Council restores funds to fire district safety projects

By Charles Swenson
COASTAL OBSERVER
December 13, 2024

Projects to increase safety on the water and during motorcycle rallies in Murrells Inlet will get full funding after Georgetown County Council rejected cuts proposed by an advisory committee.

The money from the state’s 2 percent tax on short-term accommodations will fund a $167,782 marine safety initiative and $44,669 in additional medical coverage by Murrells Inlet-Garden City Fire District during bike weeks. Both projects had been trimmed by the county Accommodations Tax Advisory Committee.

Council Member Clint Elliott said he and Council Member Stella Mercado reviewed the committee’s recommendations for $1.75 million in grants. They restored full funding for the safety projects since they are targeted at visitors.

“I was a little surprised,” Battalion Chief Brennan Moore said. “I was a little nervous about the whole situation once the committee recommended [funds] just for staffing.”

But Elliott said if they are recurring programs, the fire district needs to find funding through its annual budget, which gets revenue from a property tax in the district.

That will be difficult, Moore said.

“If we had not received the A-tax funding, the program would never have started,” he said, noting that it was tourism that created the need.

To fund the fire district, Elliott and Mercado cut $15,000 recommended for an arts festival and reduced funds for repairs at the Rice Museum and for tourism research.

They had cut out funding recommended for seven projects in the city of Georgetown.

“When IP closed, they threw a new wrinkle in it,” Elliott said. “We went back and readjusted.”

The paper mill is due to close at the end of the year, and he said the city will need some help even though it collects its own accommodations taxes.

They restored full funding to the Bridge to Bridge run, because it draws visitors, he added.

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