MURRELLS INLET, SC (WBTW) – People who live along a channel in Murrells Inlet and Garden City Beach will have to decide if they want to pay to deepen their waterway.
While low tide is the toughest time for most boats to pass through the channel, residents and business owners say it’s almost always too shallow and they think it should be deeper.
Chris Lawhon of Marlin Quay Marina says his family needed to dredge the area at their marina last year.
“We dredged it so we have seven foot at low tide,” Lawhon said.
He says, however, what’s just up the channel from the marina needs to be dug up next.
“Some areas are in a foot of water,” Lawhon said. “Depending on what kind of boat you have and the size of it, it makes it pretty much impossible to navigate north of that channel.”
Georgetown and Horry counties will allow voters living in this part of Murrells Inlet and Garden City to decide on a tax referendum to fund a dredging project estimated at more than $7 million.
If approved, sand and mud would be dug up in the channel from Marlin Quay Marina to the causeway in Garden City Beach.
“Many, many times, I see boats get hung up out here,” said Verlon Wulf, who lives along the channel in Murrells Inlet. “I’ve never seen my dock sit on dirt as often as it does now.”
Wulf says he’d like to see the channel dredged to help out those who fish.
“There’s a lot of sport fishing charters that come up and down here too,” Wulf said. “They want to fish for grouper.”
Georgetown County says some homeowners formed a company to figure out what costs and approvals are needed.
“Dredging that channel will allow the homeowners to have water at low tide,” Lawhon said. “I foresee that helping the property value of the homeowners.”
Georgetown County says a vote would likely take place in late April or in May.
If approved, the homeowners group would like dredging to begin later this fall.
