Tag: Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority

Bucksport Marina Issue Moving to Resolution

The Bucksport Marina issue arising from a racial incident over Memorial Day Weekend that resulted in personal injury, racial epithets and serious concern from community members appears about to be moving toward resolution.

A quick review of the incident:

On May 28, 2017, Curtis Hendrix was working for the “Waccamaw Getaway Music Festival” hosted by the restaurant on the Bucksport Marina property. One of his duties was to shuttle visitors to the festival to their cars or campsite at the RV resort on the marina property.

While performing those duties, a cart in which Hendrix was riding was forced off the road and into a ditch by Jeffrey Weeks. Weeks was operating the marina and RV resort under a sub-lease with E.D. LLC, the lessee of the marina, resort and restaurant property. E.D. LLC was leasing the property from Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority.

After forcing the cart off the road, Weeks stopped his vehicle and began yelling at the occupants of the cart, using racial epithets such as “f—–g niggers”, according to the police report of the incident.

According to several sources familiar with various talks and negotiations among involved and interested parties over the last several weeks, neither E.D. LLC owner Ed Waters nor Weeks will be returning to the marina property.

According to those sources, the final details of a termination agreement between GSWSA and E.D. LLC are in the works and new operators will be taking over the marina and RV resort businesses.

Removing both from any association with GSWSA is the only proper solution to the act perpetrated by Weeks over Memorial Day Weekend.

However, it took approximately four months between the incident and the final termination. When I first spoke to Fred Richardson, CEO of GSWSA, about the incident, it seemed he wanted to do the right thing, but attorneys advising GSWSA were urging a wait and see approach because Weeks was only charged with a crime, not convicted. Additionally, there were some contractual considerations with the lease between Waters and GSWSA.

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More on GSWSA Incident

The following is a letter received by Grand Strand Daily regarding the racial incident at Bucksport Marina property over Memorial Day Weekend. The letter is printed in full:

As a proud member of the Grand Strand community, and an equally proud advisor to the Carolina African American Heritage Foundation, to you our founder and Chair, our Directors, and our many volunteers and friends, I have the following to say about the May 28, 2017 incident which resulted in serious injury to Curtis Hendrix and also, I’m afraid, brought not a little shame down on our community.

Kudos to professional journalist Paul Gable for dragging this horrific incident out from beneath four months of official silence, if not snatching it away from what some would say resembles a coverup.  And boos to the local and state so-called mainstream media for completely passing on what must be the most vicious hate crime this community has seen in a long time, if ever – to say nothing of the outrageous slap on the wrist and apparent reinstatement being enjoyed by the openly racist perpetrator, Jeffrey Weeks.  One would think we were back in 19th Century post-Civil War Mississippi, and not in 21st Century South Carolina.

It’s bad enough that this creep – who we understand is from Virginia – had to crawl out from under his rock in our community, but what’s really troubling is the subsequent official fumbling and media silence. 

First, the charge – misdemeanor assault – is patently ridiculous.  Here we have an intentional, deliberately violent attack, openly and loudly declared by the attacker to be based on racial hatred, which injured Curtis Hendrix to the extent he was unable to work.  Every element of felony assault is there – beyond law enforcement and prosecutorial discretion –  and Weeks would have been charged with that anywhere else that I know of.

And has anyone but me wondered where federal law enforcement is on this case?  What Weeks did was a clear violation of Title 18, Section 245 of the United States Code – the Civil Rights Act of 1968 –

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Concerns Abound Over Operation of Bucksport Marina

More than three months after a racially charged incident marred a Memorial Day Weekend festival at Bucksport Marina, questions about the future direction of the publicly owned facility remain unanswered.

The Bucksport Marina incident has remained under the radar as the more well-known incident involving former Conway High School football coach Chuck Jordan grabbed local headlines.

But, in many ways, the incident at the Bucksport Marina was more blatant involving physical injuries, financial suffering and the hurling of racial epithets at a man just doing his job.

On May 28, 2017, Curtis Hendrix was working for the “Waccamaw Getaway Music Festival” hosted by the restaurant on the Bucksport Marina property. One of his duties was to shuttle visitors to the festival to their cars or campsite at the RV resort on the marina property.

