Politics

Coast RTA Select Committee Findings

As the Select Committee on Coast RTA considers its findings to report to Horry County Council, several items from the reams of information collected by the committee stand out.

While Coast RTA General Manager Myers Rollins told the committee several times that the project was “contaminated from the beginning” because SCDOT administered the project grant under the wrong set of federal guidelines, this mistake alone did not cause the project to fail.

Had Coast RTA completed the shelter project by the end of the second contract extension, this SCDOT mistake would have probably gone unnoticed. Coast RTA submitted and was paid on 13 invoices from 2007 through 2010 even though the wrong guidelines were being used.

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The Governor’s Race and Casino Gambling

The desire for casino gambling has never left the minds of certain players along the Grand Strand.

In 2009, this group put its initial support behind Gresham Barrett in the governor’s race. Remember the $85,000 funneled to Barrett that was part of Coastal Kickback?

It only takes the signature of the governor on an agreement with a Native American tribe to bring casino gambling into the state. Both state and local governments are not part of the process.

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Bobby Harrell vs. Alan Wilson – An Uneven Fight?

The ongoing legal challenge over whether S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson can use the State Grand Jury to investigate ethics violation allegations against S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell will go a long way to answering the question of whether Harrell is the most powerful individual in the state.

Attorneys representing Harrell challenged Wilson’s right to investigate Harrell during a March 21, 2014 hearing before S.C. Circuit Court Judge Casey Manning.

Should Manning rule in Harrell’s favor, he will effectively establish in law what has been long established in fact, namely, S.C. legislators are above the law.

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Select Committee on Coast RTA Considering Final Report

The Select Committee on Coast RTA members have until Friday to come up with preliminary statements for consideration in the committee’s final report.

Charged with assessing the failures of a shelter and sign project and an intermodal center project, the committee must conclude whether the failures of the projects point to systemic problems within the management of the agency. It must also make a recommendation on future funding of the transportation agency by Horry County Council.

During its third meeting April 21st, the committee concentrated on new information received over the last two weeks about an Intergovernmental Agreement with the City of Myrtle Beach, a resolution by the Coast RTA board, the Coast RTA/SCDOT shelter project contract and a contract between Tolar Mfg. and Coast RTA for the shelters and associated equipment.

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Unresolved Issues Remain with Coast RTA Shelter Project

The third meeting of the Select Committee on Coast RTA will have to obtain some answers to several unresolved issues regarding the shelter and sign project before the committee can begin to finalize a report.

Despite fairly lengthy presentations by Coast RTA and SCDOT at the second meeting of the committee, held on April 7th, the number of shelters Coast RTA managed to install for use by its passengers remains in question.

While Coast RTA has maintained all along that it purchased 73 shelters total and installed 15 of those shelters, 10 shelters installed in the City of Myrtle Beach appear to be used for purposes other than those for which a $1 million grant was received by Coast RTA from the Waccamaw COG GSATS in 2005.

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Coast RTA Shelter Project: Whose Shelters are They Anyway?

An intensive study of documents provided by Coast RTA, SCDOT and the City of Myrtle Beach have brought to light discrepancies between the agencies about what exactly happened with the shelter project and associated funds.

It is obvious from studying the documents why Horry County Council chairman Mark Lazarus established an ad hoc Select Committee on Coast RTA to take an in-depth look at the project.

Presentations made before the Select Committee, at its April 7, 2014 meeting, by both SCDOT and Coast RTA indicate that 73 shelters were purchased by Coast RTA. Of these, 15 shelters were installed by Coast RTA for its use. After nine years, SCDOT cancelled the project and the remaining 58 shelters were inventoried and auctioned by GovDeals.com.

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Don Wizeman – Rest in Peace “The Watchman”

I was more than saddened yesterday to hear of the death of my friend Don Wizeman.

Don Wizeman was a visionary, never much appreciated by the good ole boys of the Myrtle Beach area, even though many of his tourism marketing ideas were well ahead of their time.

He suffered fools badly, which often brought him into conflict with many of the area’s so-called movers and shakers.

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Near Miss on RIDE III for Carolina Forest

Residents of Carolina Forest should be aware of how nearly they were cut out of the RIDE III decision making process before it even got started.

Horry County Council approved, at last week’s budget retreat, a process that would have cut out a citizens’ committee from the project identification phase of the RIDE process in favor of county and city staffs making up the initial list of projects.

Fortunately, after a short break, council reconsidered what it had approved and amended the process to put the citizens committee back in.

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Brent Schulz Seeking Third Term in Horry District Two

Brent Schulz is seeking his third consecutive term as Horry County Council member for District Two.

Nearing the end of his second term, Schulz said he enjoys his work on council and is happy he has been able to help his constituents.

“I really enjoy serving on council a lot,” Schulz said. “Over my two terms, we have been able to accomplish many of the things people wanted to see in the district without raising taxes.”

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Coast RTA Funding Up Against Tight County Budget

Horry County’s funding for Coast RTA could be more affected by a tight county budget than by the current controversy the agency is embroiled in with SCDOT over Coast RTA’s cancelled sign and shelter project among other differences.

County staff had to cut $750,000 for dirt road paving from the budget just to present a preliminary balanced budget to county council at the council’s budget retreat this week. Coast RTA funding remained at $1.055 million in the preliminary budget.

Cutting dirt road funding has serious impacts on the citizens of at least five council districts, all of which have little to no bus service. Additionally, it has lesser impacts on five more council districts that do have some level of bus service.

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