COASTAL OBSERVER

The group leading an effort to create a town in the Pawleys Island-Litchfield area has asked its lawyers to help negotiate an agreement with Georgetown County to provide law enforcement.

“They’re in negotiation,” said Andy Hallock, who chairs the Pawleys Litchfield Municipal Study Group.

While that’s going on, the group has suspended its series of neighborhood meetings to explain to residents in the 29585 ZIP code how it plans to bring the issue to a vote, what services it envisions for the town and how it would pay for them.

The study group was about halfway through its list of neighborhood meetings when it received a letter from Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver this month saying that he would not agree to the group’s proposal to maintain current staffing and schedules in the area – pending continued funding – for two years.

Weaver said additional resources would be needed for “continuous, dedicated future municipal coverage” that neither the county nor the study group has budgeted for.

As part of the incorporation process, the group must provide the S.C. Secretary of State’s Office with a proposal for “a substantially similar level of law enforcement services” once a new town is created.

The principal service proposed for the new town is planning and zoning. Other services, such as fire and EMS and utilities, would be provided through county and regional government. 

The Rev. Dr. Norvel Goff, pastor of St. John AME, invited the study group to make a presentation at the church last week, a follow-up to a meeting in October with county officials who raised doubts about the incorporation effort.

“The lawyers are now involved,” Hallock told him in a text message. “We are suspending any public meetings for the time being. We cannot file an application with the state without an agreement from the sheriff to continue providing services.”

The study group held a meeting at the Waccamaw Regional Rec Center in Parkersville, just down the street from St. John, this summer.

“The study group has done the research on the county’s existing comprehensive land use plan. We believe Parkersville is in jeopardy due to the unwanted development,” Hallock told Goff.

Parkersville residents and others who met at the church last week agreed. They don’t agree that forming a new town is the answer.

There is also concern that no one in the predominantly Black community was part of the study group.

“They didn’t invite us to the table,” said Vincent Davis, president of the Pawleys Island Civic Club, which opposes incorporation. “It has to be inclusive.”

Davis said the club has worked for decades to get drainage improvements and sidewalks in the Parkersville area. Those are now part of the county’s capital project sales tax initiative approved by voters last year and the county’s stormwater master plan.

“This is why I’m so against incorporation,” Davis said.

At the same time, he said the development of 22 new homes on Petigru Drive that sell for $450,000 and up on property that was acquired for $5,000 through an heirs property suit “broke my heart.”

Mary Black said Georgetown County is the problem.

“You have no support from County Council,” she told Davis. “They vote for high-density development every time.”

“County Council does not care about us,” Jackie Lewis said.

Goff proposed that the community figure out how to get more from the council. “There needs to be a strategy,” he said. “If County Council is not listening, then we need a new county councilman.”

Parkersville is currently represented by Council Member Stella Mercado, who is up for re-election in 2026.

And changing one council member, people noted, would not effect the votes of the other six members, four of whom represent districts west of the Waccamaw River.

“The other council members from across the river are not concerned about us,” Bob Mimms said.

He also pointed out that while the community shows up for public hearings on land use issues, the property developers are contacting council members one-on-one. “You’re not doing that,” he said.

Goff, who served on the city council in Hartford, Conn., agreed.

“We can’t be an island unto ourselves,” he said. “We have to sit down and talk to these people.”

It would help if the council members would come to Parkersville and see what’s going on, Lewis said.

Goff said he would find a date and invite the council.

“They represent us even if the majority is elsewhere,” he said. “Let’s invite the County Council to meet in Pawleys Island.”

And listen, he added.