First “Welcome Back” Horry County meeting held

CONWAY, SC (WBTW) – Business and County leaders met virtually today for the first “Welcome Back” Horry County Committee meeting.

The Committee, which Horry County councilman Orton Bellamy chairs, features area chambers of commerce, business owners first responders and council members.

John Cassidy, the co-owner of Duplicate INK in Conway says, the goal is to help businesses safely and quickly reopen.

“I think having a little bit of leadership, a little bit of guidance on getting reopened, doing it fast, effectively, and doing it with respect to peoples health is important,” Cassidy explained.

He says this area is unique in it’s experience with disasters, but not with something like this.
“Hurricane Florence flooded this facility, where we’re standing was flooded, the bridge closure, now we have this pandemic,” Cassidy said.

Cassidy says the Committee is versatile.

“Their insight comes from a wide range of industries and sectors, and I think that with those different kind of out of the box ideas that collectively we’ll be able to get the county operating as one across all the municipalities,” he said.

While there is a large emphasis on helping get the economy back up and running in Horry County, there is also a large focus on tourism; a large portion of the area economy.

“There are multiple parts of safety that need to be involved here,” Cassidy explained. “It’s not just for our citizens, it’s also for our guests. Our guests need to feel welcomed.”

One of the main themes in today’s meeting, was unifying as a County, rather than working as individual municipalities.

“It is one beach,” Horry County Police Chief, Joseph Hill said. “We look at this as one area. We may wear a different color uniforms and get paid from different governments, but when it comes to the safety of our residents and our visitors, we’re united.”

Below is the list of all committee members:

Barbara Blain-Bellamy: City of Conway

Richard Carroll: Anderson Brothers Bank

John Cassidy: Duplicates INK

Rick Elliott: Elliott Realty

Johnny Gardner: Horry County Council

Steve Gosnell: Horry County Administrator

Wayne Grey: Synovus Financial Corporation

Bob Hellyer: Town of Surfside Beach

Joseph Hill: Horry County Chief of Police

Ashley Jordan: Town of Aynor

Cheryl Kilday: North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce