It must be the water at Pinopolis because the City of Myrtle Beach budget retreat provided plenty of unusual highlights this year.

From $125 per year library cards to major surgical procedures under the city healthcare plan being shipped off to Costa Rica to the Downtown Redevelopment Corporation having a new secret plan for the pavilion site, the budget retreat had its moments.

Police Chief Warren Gall actually admitted that his force of caped crusaders does not do as effective a job of policing the south end of the city as it does the city’s north end. For anybody familiar with the city and its politics, that’s not news. In fact it’s quite obvious.