COASTAL OBSERVER

Public safety has jumped past tourism promotion in requests for a share of Georgetown County’s accommodations tax revenue. That follows a series of highly-publicized drownings in the ocean off the town of Pawleys Island.

“It wasn’t just that,” Midway Fire Rescue Chief Brent McClellan said. “It’s the influx of calls we get on the beach now. I don’t like to say summer; it’s not even seasonal.”

The county awards grants each year from revenue it receives from the 2 percent state tax on short-term rentals. This year it has 31 requests totaling $2.9 million. Just over $1 million in requests are for public safety initiatives. 

The sheriff’s office wants $638,828 to expand its beach patrol from two to four deputies. The money would cover salaries, vehicles, training and equipment. The beach patrol received $166,514 this year after requesting $355,379.

The Murrells Inlet-Garden City Fire Department wants $229,660 to fund its marine safety program and add emergency medical coverage during spring and fall motorcycle rallies. The Accommodations Tax Advisory Committee recommended cuts last year, but the County Council approved full funding.

The department responded to 32 marine calls between Memorial Day and Labor Day. There were six swimmers in distress, but no drownings, it said in its request.

Midway has responded to 16 drownings since 2023. Two on Pawleys Island this summer followed two within two weeks last fall, all on the island’s north end.

Midway is asking for $153,902 to expand its water rescue operations through additional training and equipment. Its internal review of the response to the drownings on Pawleys Island helped shape its request for additional funds, McClellan said.

“We do have a tough time getting our vehicles to the beach,” he said.

The request includes $75,000 for a Polaris side-by-side utility vehicle. It would be the second for the department, allowing it to cover multiple calls from different stations.

The request also includes $56,000 for two hand-held sonar units in addition to the one Midway already has. They can be used in waterways and ponds in addition to the beach.

“The things we are asking for are not just Pawleys specific,” McClellan said.

The county traditionally spends the largest portion of the accommodations tax revenue on tourism marketing, done through the Chamber of Commerce with oversight from the Tourism Management Commission. This year the chamber is seeking $794,000 for promotion and $84,600 for research.

The tourism commission budget also includes $50,000 to fund promotion of festivals and events. While those requests are supposed to go to the commission, events account for $440,219 of the requests for direct funding through the advisory committee. 

Leading the list is the Georgetown Business Association with three requests totaling  $67,939 to promote its Christmas events, art and wine walk and Music in the Park series. A $55,000 request from the Gullah-Geechee Chamber of Commerce would help fund a marker to honor enslaved Africans who were brought through the port of Georgetown and a year of programs to go with it. JB’s Celebration Park wants $50,000 to help revive the Pawleys Island Crawfish Festival, an annual event in the 1980s and early ’90s, at its new facility in Willbrook.

Other requests include the Myrtle Beach Area Hospitality Association, which wants $30,000 to promote a regional restaurant week in January, and a $15,000 request from Favour, a nonprofit in Hilton Head, to put on a Southern Blues and Line Dance Festival in March. It held a similar event over the weekend with support from Beaufort County.

Three requests seek to maintain tourism infrastructure at a cost of $226,089. Those are for trash pickup by the county at Garden City, the Marsh Walk and the Bike the Neck path ($122,089); trash pickup and access maintenance at the Litchfield Beaches ($97,000); and street lights at Garden City ($7,000).

Maintaining the roadside and median on Highway 17 from Murrells Inlet through Pawleys Island is the focus of six requests totaling $223,400.

The requests will be reviewed Nov. 6 by the advisory committee.