Friday, April 19, 2024
Horry County drew first blood in what looks to be a long and protracted battle over its adult entertainment ordinances when a federal judge refused to issue a temporary restraining order Monday.
The judge ruled against a petition by the Gold Club for the order against the county’s two new adult entertainment ordinances, which received final approval September 3rd.
This means the new ordinances remain in effect and the county is free to enforce them, at least until further court action is taken.
Filing for the November 2013 Myrtle Beach city elections closed Friday September 6th and it looks like four more years of same old, same old in city politics.
That means most of the political issues, and all of the important ones, will be decided in the Dunes Club card room before they are ever discussed in city hall.
Three candidates, Bill Howard, Jerry Fout and Robert Palmer, filed to run against Mayor John Rhodes, which effectively means Rhodes will be easily re-elected because the north end will vote in a block for him and the three challengers will split whatever may come from the forgotten remainder of the city.
Lucky Dog Television Productions will premiere a new, one-hour television political talk show, “Big Talk”, Sunday evening at 5 p.m. on broadcast television’s WWMB CW 21.
Spanning 14 counties in northeastern South Carolina and southeastern North Carolina, the show will feature discussion on current political topics of local, regional and national importance.
Political topics will be brought to the table by Jon Bonsignor, a longtime Republican political activist in the Grand Strand area and Paul Gable, editor of Grand Strand Daily and SC Hotline and a longtime reporter on local and state political issues.
Jack Murphy, host of the popular River Talk television show and a radio personality for many years will be joining and moderating the discussions.
By a vote of 9-2, Horry County Council approved third reading of its new adult entertainment ordinances Tuesday night.
Horry County Council is putting its faith in Tennessee attorney Scott Bergthold to prevail in federal court to keep these ordinances in effect.
One thing to make clear is that adult entertainment establishments will continue to operate in Horry County. This ordinance will not end the industry in the county.
The only question is how many tax dollars the county will transfer to Bergthold in the process.
One more holiday shortened week remains for filing of candidates in the upcoming Myrtle Beach city elections.
Last week, the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce’s Grand Strand Business Alliance PAC sent out an expensive looking mailer supporting its ‘Dream Team’ – the four incumbents running for re-election.
The easiest way to win an election is to discourage challengers from filing and everybody understands now, if anyone doubted, that the Chamber, through the GSBA, will again be a strong player in the city election.
You would too if three of these incumbents steered approximately $70 million in public money into your budget.
David Wren of the Sun News reported yesterday that the Chambergate investigation into 2009 political donations, by a host of local LLC’s that had no income, was continuing.
The article stated an investigator with the IRS had confirmed the investigation was ongoing into political donations by these LLC’s whose principals have ties to the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce.
According to Wren’s article, the investigator contacted the Sun News last week requesting documents the paper had obtained regarding the political donations.
This report confirms rumblings we have been hearing for some months now that the investigation was continuing and indictments from a federal grand jury would be coming down in the case.
Candidate filing for the upcoming November 5, 2013 municipal elections for the Town of Awendaw city council opened August 22, 2013, and already there appears to be a violation of the S.C. Ethics Law.
The controversy hovers around candidate and current Mayor Pro-Tem Miriam Green and a recent article about her in the official “Town of Awendaw Newsletter”.
The newsletter is produced, printed and mailed by the town using taxpayer dollars to pay for the costs.
Its lead article in the September 2013 issue, which hit the mailboxes of Awendaw residents about the same time that filing opened, was about a community auditorium at the new Berkeley Electric Coop Service Center in Awendaw being named for Green, a 35-year employee of BEC.
IF the article had stopped right there, it would have been fine. However, it went on to praise Green for serving “her community well” and providing “jobs for many Town residents.”
Adult entertainment locations will be the topic of discussion at the Carolina Forest Civic Association Wednesday night.
Scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at the Carolina Forest Rec Center on Carolina Forest Boulevard, the meeting will allow Carolina Forest residents to be briefed on how they are facing the “Fork in the Road.”
Carolina Forest has become ground zero on the clash between quality of life for residents of one of the fastest growing spots in the county with tourism interests if the county’s new adult entertainment ordinances receive third reading approval.
Watching the last several months of county council deliberations, one must wonder why there is such disparate treatment between Coast RTA and the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corporation by our elected officials.
The MBREDC was at county council Tuesday night pushing its $60 million, 15 year funding proposal with a presentation on how the money would be used to try to entice businesses to the area.
A resolution to restore Coast RTA’s FY 2014 fourth quarter funding was pulled off the county council agenda.
There seems to be a growing trend in Horry County that is prevalent throughout the nation. Government staff is working against Horry County Council members, and in its own interests, instead of working for council to institute policy decisions.
Helicopter amusement ride leases, adult entertainment regulations, solid waste actions have all recently had instances where county staff pushed its own agenda against the wishes of council and the better interests of the county in general.
A recently renegotiated lease with Huffman Helicopters, in which staff was directly instructed to include designated flight patterns to limit flight patterns over residential areas is missing the key inclusions.
Speak Up…