COASTAL OBSERVER

The county parks and recreation commission finally had a quorum after years of struggling to get members to show up for meetings. It isn’t likely to have another.

Georgetown County Council plans to abolish six local boards and commissions that it created over the years to advise different departments. The measure received the first of three required approvals this week.

The Midway Fire Rescue Board, the Airport Commission, the Historical Commission, the board for the rural fire district and the Sheriff’s Advisory Board will also be disbanded.

The Historical Commission has seven vacant seats, said Jay Watson, the county attorney.

“A lot of the purposes were budget, policy” and things that are now handled by county staff, he said.

The sheriff’s office created its own advisory board to replace the one formed by County Council.

Watson told the council that it could still create ad hoc committees to get citizen input on issues with county departments.

Dick Faulk, who chairs the Midway board, said before the meeting that he was aware of the move, but wasn’t sure about the council’s reasoning.

“Most of them don’t cost them any money and add a factor of input from members of the community,” he said. “I think it will be a loss.”

The Midway board this year helped create a nonprofit foundation that would accept donations from the public to help department employees with personal needs beyond the workplace.

“Many people ask, How can I help Midway?” Faulk said. “This money can’t be used for operations, it’s just for the firemen themselves.”

Council Member Bob Anderson asked if the foundation would continue without the Midway board.

Fire Chief Brent McClellan said the nonprofit was separate from the board.

It was the parks and recreation board that drew most of the council’s concern. It was one that the county has struggled to keep afloat. 

After years of failing to attract at least four of its seven members to monthly meetings, the commission went to quarterly meetings in January 2024. It moved them between the county’s four regional recreation centers.

Only the first meeting, at the Waccamaw Rec Center, drew any members of the public. Only two commission members showed up.

“It hasn’t proven as successful as we hoped it would be,” Beth Goodale, the Parks and Recreation director, said.

When the commission was formed in 1997, it was responsible for setting policy, adopting the department budget of about $1 million and hiring the recreation director. Its first item of business was to talk about plans for a park next to the future Waccamaw Middle School.

The commission is now only an advisory board. With more facilities and programs that the department had 28 years ago, staff are meeting more of the public in the community, Goodale said.

“There are so many more communication vehicles out there now,” she said.

Council Member Louis Morant asked if the department would still be inspecting facilities without the commission’s help. Goodale said the commission members didn’t provide that level of oversight.

Would there still be someone to field concerns from the public, Morant asked.

“We’re getting the calls,” Goodale said. “That’s an everyday thing.”

There is now a group at the Stables Park tennis center that is modeled on the Friends of the Library. Goodale envisions that and similar groups as the successors to the recreation commission.

“I think there are a lot of other options,” she said.