Tag: Nelson Hardwick

Big Talk Special Program Sunday

The “Big Talk” television show will feature a one hour special “Talking Big Trash” Sunday December 29th and Sunday January 5th.

The show is a response to the Horry County Council ordinance that will amend the county’s solid waste flow control ordinance if it passes two more readings.

Since county council introduced the ordinance, opponents led by Horry County Solid Waste Authority officials and several council members who blindly support the HCSWA have been spreading rumors about how much the amendment will cost the county.

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Making Municipalities Fiscally Responsible

With over thirty municipalities throughout the state in violation of South Carolina’s law requiring them to turn in a yearly audit to the State Treasurer, one might say something is not working!

The current law gives municipalities thirteen months to turn in an audit after the end of the fiscal year. If they don’t turn it in by the end of the thirteen months, then the Treasurer is supposed to halt all payments to the municipality until they are in compliance.

Obviously, the system is not working and something needs to change.

In light of this problem, Reps. Goldfinch, Clemmons, Hardwick, H.A. Crawford, Loftis, Barfield, Bedingfield, Hamilton, V.S. Moss, Rivers and G.R. Smith are sponsoring H. 4031. This bill seeks to promote more fiscal accountability on the municipal level.

A common excuse that the municipalities use for not having an audit is lack of funding. The bill requires that all municipalities include funding for an annual audit in their budget; that takes care of that!

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Depressed Voter Turnout is Primary Story

Depressed Voter Turnout is Primary Story

South Carolina held elections Tuesday and almost nobody bothered to show up. Voter turnout, or lack of it, was the story of Tuesday’s primary elections. Less than 10 percent (9.88%) of registered voters statewide bothered to come to the polls.

Low turnout was expected as continuing stories of candidates being struck from the ballot over the last two months dominated the news, but, under 10 percent is horrible. The old Communist Bloc in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union had more voter excitement in the past than this election generated.

Even Horry County with the new 7th Congressional District, four contested House races and one contested Senate race to vote for barely broke through the 10 percent voter turnout threshold.

In the new 7th Congressional District, Gloria Bromell Tinubu may have avoided a runoff and won the Democratic nomination outright after nearly 8,000 votes for Ted Vick were tossed out of the ballot count. Vick dropped out of the race two weeks ago when he was arrested for DUI and weapons possession in Columbia.

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Candidate Differences Highlighted in Burgess Forum

We are now down to the final week in the primary campaigns with the candidates attempting to separate themselves from their competition.

Recently, the Burgess Community hosted a candidate forum for Republican primary candidates for House District 106 and Horry County School Board District 5. The differences in the candidates were apparent.

The House District 106 race pits incumbent Rep. Nelson Hardwick against Surfside Beach city council member Rod Smith.

In his opening remarks, Smith said Hardwick was not “conservative enough” in his approach to government. Yet, it was Smith who voted for a government monopoly that has caused the loss of jobs in the private sector of the economy in Horry County.

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Garbage Wars and Slimy Politics

The political war over garbage escalated this past week as the state senate may be close to passing a bill that would eliminate county government’s ability to be monopolist garbage czars.

Specifically at risk is Horry County’s flow control ordinance that requires all garbage generated in the county to be disposed of at the Horry County Solid Waste Authority landfill on Hwy 90. The new bill would make flow control illegal throughout the state.

News of the bill surfaced in newspapers serving Columbia and Horry County over the past couple of days raising the specter of massive amounts of toxic waste from New York City flowing into Horry County if the bill passes.

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S.C. Election Filing Mess Gets Deeper

The Horry County June 12th primary election ballots could have many blank spaces instead of candidates’ names if the South Carolina Supreme Court determines strict adherence with state law is required by all candidates.

After the state Supreme Court agreed last week to hear two cases regarding challenges to candidate filings from the recent election filing period, Grand Strand Daily conducted further investigation into filing dates of candidate Statement of Economic Interests.

Our investigation of filing information listed on the S.C. Ethics Commission website included both incumbent office holders as well as challengers. The results are that many candidates, it could even be said most, did not strictly comply with state law when filing for office in the current election cycle.

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SC House Conundrum

With less than a day to go for candidate filing for this year’s election races, the Horry County legislative delegation, especially house members, are in for quite a change.

Thad Viers resigned his seat recently due to his ongoing legal problems and George Hearn has decided not to seek re-election. Incumbents Nelson Hardwick and Liston Barfield will face challenges to re-election. A new House seat will be filled to essentially represent Carolina Forest in the General Assembly.

We are also told that there could be one more surprise, a kind of musical chairs, before filing closes at noon Friday.

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The Horry County SWA and Mis-information

A meeting today between Horry County council members and members of the Horry County Legislative Delegation evolved through many points of discussion, reached no consensus on the issue of flow control of the county’s waste stream, but did address charges of mis-information about proposed state legislation.

The flow control issue is currently being debated at the state level as Senate Bill 514 makes its way through the legislative process. Horry County currently is the only county in the state to mandate flow control of its waste stream by county ordinance 02-09. The ordinance requires that all waste generated in the county must be disposed at the Horry County Solid Waste Authority landfill on Hwy 90, giving the SWA monopoly control over the county’s waste.

The state legislation, if enacted, states that an ordinance “is void to the extent that a county ordinance restricts solid waste disposal at a permitted site outside a county’s boundaries or impedes a recycling program.”

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