Politics

School Board Chairman Race

Two candidates are competing for the Republican Party nomination for school board chairman. Both are current members of the school board.
Melanie Wellons, the current board member for District 8 and Vice Chairman of the board is aHorry County native and graduate of Horry County Schools including Coastal Carolina University.
Wellons has worked closely with current board chair David Cox getting a close look at the intricacies of the county school system. She said she will do everything to ensure the district keeps moving forward. She will ensure the students, teachers and district staff have all the resources they need to keep moving forward.
Wellons said when she visits schools as a board member, she sees teachers who went to school with her and who went to school with her children striving every day to improve the education of current students. Wellons sees the desire of former students wanting to come back and teach the next generation of Horry County students as a strength of the system which must be continued.
Darrell Ricketts is the current board member for District 11. He unsuccessfully ran for board chairman four years ago.
Ricketts features his over 30 years as an educator, now retired, as his prime qualification to be elected to the position of school board chairman. Ricketts notes he has been in the classroom and administration. However, there are some things Ricketts leaves out of his curriculum vitae for election:
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Three Candidates Vie for School Board District 3 Republican Nomination

Three candidates are competing for the Republican Party nomination for the Horry County District 3 school board seat in next week’s primary election.
Tracy Winters is the incumbent board member. During her current four-year term, the board has passed fiscally responsible budgets, increasing teacher and staff salaries as well as the arts and athletic programs with no tax increases.
Winters also pushes transparency and accountability, continued fiscal responsibility, expanding course and extracurricular offerings to meet the diverse academic and career interests of students and a push for a second high school to serve the ever growing needs of the Carolina Forest area.
Challenger David Frierson spent most of his life as a pastor. Frierson presents himself as an outsider with no connection to the board or schools who can bring a new and fresh perspective to the board. Frierson advocates addressing the values students are learning particularly with “wokeism” (his word) he believes has come into the schools. He believes the board can help with moral problems and unacceptable behavior he says are going on in schools.
Challenger J. D. Davis is a retired Lt. Col. from the U. S. Army. After retirement, Davis served as JROTC Army Director for Horry County Schools and was a nine-year member of the City of Myrtle Beach Military Appreciation Committee. Davis wants to use his leadership skills and believes his commitment to serving students and families is not over.
Checking a little deeper into the campaign literature and advertising of the candidates, some discrepancies appeared with respect to the Davis campaign.
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Back in Action

Grand Strand Daily is back in action.
For the past year, Grand Strand Daily has been mostly quiet. This hiatus was mostly due to medical issues I have faced resulting in a heart attack and double bypass surgery. I have now recovered and am ready to get back into regular writing.
This election season looks to be different than normal with very few local primary contests on the June ballot, The governor, attorney general and state treasurer Republican primaries are hotly contested and will provide interest among voters.
The new Forward Party will contest some county council seats on November general election ballot, which may stir interest among voters.

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Spivey Family Lawsuit Moves Forward as Does Criminal Investigation Review

Circuit Court Judge Eugene Griffith, Jr. ruled last week that the second shooter, Kenneth Bradley Williams, in the September 9, 2023 fatal shooting of Scott Spivey, was denied stand your ground immunity in a lawsuit brought by the Spivey family.
This decision, along with the identical decision by the judge denying immunity to Weldon Boyd, the other shooter in the case, means the lawsuit will move forward.
Spivey was shot multiple times by Boyd and Williams at the end of an approximately nine-mile pursuit after Spivey apparently cut off Boyd’s vehicle on Hwy 9. According to an exhibit in the case, speeds exceeding 100 mph were attained in the pursuit.

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Attorney General Candidate David Pascoe Brings Campaign Message to Conway

Attorney General Candidate David Pascoe visited Conway last week to talk with voters about his anti-crime/anti-corruption campaign.

Pascoe is currently First Judicial Circuit Solicitor making him the chief prosecutor for Calhoun, Dorchester and Orangeburg Counties. Since the age of 15, Pascoe said all he wanted to do was be a prosecutor. He went to work as an assistant solicitor directly out of law school and first won election as First Circuit Solicitor in the 2004 election cycle.

