GARDEN CITY, SC (WBTW) – Some Garden City residents who live in Georgetown County are not happy with county services, and want to join Horry county instead.
They will discuss the possibility of their portion of town becoming a part of Horry County at a Garden City Beach Community Association meeting on Monday.
Community Association Chairman Drew Streett said one of the main reasons they want to join Horry County is because they believe that part of Garden City has more law enforcement.
“There’s always a presence of Horry County police officers in the downtown area of Garden City. They have the beach patrol here. Georgetown County, they do have beach patrol officers, but they’re split between here and Litchfield and North Litchfield,” he said.
Streett said some residents are also still not happy about how Georgetown County responded in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.
“They were out there cleaning the roads, cleaning up debris, much much faster,” said Streett. “The most notable is pushing up sand dunes for all the residents of Horry County. And that did not happen in Georgetown County.”
Georgetown County spokesperson Jackie Broach says the county also received similar complaints from people in Garden City right before Hurricane Irma.
“We had some residents who really wanted us to kind of speed up that process and get the dunes repaired pretty much immediately right before that storm. But, unfortunately, it just doesn’t work that way,” she said.
Regarding debris cleanup, Broach said Horry County volunteered to help clear state roads in Georgetown County after Hurricane Matthew. According to Broach, the county has also tried to improve its response after storms.
“We have made changes, after Hurricane Matthew, to our beach development plan that would allow us to move more quickly on permitting, on claiming state, federal funds that would be available for that type of work.,” she said.
The Garden City Beach Community Association meeting will be at 6 p.m. on Monday at the Garden City Pier. The Georgetown County Administrator will be there to address people’s concerns.
