Mike Roberts for Horry County Council District 7

By Paul Gable

The June 10th Republican Primary for Horry County Council District 7 gives voters a distinct choice between candidates Mike Roberts and Liz Gilland.

Roberts is a relative unknown on the political scene while Gilland served on county council for District 8 from 1995-2003 and as council chairman from 2003-10.

Most politicians claim to want to serve the people or give back to the people. Mike Roberts is one of the people!

He is not tied to special interests and will vote according to what he believes is good for the majority of citizens not the few who are trying to take much more from the county than they will ever give.

If I was still in the military, Roberts is the type of guy I would want covering my back because you know you can depend on him to do what is right, not what is easy and to look out for you, not just himself.

And, Roberts is a strong conservative fiscally who knows the value of a dollar and how hard working people should not be taxed for other than essential services from government.

Gilland, on the other hand, brings a lot of baggage to this race. She still owes $45,000 in ethics fines to the S.C. Ethics Commission.

During her time as county chairman, Gilland was a globe trotter visiting Munich, Paris, London, Tokyo and Dubai in the name of economic and tourism development. We are still waiting for those Lufthansa and Japan Airlines jets to begin regularly scheduled arrivals and departures from the airport.

Then, there were the gates Gilland got installed on county roads to block through traffic in Myrtle Trace so her core supporters in the sub-division did not have to pay the cost of maintaining the roads while still having limited, essentially private access to their neighborhoods.

Who can forget the failed half billion dollar airport plan that Gilland supported so strongly? It would have put a big, new terminal on the west side of the runway complete with 32 passenger gates and three runways. All of this for an airport that struggles to attract more than 800,000 passengers a year.

That pipe dream cost the county approximately $25 million during its five years of planning stages, but, fortunately, flopped on its own merits before construction actually began. But why even consider such nonsense?

There was also the giant flip flop on the Horry County Solid Waste Authority, an agency Gilland introduced an ordinance to disband in the early 2000’s, but one she strongly supported after becoming chairman and being invited to its budget retreats in Wilmington. She was instrumental in the vote that established a monopoly over the county’s garbage for the HCSWA as chairman.

There is a clear choice in the Horry County Council District 7 Republican Primary race. A choice between a man of the people and a candidate of special interests, a man who will watch over every dollar the county plans to spend or a candidate who has never seen a new tax she didn’t like.

The Roberts campaign has a Meet and Greet with the candidate planned for the Conway Country Club Friday May 30th from 5-8 p.m.

 

 

 

 

 

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