COASTAL OBSERVER

It’s budget season on Pawleys Island, and even with the town on track to add nearly $500,000 to it’s $2.6 million reserve there are some tough choices to be made.

A weekend of torrential rain following on the heels of seasonal high tides highlighted the need for drainage work. The current budget, which runs through Dec. 31, has $10,000 for maintenance. Maybe that needs to be $25,000, Administrator Dan Newquist told Town Council this week.

“Instead of going from 10 to 25, it might be a bigger number than that,” Mayor Brian Henry said. He mentioned as much as $100,000.

That’s in addition to $260,000 the town received from a state budget earmarked for drainage improvements and the projects that will be included in a stormwater master plan the council is due to review next month.

It’s also for work on drains that are actually owned by the state Department of Transportation.

“DOT has been responsive, at times,” Newquist said. “It has been spotty.”

Council Member Rocky Holliday said the DOT spent an hour working on drainage in front of his house last week. It made no difference whether the water fell from the sky or rose from the creek.

“We need to hold them responsible for these drains,” Henry said.

At the same time, he said the town can work with the state, like it did on two pilot projects around Town Hall.

“If we have money in the budget, we’re not coming hat in hand,” he said.

Concerns about drainage are growing even as the town works to address them. Henry told the council about a snarky email sent by a property owner to Newquist over the weekend.

“That was a little demeaning to me, a little offensive,” he said. “If it’s something we didn’t do right, then we need to go look at it, study it and make sure that we fix the problem.”

But the email, whose sender he didn’t name, “there’s no place for that.”

The town also needs to update its 2011 beach management plan, which the state requires to be updated every 10 years.

“A lot’s happened on the beach on Pawleys Island since 2011,” Newquist said, including a beach renourishment project completed in 2020.

If the town wants to get state funding for future projects, it will need an updated management plan, which he estimated will cost $15,000 if the Planning Commission does some of the work.

Newquist also proposed allocating up to $40,000 for creating a historic preservation program that the Planning Commission has been working on over the past year.

The police department wants to replace the Ford pickup that would have been replaced two years ago had the town not changed from a six-year to an eight-year replacement schedule.

The truck “has been on a wing and a prayer over the past year,” Police Chief Mike Fanning said.

While that’s the department’s need this year, he told council that the 11-year-old radios the officers use can’t be repaired anymore. They have to be upgraded at $8,000 each.

And the 12-year-old Tasers are no longer supported by the manufacturer, which raises a question of liability, Fanning said.

“Will these work? Yes. Will these work when we need them? I don’t know,” he said.

Those are items “to put on the radar,” Fanning said.

Then there is the sound quality in the Town Hall conference room. 

“There’s been a lot of feedback on the audio issues,” Newquist said.

Henry said an upgrade is needed. “It’s terrible. It goes in and out,” he said that he discovered on a recent Zoom meeting from the room. “I feel bad for the people that try to Zoom in to spend time listening to us.”

He has been talking with Mark Hawn, a Planning Commission member and unopposed candidate for a seat on Town Council next month, about new microphones, speakers and improving the room’s acoustics.

Council Member Guerry Green pointed out there is also the cost of settling a lawsuit brought by property owners at Prince George over the 2020 renourishment. That is $150,000.

And he said FEMA is cutting back on the aid it provides after disasters. If there is a disaster, the town’s revenue from accommodations tax will dry up until houses can be rented again, he noted.

“Is the town prepared for that?” he asked. “What would the town do?”

Auditors reported last month that the town has unrestricted reserves that will cover seven months of operations. The average for local governments is three month.

Green said the average doesn’t account for threats faced by coastal communities.

“Putting more money in the bank, you might have to give up something to do it,” he said. “You’ll be damn glad you’ve got that when the day comes.”

Holliday agreed.

“Basically you’re saying unlike most governments nothing says you have to spend everything you make,” he said.

Council will get a draft of the budget for 2026 next month and give it final approval in December.