Tag: Horry County

Heroin Epidemic Raises Awareness of Community Problems

The heroin epidemic in Horry County has reached proportions that seems to finally have spurred local government agencies to begin addressing violence and other problems throughout Horry County.

Six months ago, community activists Bennie Swans, Jon Bonsignor and Tim McCray approached Myrtle Beach City Council for help in addressing violence in the community.

They were essentially turned away with Mayor John Rhodes giving his impression of a Donald Trump style ‘gotcha’, blaming the community for the problem, attacking the activists and claiming the focus on community violence would hurt tourism.

The three got a better reception at the Horry County Council level with the establishment of a Community Violence Subcommittee formed to investigate the problem and make a report including recommendations for ways to counter the rising problems of violent crime and drugs in the communities.

To date, that committee has floundered by becoming involved in a comparison study of minutiae related to Horry County and counties in other states, but, at least, it is doing something and, hopefully, will eventually find its way.

Tuesday night, the City of Myrtle Beach hosted an overflow crowd to a community meeting on the heroin epidemic at the Base Recreation Center near Market Common.

By all reports, the meeting was a good one. One could argue it was six months late, but at least a positive acknowledgement that there is a problem and it is going to take the entire community – citizens, community activists, law enforcement and other government agencies, the schools and various non-profits – working together to address the problem.

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Community Violence Subcommittee Stuck in Neutral

For the last three months, the Horry County Community Violence Subcommittee appears to have been stuck in neutral rather than moving forward to address the problems of violent crime in communities throughout the county.

In its last three meetings, Community Violence Subcommittee members have been discussing collection of data, both demographics and crime, from various websites in order to compare Horry County to counties from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Will this data collection and comparison help?

One assumes what is happening in communities such as Burgess, Poplar, Socastee and Racepath is more important than what is happening in Chatham County, Georgia or Orange County, Florida if the goal is to counter crime and its effects in Horry County.

(If the goal is to complete a report on how Horry County stacks up to other counties in relation to those statistics, then the current work of the subcommittee is on track.)

It would seem that meetings with pastors and other community leaders as well as parents and citizens would yield better information about what the problems are and what the community can do to counter those problems as well as what help it needs from sources such as police and other government agencies.

At one time, Horry County had effective Crimestoppers, D.A.R.E. and community policing programs that have fallen by the wayside in recent years.

The committee is currently scheduled to make a report on its progress at the September 26, 2016, meeting of the Horry County Public Safety Committee. At that time, it plans to present a survey form, presumably developed from its data mining, for citizens, at least in designated high crime areas, to fill out and return.

After receiving the completed survey forms, there seems to be some desire among subcommittee members to meet with citizens and leaders in various communities in the county.

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Enjoying the CLEAC Cookout

Let me give you a first-hand account of the fabulous Saturday we had at the Cook-Out themed “Connecting Cops, Kids and the Community” sponsored by CLEAC.

Over 500 guests from the communities, Sheriff & Police Officers, Fire Fighters and First Responders enjoyed thrill of the kids interacting, with the Fire-Sheriff-Police and politicians, at the magnificent North Myrtle Beach Sports Complex.

Everyone had a fun time and played sports and games assembled by the efficient personnel staff from the NMB Recreation department. Sheriff Phil Thompson, with an assist from Chief Deputy Sheriff Tom Fox at their booth, greeting everyone who came by plus the Sheriff’s staff handed out silver Junior Sheriff badges to the many kids who came by to say ” Hi Sheriff”.

Horry Police Deputy Chief Maurice Jones and Capt Bob Carr went around greeting and getting to know the people of the community and children. Carr went one step further throwing and competing with the kids at bean ball, and fishing at a simulator provided by DHEC.

Public safety Director Jay Fernandez standing by the new Fire Rig, with its ladder soaring high above the truck, looked quite happy at the many people who came by to where he greeted them with a big smile. Director Jay and the Fire personnel guided the kids to the Fire truck to blare the fire siren, shoot the water cannon, receive red fire hats, and run through water sprinklers.

The Myrtle Beach P D brought along their K-9 unit and SWAT team..naturally the kids and adults adored the German Shepard, a big gorgeous looking dog. The Shepard was calm, friendly and beautiful and was unfazed by the petting, kisses and of the huge attention it was getting.

The weather was perfect for a cook-out. There were plenty of games, sports activities. The looks on the happy faces of the kids showed their delight.

What was as joyful was to see Chairman Mark Lazarus playing football with the young future stars, with Councilman Harold Worley as an impartial spectator looking at the action.

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Vote for Reese Boyd in Senate District 34

The right choice to represent the people in Senate District 34 unquestionably is REESE BOYD.

Reese is a fair-minded, no nonsense politician. He is a leader who will vote for the best interests of his constituents, not for the Columbia BOSSES and special interests who line campaign coffers of his opponent.

Reese Boyd was born in Conway, graduated from Davidson College & University of S C School of Law. He is a member of the: Horry County GOP, South Strand Republican Club, the Grand Strand Opera Workshop, Palmetto Family Council. Reese lives in Murrells Inlet with his wife Lee, and two children Leila & Reese IV.

