Horry County PRIDE wants to recognize and thank the hundreds of Horry County Emergency Management professionals for a job well done in putting out the recent wildfires. We are proud of you…but not surprised.

Through regular attendance at the County Council’s Public Safety Committee meetings, we have learned about the ongoing, extensive, professional preparation and training our emergency management men and women undergo to be prepared to protect the county’s citizens and property.

We thank you for the hours you spent in preparation and training.

We thank you for the hours you spent managing and fighting the fires.

We thank you for the hours you spent evacuating and caring for individuals, families, and pets. 

We thank you for the hours you spent away from your own homes and families.

And lastly, we thank you for getting the job done. You are our heroes! Read the rest of this entry »

RESCHEDULED

MEETING ON

CAROLINA COMPANY REZONING REQUEST

ON ENTRANCE TO DEERFIELD

_________________

THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2009

HOLIDAY INN, SURFSIDE BEACH

1601 NORTH OCEAN BOULEVARD

AT THE END OF 15TH AVENUE NORTH

6- 8 PM

We are holding this public meeting so you, as homeowners and property owners, can voice your opposition to the rezoning request by Carolina Company. We have had numerous homeowners very upset by the request to change the four (4) parcels out in front of the 17 by-pass entrance to our streets, from R7-7, residential, to RE-3, automotive commercial, with very little restrictions as to what they can build, including gas stations.

Gary Loftus and Howard Barnard, our County Councilmen, and members of the Planning Commission which ask Carolina Company to submit a plan as to what they are planning on building before they will approve the rezoning, Ashley Meadows, Deerfield Links and any one else we can get to come, will be in attendance.
Your attendance is vital to show our opposition to this request. Traffic conditions during the rush hours are already a safety risk for all our homeowners, more commercial businesses will only add to this already bad traffic situation. Any concerned parties will be allowed to voice their opinions both pro and con.

A show of interest by your attendance is very, very important, unless you want to fight a gas station coming and going, in and out, of our entrance.

Sincerely,

Jack Barkley, President

Deerfield Avenue, POA

jbarkley@qwest.net

_________________________

My name is Dick Leavitt. My wife and I have lived here for 17 years. On July 1st County Council approved 3rd Reading of the Carolina Station Development, and loaded the cost of the 4 new schools at Carolina Station – $125,000,000 – squarely on the shoulders of all Horry County Taxpayers. I am here tonight to inform you I do not think that will happen.

I only have 5 minutes so my comments are limited to the schools. However I am aware there are additional legal concerns regarding this Agreement – they pertain to requirements to include specific scheduling information; requirements to list all the I.P. owners’ names; and waiving an ordinance regarding serving alcohol within 500 feet of a residence.

It is puzzling that some Council members have pleaded for years for the State Legislature to provide Counties with a funding tool to pass infrastructure costs on large developments along to Developers. Here we have the largest single development undertaken in this County, and the State Legislature provides you with that tool in the form of the Residential Improvement District Act, and you turned your backs on it. In todays’ tough real estate climate, waiting a couple of months to iron out the R.I.D. agreement with International Paper was not unreasonable. One reason Will Garland asked you to defer 3rd Reading was the School Board knows it is not fair to tax all the residents for these schools. However, Council rejected Mr. Garland’s request. One Councilman argued the R.I.D Act lacked what he called “enabling legislation”. I checked with an attorney in the State Legislature in Columbia who assured me the Residential Improvement Act IS the “enabling legislation”.

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Coast RTA is a participant in the Food Lion Shop & Share Program. Ara Heinz, Grants/Procurement Specialist at The Coast RTA has requested support from HPC while shopping at Food Lion.

Coast RTA is eligible as a non-profit organization to participate in this program. The program works this way:

Food Lion offers MVP Cards to all customers. These cards allow the customers to receive savings on certain items in the store. Additionally, the cards can be tied to a non-profit agency as a fundraising effort. If the customer decides to link their MVP card with Coast RTA, each time that customer shops at Food Lion and uses their MVP card, a portion of the total grocery purchase will be donated to Coast. (Coast must have at least 25 MVP cards linked in order to participate.) At the end of each quarter, Food Lion will divide the funds proportionally among the Lion Shop & Share organizations (including educational, religious, and civic organizations) depending on their accumulated sales. Coast RTA is eligible to receive up to $350.00 per quarter ($1,400.00/year).

The money received from this program will be used as a form of local match. This “match” will be used to access the grant funding from the state and federal government. (Every little bit of local match helps!)
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To All Horry County Taxpayers:

(Below is a letter from Joe DeFeo, the District 3 Representative to the Horry County School Board to all voters regarding the recent approval of Carolina Station. Every taxpayer in the County should read this letter and take action.)

Dear Voters,

I am responding to all about Carolina Station. (July 1) several school board members, including myself, went to the council meeting to make one last effort to stop or delay Carolina Station… in its current form. As you may have read from the newspaper we were (as expected) unsuccessful. I have met and talked with council members over the past few months to try and change the agreement with the county. The bottom line is the schools district is getting very little from International Paper for the burdens that this development will put on the school district. We could not even get them to agree to give us the future high school land rather than having us purchase the land… They did concede to cap the price at today’s level for a few years. They also donated the land for 2 other schools. I can only tell you that this is peanuts compared to the 110 million dollars it will take to build those schools. (HCP emphasis)

Unfortunately current law provides NO CONTROL whatsoever for a school board in these developments!!! I have talked with several of our legislative delegation members about allowing school boards to impose impact fees in areas where needed in the county (or county wide). Although I have always voted against new “taxes” and have always opposed tax increases… these impact fees will not be imposed on current residents and are a very minimal impact to a buyer. It will be very hard to get this through the statehouse but… I believe it is the ONLY way to solve this problem in growing counties such as Horry County, when you look at the current tax structure.

I can only ask that you write all our legislative delegation about allowing school boards to impose these fees on future development…

Thank you for all of your concerns. I wish we could have been more succsecful.

Joe DeFeo, District 3 Representative
Horry County School Board