Horry County Council voted against spending $3.2 million on renovating terminal façades at Myrtle Beach International Airport.
“Quite honestly I woke up in the middle of the night worried to death about it,” said Chairman Mark Lazarus.
The multimillion dollar topic made it all the way to third reading before being tabled.
Lazarus says the decision to pull the money was not immediate.
“Through the process of really evaluating what we were doing I was having a hard time with it; thinking spending the money and thinking about what if we have to tear it down; what if we get a tenant,” he said.
The concern was the county would invest the $3.2 million dollars into the terminal only to have to change it in the near future if a new tenant came in; essentially throwing the money away
Nearly $7million will still go towards adding new gates and parking at the old terminal.
Lazarus says he was able to speak with Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes and members of the community appearance board to allow them to not change appearance of the terminal.
“Just about the timing of when do we do it and right now is not the right time to expend those dollars,” said Lazarus.
He says with this modification the county can renew their agreement with the city and have new airlines coming to MYR as scheduled for May 1st.
Lazarus says even though this is county money, it is not from tax payer dollars.
He says the millions of dollars that goes towards maintaining Myrtle Beach’s Community Appearance Board requirements comes from money earned through fees at MYR.