While performing those duties, a cart in which Hendrix was riding was forced off the road and into a ditch by Jeffrey Weeks. Weeks was operating the marina and RV resort under a sub-lease with E.D. LLC, the lessee of the marina, resort and restaurant property. E.D. LLC was leasing the property from Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority.

After forcing the cart off the road, Weeks stopped his vehicle and began yelling at the occupants of the cart, using racial epithets such as “f—–g niggers”, according to the police report of the incident.

Weeks was arrested and charged with 2nd Degree Assault. According to the 15th Circuit Court Index, the charges were brought before a Grand Jury and a True Bill Indictment was found against Weeks by the Grand Jury on August 9, 2017.

Hendrix suffered injuries that resulted in him not being able to work, thereby suffering financial loss and the loss of personal property as a result, according a lawsuit Hendrix has brought against Weeks personally and E.D. LLC.

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Lawsuit Filed Against Bucksport Plantation Marina Operators

A lawsuit with racial discrimination overtones was recently filed against the Bucksport Plantation Marina and RV Resort, ED LLC and Jeffrey Weeks individually for an incident that took place on May 28, 2017.

The lawsuit was filed by Melinda Knowles, attorney representing Plaintiff Clarence Curtis Hendrix, in the 15th Circuit Court on September 1, 2017.

What makes this lawsuit noteworthy is Bucksport Plantation Marina and RV Resort is owned by Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority (GSWSA), a public agency that was created by the S.C. General Assembly through the passage of Act 337 of 1971.

According to the lawsuit, “ED LLC maintains an exclusive leasehold interest in the real property that houses the Resort and, upon information and belief, either employs Weeks as manager of the Resort or operates a partnership with Weeks in the operation of the Resort.”

According to the lawsuit, Hendrix, who is African-American, was hired by “The Waccamaw Getaway Music Festival” that was held over Memorial Day Weekend 2017 at the Bucksport Marina venue.

The incident involving Weeks and Hendrix, which led to the lawsuit, is described in the complaint, “During the early morning hours of Sunday, May 28, 2017 Plaintiff and the other staff members were engaged in driving an intoxicated Festival attendee back to his campsite. Weeks, driving a large heavy-duty black truck, drove up behind the courtesy shuttle at a high rate of speed. When it became clear that the truck was not decreasing in speed, Plaintiff’s co-staff member attempted to evade the truck and avoid a collision by hugging the shoulder of the narrow dirt road. Ultimately, the truck driven by Weeks forced the shuttle off the road with all three occupants onboard. The shuttle struck a ditch and became lodged with two of its wheels suspended in the air. The crash and the force of the impact threw Plaintiff off the shuttle. Simultaneous with the shuttle’s wreck, Weeks brought his heavy-duty truck to a rapid, skidding stop next to the disabled golf cart. Weeks then exited his truck, snatched the key out of the disabled shuttle, and verbally accosted Plaintiff in the presence of the Festival attendee.”

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Horry County's Accommodations Tax

The Problems With Public Nonprofit Authorities

Why is it that public nonprofit authorities think they are an entity unto themselves?

Created by government act, they soon seem to forget that the whole purpose of their existence is to serve the citizens of the political sub-division that created them.

But, among other benefits, they sure love taking part in the public funded health insurance and retirement plans. No Obamacare worries for them!

The Nerve recently did a great article on the S.C. Research Authority and its ‘public nonprofit’ attitude “which views itself as public when it’s convenient and private when it comes to accountability.”

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A Call for Political Activism

The need for political activism at the local level is a constant one in my opinion. Our governments, at all levels, are only as good as we demand them to be.

Too often, citizens get hyped up about certain issues, often by outside organizations, as we approach the two-year general election mark. These organizations, backed by big budgets, promote their viewpoint on issues they care about, usually for various selfish benefits.

These issues may be important, but they pale in comparison to the many issues on the local level that pass by, almost unnoticed, on a monthly basis.

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Our Shadow Quasi-Governments

Government waste, sacred cows, special interests are all topics of almost constant conversation among the taxpaying public especially in difficult economic times as we have now.

Everybody has an opinion on where public money is wasted. Citizens can quickly point out how they, their neighborhood or their community needs are being ignored while someone else’s are being favored.

And everybody has a concept of what we call special interests working behind the scenes to get favorable treatment at the expense of the general public.

But what do we really know about what we suspect is happening?

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