However, Pascoe is better known as the appointed Special Prosecutor who investigated and convicted former Speaker of the House Bobby Harrell for ethics violations involving personal misuse of $325,000 of campaign funds.
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ICE “Cold” on Dan Liu Immigration Status and Felony Allegations

Above Photo – Chinese police raiding Yigian Funding office}

Dan Liu, owner of Founders Group International, which includes 21 golf courses and other properties in the Grand Strand area, was a participant in the recent One Flight Myrtle Beach Classic pro-am golf tournament. It was surprising to see Liu among the participants considering his questionable immigration status in the United States.
Some background:
Jane Zheng was a native Chinese working as a realtor with a local company in Horry County. Her niche market was other Chinese nationals with seemingly excess cash to invest in U.S. properties.
Zheng connected with Dan Liu, reportedly a managing partner in Yiqian Funding, a peer to peer lending company in China. Yiqian Funding (also known in China as “Easy Richness”} raised money from Chinese investors that was, theoretically, lent to businesses or other entrepreneurs or invested independently. Investors and the company supposedly made money on the interest paid on the loans and on the rise in investment assets.
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Bailey Bill Would Revert County Policing to Sheriff’s Department

A bill introduced into the S. C. House of Representatives this week by North Myrtle Beach Rep. William Bailey would abolish the Horry County Police Department and return all county law enforcement duties to the Sheriff’s Department, if passed.
This is not a new issue in Horry County, only the latest iteration evolving from the recent revelations in the case of the 2023 fatal shooting of Scott Spivey by North Myrtle Beach business owner Weldon Boyd and the initial handling of the case by Horry County police officers.
By the provisions of the 1895 Constitution of South Carolina, the elected County Sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer in each of the state’s 46 counties. However, through the years, the members of the General Assembly found a way around this provision by passing individual bills establishing police commissions, appointed by the respective county’s legislative delegation, to oversee policing in the county. These commissions established county police departments to assume many of the duties of the county’s Sheriff. At one time, as many as 19 counties in the state had police departments separate from the Sheriff’s Department. Today, only the Horry County Police Department remains.
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Amending the State Impact Fee Law Would be Real Government Effectiveness

Earlier this month, Rep. William Bailey (R-104) posted the following on his Facebook page to his constituents in Horry County:
“As the federal and state governments start to review and reform their financial responsibilities to our taxpayers, I strongly encourage local governments to begin a process of enhancing infrastructure projects, limiting governmental expansion, and encouraging and assisting small businesses as they struggle with related inflation that negatively impacts us all. Every dollar should be a wise investment for our future but more importantly, they should be dollars that improve our economic stability.”
Bailey has generally done a good job representing his constituents in the North Myrtle Beach area. One thing he could do to further help all the citizens in Horry County would be to sponsor a bill to amend the state’s current impact fee law to help local governments correctly apportion the costs of infrastructure improvements and additions caused by new construction.
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Rodney Berry’s Vision for Senate District 30

Republican candidate Rodney Berry will square off against five-term incumbent Democrat Kent Willians in tomorrow’s election for SC Senate District 30.
Berry brings a unique set of qualifications and experience to the race which could help pull District 30 up from its current economic problems. He is a past mayor of Marion, a former Administrator of Dillon County government, has 10 years of experience working with Congress and is currently a contractor for economic development for Dillon County.
“For the past 20 years the two main counties in this Senate District have ranked in the top 5 poorest counties in South Carolina,” Berry said. “We can’t keep accepting losing and finishing at the bottom.”
Berry was a principal negotiator in the economic development initiative that resulted in the Dillon Inland Port which has provided over 2,000 new jobs to date. He plans to use his experience in economic development initiatives to benefit the entirety of District 30.
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The RIDE IV Ballot Question – Do You Want Road Improvements or Not?

The decision by voters on Tuesday on whether to approve the RIDE IV referendum for road improvements in Horry County may be the most important decision they make on the general election ballot.
Unlike the politicians for whom they decide to cast a ballot, politicians who will pass with time, the roads, which will be built if the referendum is approved, will serve not only the present generation of voters but also future generations. Or Not!
Horry County Council chose to ask voters to approve a 25-year, one-cent sales tax to raise approximately $6.6 billion for road improvements and additions. It is currently estimated that Horry County is deficient to the tune of approximately $4.5 billion in road improvements needed to service today’s needs and population. Approval of the 25-year referendum will allow the county to issue bonds, funded by future revenues, to speed up construction of needed improvements. Former RIDE projects were funded on a pay as you go basis.
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