COASTAL OBSERVER

The group that wants to form a town in the Pawleys Island-Litchfield area has proposed a two-year agreement with Georgetown County for continued law enforcement coverage. It would be up to the new town government to extend or renegotiate the contract.

The Pawleys Litchfield Municipal Study Group has gathered signatures on a petition asking the S.C. Secretary of State’s office to hold a referendum on forming a town in the 29585 ZIP code. It is also preparing a feasibility study to show what services the town would provide and how it would pay for them. State law requires that the town show it can provide “a substantially similar level of law enforcement services” to what currently exists.

The study group wants the county to continue to provide law enforcement to the area in the same way it does today, noting that property owners will still be paying county taxes for that service.

After meeting with Jim Register, a member of the study group, in August, Sheriff Carter Weaver posed a list of questions about the proposed town. The answers were prepared and delivered by email to the county attorney last week by Virginia Bozeman, an attorney for the Pope Flynn law firm that is working for the study group.

The document also included a proposed letter that the study group would like Weaver to sign. It would ensure that law enforcement for what the group calls the Lower Waccamaw Neck would continue with “the same number of officers, working the same scheduled shifts and performing the same law enforcement services,” as long as county funding remains the same, for the first two years after incorporation.

After that “the parties will reevaluate their relationship and either extend or renegotiate the contract,” the draft letter says.

Andy Hallock, who chairs the study group, said their lawyers confirmed that the letter was delivered and that they spoke with the county attorney, Jay Watson. He said they have not heard anything else.

“I gave my questions to the group, and they have yet to answer,” Weaver said. “I have not been sent anything by the incorporation group.”

He has previously asked the study group for a “Plan B” for law enforcement. Hallock has said there is no such plan.

“There has been no further discussion since August. That in itself says a lot,” Weaver said. “It’s not the sheriff that’s holding up anything.”

The study group says it has collected over 2,500 signatures, more than the number required but short of its goal of 3,000. The feasibility study is nearly complete. Agreement on law enforcement is a key element, but Hallock said the study group cannot commit a future town government to a course of action.

“People think we’re the government,” he said. “We’re not.”

The study group hopes the new town will be created by the end of 2026, according to the letter. That includes approval of its application, a referendum to create a town and, if the referendum passes, the election of a mayor and council.

In response to questions about how the town will handle court, house inmates, manage animal control and maintain school resource officers, the study group’s attorney said those are all topics outside what they are required to address by the state law on incorporation.

The new town “hopes to be treated in the same manner as other municipalities in Georgetown County,” Bozeman wrote. It will also follow all applicable laws, she added.

Asked how the town government would respond to the loss of control over law enforcement, Bozeman wrote that is “a political hypothetical.”

The study group realizes that a contract “involves some level of autonomy and discretion by the Sheriff, the Study Group cannot speak for a governing body that does not yet exist,” she wrote.

The same is true, she said, about Weaver’s proposal that any contract with a new town include a formula that adds deputies and their equipment based on growth.

The focus of the new town proposed by the study group would be land use. The incorporation effort went public last year after Georgetown County approved an update to its future land use plan that critics said would increase residential development on Waccamaw Neck. The county is now updating its zoning and development regulations to implement the plan.

The new town will have its own plan, and Weaver asked the study group what that will entail.

The plan will require public input, Bozeman wrote, adding that “it would contravene this public democratic process for the Study Group to presume its outcome.”

The group’s wants a plan that reduces residential density and slows population growth, she said.

Weaver said it was an important question.

“It’s hard for me to say how I’m going to protect it if I don’t know what I’m going to protect,” he said.

Questions about animal control, courts and resource officers for the five schools in the study group’s proposed town highlight the complexity of law enforcement, Weaver said.

Animal control “exists and it’s a big expense,” he said. 

The resource officers work beyond the school hours to provide security and deal with threats. “That’s a 24/7 operation,” Weaver said. “I can see that growing exponentially.” 

Weaver also offered to provide the study group a “comprehensive crime analysis” for the area.

Bozeman said they would welcome the information.

The study group is continuing to host community meetings to explain the incorporation process and its plans. One is scheduled today at the Litchfield Country Club clubhouse at 6 p.m.