COASTAL OBSERVER

Town officials are looking for a way to relax their grip over people who take their dogs to the beach on Pawleys Island in the summer, provided those dogs don’t pose a threat to public safety.

Council  Member Guerry Green, who has received warnings and a ticket in the past for leash law violations, raised the issue. He has Labs that are trained for hunting and that he exercises on the beach in front of his house.

“I’d like to be able to do it without fear of getting a ticket,” he said.

Green sent the council an email from his neighbor, David Shuford, who is an attorney, outlining how the ordinance could be changed.

“The ordinance could be easily adjusted to allow dogs to be off leash where the dog is under voice control of its owner or where the dog poses no rise of being a nuisance to other persons on the beach,” he wrote.

Until 2009, the town allowed dogs to be under voice command when they were off the owner’s property from October through May and from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. in the other four months.

After discovering that state law required dogs to be restrained whenever they are off the owner’s property, the town eliminated the voice command option.

But police allowed people to unleash their dogs in the water. Some people took to walking their dogs on the water’s edge, which generated complaints about nuisance dogs that didn’t stay in the water.

In 2016, the town required that dogs be leashed when on the beach. Green was among those who objected.

In 2018, the town changed its ordinance again, allowing dogs to be under voice command from October through April and from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. in the other months.

Police Chief Michael Fanning said he received a complaint over the weekend from a woman who was scratched by an unleashed dog that ran into the water. He has also heard from people who say that they have been bothered by dogs that are supposed to be under voice control. 

The people on both sides of the issue are evenly split.

“You’re not going to please everybody,” Fanning said.

Relaxing the regulations could become a liability for the town, Council Member Ashley Carter said. He added that he leashes his dog for walks on the beach.

“It’s too big of a liability issue,” he said. “We’ve got laws, and I think they need to be enforced.”

Green believes the enforcement is uneven. He also pointed out that having a dog on a leash isn’t a guarantee that it won’t cause problems, recalling a woman who was trying to hold on to a dog that was as big as she was.

Dogs that are a nuisance shouldn’t be on the beach at all, Green said. “It doesn’t make sense to punish other people who do have dogs that behave.”

Administrator Dan Newquist said he is looking at ordinances from other jurisdictions. He also came across guidance from the Audubon Society about the impact unleashed dogs can have on shorebirds. 

“I think there’s a way to accommodate and tailor it,” he said.

Mayor Brian Henry said the issue is different where Green’s house is located in the middle of the island where there is only a single row of houses and limited public access.

“If I’m the only one on the beach,” Green said, “there’s no harm to anyone.”

Henry asked him to work with Newquist on proposed revisions to the ordinance that the council can review in July.

The council also heard a request this week from a north end property owner that the town adopt a noise ordinance. 

“There is no noise ordinance per se,” said Bill Caughman.

The only reference to noise in the town code is in the section that defines disorderly conduct. It includes “any loud, boisterous and unreasonable noise.”

“We generally go by the county ordinance,” Fanning said.

That defines noises more broadly and includes music played between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. and audible from 50 feet as a violation.

That’s what Caughman would like to see enforced.

“I don’t like listening to rap music at 1 a.m.,” he said. “I know this is a place for people to have fun, but 11 o’clock, give me a break.”