COASTAL OBSERVER

A bike path on Martin Luther King Road, outdoor pickleball and basketball courts at the regional rec center, a rebuilt park in Murrells Inlet and a new fire station at DeBordieu are among the top projects being considered for a share of a proposed capital projects sales tax.

But nine of the top 20 projects are for water and sewer improvements in the western part of Georgetown County. Two of those are in the town of Andrews along with a new public works building for the municipality that once feared the lack of a resident member on the Capital Project Sales Tax Commission would leave them out in the cold.

“It looks like we’ve got a decent balance,” Mark Hawn, who chairs the commission, said after the first review of the project rankings.

The commission is due to meet again today to review the project list, and some of the positions could change. But members said they were pleased with the scale and scope of the initial results.

The commission received 61 requests totaling over $251 million for a share of a 1-cent sales tax that will be voted on in a referendum during the November general election. Some of those were found ineligible and others were scaled back, bringing the final total to $174 million. The commission will present a proposed ballot question to County Council this month that contains a list of projects for funding in order of priority along with a list of projects that will be funded if there is additional revenue or if those higher up the list drop out.

The tax is estimated to generate $10 million a year and can be imposed for up to eight years. The commission’s top 20 projects total $72.3 million. The water and sewer projects add up to $44.3 million.

Starting in January, the commission solicited proposals for government entities and created a scoring matrix. Extra weight was given to projects that had a direct impact on health and safety. In addition to scoring each project, the members were asked to decide whether it should be in those guaranteed for funding, among the contingencies or not funded at all.

When the scores were tallied, they also showed projects from each of the seven council districts were in the top 20.

“That wasn’t politicized,” Hawn said.

“I think this just happened naturally, which is nice,” commission member Harris Chewning said.

Having broad appeal is essential to getting voter approval, commission member Gary Cooper noted. He said he put a $950,000 renovation of Wachesaw Park on his priority list because there weren’t many projects proposed in the Murrells Inlet area.

“This system probably wouldn’t have worked in any of the other 45 counties, but this was a Georgetown system that worked in Georgetown,” said Jim Hipp, a retired local government administrator who helped the commission.

Council Members Everett Carolina and Raymond Newton, who sought to scrap the commission after failing to get a seat for the Andrews area, have eight of the top projects in their districts. Council Member Bob Anderson, who cast the lone vote against initiating the tax, has two projects in his district.

Projects that rose to the top were also ones that have potential for grant funding. Because the projects have to be fully funded and completed in order, the grants were not considered when determining how many could be funded within the $80 million estimated revenue. But if grants are obtained, it will free up sales tax revenue for projects on the contingency list.

Funding for the contingency projects can be based on their ability to obtain grants, said Walt Ackerman, the county’s Administrative Services director, who is working with the commission.

“You need to be conservative in your primary list, but have a robust contingency list,” he told the commission. 

One project that could move up is $1 million requested by the county to dredge the channels and navigable creeks in Murrells Inlet. It’s a $36 million project that has already received partial state funding.

“You would be doing a disservice to the community in turning away” a project with grant funding, Ackerman said.

It ranked 48th and only Hawn listed it for funding as a contingency project. Hawn, who was nominated by the town of Pawleys Island, and Cooper, who owns property on the island, both listed a $275,000 project to repair a jetty on Midway Inlet as a contingency. Their colleagues all placed it on the priority list and it ended up at No. 5. It is also the least expensive of all the proposals.

Aside from water and sewer projects, the others currently on the priority list are:

$1 million to move power lines for widening of Black River Road at Georgetown Memorial Hospital;

$600,000 to match a grant for a Coast RTA passenger facility in Georgetown;

• $10 million for a new county emergency operations center;

• $2 million for Pawleys Island drainage projects;

• $4 million for a new DeBordieu fire station;

• $971,000 for an equipment maintenance facility at the landfill;

• $800,000 for a pavilion at the Northwest Region Recreation Center;

• $950,000 for Wachesaw Park;

• $5.5 million of drainage work and a bike path on Martin Luther King Road;

• $550,000 for outdoor pickleball and basketball courts at the Waccamaw Regional Recreation Center.

Among the water and sewer projects, $12.8 million would fund sewer lines in the Sampit community. It is the most expensive project on the list.

Projects currently ranked high among the contingencies include a bike path and drainage work on Parkersville Road ($15 million) and a bike path along the north end of Petigru Drive ($2.4 million).