council and School Board members, or made the trip to Conway. We thank you for making time in your busy life. We thank you for getting into action. Please know that YOU contributed to the vote being as close as it was. While our numbers were overshadowed by the bikers, our position gained a standing ovation in at least one of the three overflow rooms.

The school board expressed their appreciation for our support over and over. Your letters and calls made a difference in encouraging them to speak out.

Next actions…
We are disappointed…but far from discouraged. Our next focus will be preparing for the elections this fall.

Of the six Council members who voted FOR Carolina Station last night, three are up for re-election this fall. Mr. Foxworth, Mr. Grabowski, and Mr. Prince. (A fourth, Mr. Hardee, ran for the SC House. He lost that race and his seat on the Council. Last month the 10th District had the wisdom to vote in the primary for Jody Prince who has no opponent this fall.)

We are now reaching several thousand taxpayers with our emails. Between now and the elections, with your help we can increase that number by several thousand more. With your help, we will get the job done.

Keep in mind one of our favorite quotes…

“Success is moving from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” — Winston Churchill

There is great admiration for you here,

HORRY COUNTY P.R.I.D.E. LEADERSHIP

Julie Harbin
Pam Creech
Jim Paullin
Stu Schnur

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 4:10 pm and is filed under Communications, Horry County Council.