COASTAL OBSERVER

The parking lot has stood for decades on the shifting sands at the south end of Pawleys Island where the Atlantic Ocean and Pawleys Creek flow around, and occasionally over, it. Since the start of the new year, the lot has offered a firmer footing.

“It’s a big improvement,” said Karin Canjura, who came with her family from New York to stay at Litchfield Plantation over the holidays.

She pointed to her bare feet.

“I wouldn’t have done this before,” she said.

The parking lot is now paved.

The work was part of a $417,133 upgrade by Georgetown County, which has owned the property at the end of Springs Avenue since 1969. It was paid for by a combination of federal disaster funds and the county’s road user fee.

Along with asphalt and pervious concrete paving, there is a new handicapped-accessible walkway to the beach, new trash bins and improved drainage.

“I hope people are really excited,” said Beth Goodale, the county’s director of Recreation and Community Services.

Although it’s owned by the county, the town of Pawleys Island polices the parking lot and fields complaints about it. Dan Newquist, the town administrator, said most of the comments he has heard have been favorable.

“It was becoming a real maintenance headache,” he said. 

When the county scraped the sand and gravel surface, it took about a week for potholes to return, Newquist and Goodale said.

The parking spaces that used to be marked with railroad cross ties are now striped.

“It’s going to be more orderly,” Police Chief Mike Fanning said. “Hopefully, it will cut down on the number of accidents.”

There was one minor accident reported since the lot reopened on Jan. 1 after being closed for two months during the renovation.

With 75 parking spaces, the lot is the largest free public beach access in Georgetown County. Newquist said it is increasingly busy even on weekdays in the off-season.

The lot also has a beach wheelchair, donated to the town by the Adaptive Surf Project and housed in a shed built for an Eagle Scout project. The town manages its use.

“When you have a resource like this, you start to realize how much of a need there is,” Newquist said. With the paving, “it feels more accessible.”

Brittany Reece, a Hagley resident, returned to the lot for the first time last week with her son. She said the paving would make it easier to move a wagon filled with beach gear. It was also nice to be able to knock the sand off her shoes before she got back into her truck.

“It’s great,” Reece said. “The parking spaces seem a lot better.”

Paving the south end lot isn’t likely to lead to paving at other beach accesses.

Newquist said the town is able to keep up with grading the surfaces at its access points. It was the overwash from storms that made the south end so hard to maintain, Goodale said.

“It was very, very difficult,” she said.

The new trash bins at the parking lot are part of program the county has extended to other facilities. They are designed to work with a trailer that empties the bins and compacts the trash. The bins have lids and replace open cans that were used previously.

The new bins don’t require plastic bags, which will save the county $10,000 a year and reduce plastic that goes into the landfill, Goodale said.

“They’re sunshiney yellow so people can’t miss them,” she added.

The old bins overflowed and blew trash onto the beach and into the creek, which raised concerns among town officials.

“I don’t want that to be people’s impression of Pawleys Island,” Newquist said.