Despite what you have heard from his opponent and third party PACs who support his opponent, Reese Boyd is the true AND ONLY Conservative in the runoff election for Senate District 34.

Reese Boyd supports:

Term limits
Less government bureaucracy and interference in people’s lives
The Southern Evacuation Lifeline
Overhaul of Medicaid in the state
A real plan to fix the state’s roads
Fixing the erroneous FEMA flood plain maps
Protecting our beaches
During this campaign, Reese has been subjected to vicious attacks by his opponent and his opponent’s supporters, all of which are untrue. His opponent’s campaign is a classic example of – if you have nothing good to say about yourself, attack your opponent.

In this election, you have a clear choice between Reese Boyd, a conservative who will look out for the interests of his constituents, and his opponent who only looks out for himself.

I URGE YOU, to GO to the polls on Tuesday June 28th and vote again for REESE BOYD. He is an honest, true blue champion of the people, a person you can trust and the right man to be our NEW Senator.

Thank you for your consideration.

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Primary Elections Draw Few Voters

We had primary elections for local and state offices in Horry County yesterday and 90 percent of the voters stayed home.

In Horry County, it was basically Republicans voting as Democrats only had three races to vote in, one senate race and two house races, with most of those three districts in other counties.

Luke Rankin easily won the Senate District 33 Republican nomination and Senate District 34 will see a runoff between Reese Boyd and Stephen Goldfinch. Boyd won the Horry County portion of the district, but with Georgetown and Charleston precincts included came in two percentage points behind Goldfinch.

Rankin is an incumbent while Boyd and Goldfinch are vying for an open seat.

As an aside, incumbent Hugh Leatherman easily won the Republican nomination for Senate District 31, making Gov. Nikki Haley zero for three in her endorsements of candidates on the Grand Strand and in the Pee Dee.

There were no contested Republican House races in Horry County.

Angie Jones and Renee Elvis swept to easy victories in the Horry County Treasurer and Horry County Clerk of Courts races for the Republican nomination. Both races were for open seats.

Gary Loftus easily secured the nomination for Horry County Council District 4. Other county council Republican nominations went to Paul Prince in District 9 and Danny Hardee in District 10.

Loftus and Prince are incumbents while District 10 was an open seat.

Scott Thompson and David Cox will face off in a runoff election in two weeks for the Republican nomination for Horry County Board of Education District 4. Other Board of Education Republican nominations went to John Poston in District 8, Chris Hardwick in District 9 and Shanda Allen in District 11.

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Horry County Sheriff Referendum Appears Dead

It appears that decisions have been made out of the public eye that no referendum will be put to the people on whether to consolidate the Horry County Police Department and Horry County Sheriff’s Department.

An advertisement for applications for the position of police chief was posted recently on the Horry County website.

This would not have been done if there was any chance Horry County Council would vote to authorize a referendum on whether the two departments should be consolidated.

Sources familiar with the views of council members say there are only two votes among council members that would support placing a referendum before the voters.

There appeared to be a majority opinion among county residents that the Sheriff’s Department should take over HCPD in order to fix it. One wonders why county council members are so out of contact with the citizens they represent.

With the decision to forego a referendum and hire a new chief, the responsibility for fixing the many problems at HCPD rests squarely on the shoulders of Horry County Council members.

If the voters approved consolidation of the two departments, something I believe would have happened if a referendum were held, it would have solved another potential problem for Horry County Government that it has strived to ignore through the years.

The problem is one of dual taxation where residents of the various cities within Horry County pay tax millage to fund HCPD while not getting the benefit of police services from the county police.

HCPD is currently funded from the county’s general fund from county wide millage collected from property owners throughout the county.

HCPD is currently funded from the county’s general fund from county wide millage collected from property owners throughout the county.

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In the Center of the Transgender Storm – Update

The Horry County School Board is trying to work its way out of the center of a transgender storm regarding bathroom usage in schools.

After the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recorded a 2-1 decision in the case of G.G. v. Gloucester (VA) County recently, a student who had been suspended for one day for using a school bathroom not of the student’s “birth-assigned sex” threatened to sue Horry County Schools.

The student is represented by the Transgender Law Center of California, which sent a letter to the school district threatening the law suit.

Just in the last several days, Horry County School Board members and Superintendent Rick Maxey received an email with two attachments from an attorney of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Scottsdale, Arizona headquartered organization with a branch in Georgia.

The subject of the email is: “Schools Are Not Legally Required to Allow Students to Use Opposite-Sex Restrooms, Showers, and Changing Rooms.”

One of the email attachments “explains the recent decision in the case of G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board and dispels the myth that, following the decision, schools are required to allow students to use the restrooms of the opposite sex,” according to the email.

My first thought was why do a law center based in California and a non-profit organization headquartered in Arizona want to get involved in Horry County?

My second thought, an answer to the first, was so that these two organizations can bring their causes into the national spotlight, using Horry County to test the Fourth Circuit ruling. You know, the old 15 minutes of fame or, in this case, maybe 15 years of fame for these organizations.

Do we want our school board to get in the middle of a national legal fight over transgender rights, equal protection, Title IX, discrimination and the like or do we want them concentrating on educating our children?

Remember, any public money spent on fighting lawsuits is money taken away from our children’s education. And we certainly don’t want to have to raise taxes just to be the center of national media attention.

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Dr. Catherine Cameron Announces for School Board

MYRTLE BEACH, April 19 — Dr. Catherine Cameron, 60, of Myrtle Beach has announced her candidacy for the District 4 School Board seat.

Cameron is a lifelong business entrepreneur as well as an educator who has taught college for 20 years in traditional as well as online formats, with many of her students being military master degree candidates. She presently teaches for American Business & Technology University in St. Louis, Mo. Cameron also owned her own accredited real estate school in Pittsburgh, and with her husband runs a condo property management firm in Surfside Beach.

As a business consultant, expert and entrepreneur, she developed the “777 Business Program” for prospective entrepreneurs, along with coursework and program on other management topics. She has published three training manuals, presents this business coursework at Horry Georgetown Technical College’s Workforce Development Program.

Being a college professor, Dr. Cameron experiences firsthand that many students are either not prepared to compete academically with other students, don’t understand how to efficiently and effectively use the computer, internet and other technological tools available, or appreciate group synergy and the importance of working in teams. She is preparing students of Horry County today for their careers tomorrow, she says.

The school board seat Dr. Cameron is running for became open due to the death in February of school board member Kay Loftus, who had served on the board for 14 years. Ironically Dr. Cameron met Kay once at a Chamber of Commerce function and Loftus had recommended she run for the school board. When they discovered they lived in the same district the two just laughed, Dr. Cameron said.

District 4 includes St. James, Socastee, Myrtle Beach and Carolina Forest.

Born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, Cameron and her husband Bill have owned a second home in Myrtle Beach for 20 years, and finally were able to call it their fulltime home two years ago. She said they are a “real Brady Bunch” and together have 5 children and 9 grandchildren spread out across many States.

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First Republican Candidate Poll

Grand Strand Daily has acquired a copy of results from a recent poll on some of the Republican candidates in Horry County and several key races in this election cycle.

Polls such as this are not uncommon this early in the primary period as PACs, campaigns, business groups and donors are interested in where respective candidates are starting and what work must be done to make them viable.

Grand Strand Daily is in no way associated with this poll, but was able to obtain a copy of the results.

According to information provided, polling was conducted over four days. Only registered Republican voters who participated in at least two of the last three Republican primaries were contacted. A total of 347 interviews were completed for the poll sample.

The polling was very limited to ascertain only name recognition and favorability factors for the candidates listed.

Results from the poll questions were as follows:

Questionnaire

I am going to read a list of 12 declared candidates for elective office in Horry County in 2016. Please tell me if you have ever heard of or are familiar with this person. If you do not know this person, just respond ‘Don’t Know’. If you do know or have heard of this person, please tell me if you view this person ‘Favorably’, ‘Unfavorably’ or ‘No Opinion’.

Candidate Don’t Know Fav Unfav No Opinion

Robert Seth Rabon 68%/236 42 12 57

Lois Eargle 31%/108 169 69 109

Scott Pyle 49%/170 94 23 60

Luke Rankin 29%/101 166 51 29

Dennis DiSabato 56%/194 69 41 43

Angie Jones 69%/239 23 65 21

Jonathon Hyman 76%/263 44 12 28

Gary Loftus 42%/145 80 42 80

Dick Withington 61%/212 12 79 44

David Jordan 58%/201 68 31 47

Rene Elvis 72%/250 36 48 13

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Community Violence Subcommittee Update

The Community Violence Subcommittee was given specific goals and objectives earlier this week by Al Allen, Chairman of the Horry County Public Safety Committee.

Allen told the committee that he had been too vague when he first appointed the subcommittee and he wanted to clarify its mission.

Allen named the following six persons as committee members: council member Jimmy Washington, chairman, school board member Holly Heniford, vice chairman, Rev. George Payton, spokesperson, HCPD Chief Saundra Rhodes or designee, HC Sheriff Chief Deputy Tom Fox or designee and Van Washington, community leader.

These six members are charged with meeting once a month at the county council conference room where meetings will be broadcast, livestreamed and taped.

In addition, Allen requested subcommittee members to identify the causes and influences that lead to violence in the community as well as visit with all public, private and church groups presently operating to reduce violence and crime in Horry County to rank their effectiveness.

Allen tasked the subcommittee with making a progress report to the Public Safety Committee in September 2016 and to be prepared to present a final report with findings and recommendations to full council in early 2017.

The subcommittee evolved from a request by community activist Benny Swans to the Public Safety Committee.

Swans asked the committee to help in establishing a series of community forums open to all citizens where problems, concerns, and eyewitness accounts of violence could be heard as well as discussions about possible solutions to the growing problem of violent personal and property crimes throughout the county.

Swans stressed the high murder rates, especially among young people, that have occurred in the last several years. Swans stressed that this effort was important to help save the lives of our children.

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