After Horry County Councilman Bob Grabowski’s death, Horry County Officials say district six will have no direct representation for months.
Yesterday, News 13 first reported the death of Horry County Council Vice Chairman, Bob Grabowski.
An official autopsy report released by coroner Robert Edge says the cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Grabowski’s body was discovered at PTR industries, where he was worked as the hiring manager.
Grabowski was 55 years old.
County officials say the process has already begun to fill the empty seat left after Grabowski’s death.
Officials with the county’s voter registration department say a special election will be held.
They say filing for the seat will begin on April 17th.
A primary election will happen in June, with the general election to follow on August 4th.
The winner will take the seat on August 7th.
However, that leaves the district six seats open for months.
County officials say County Chairman Mark Lazarus will assume the responsibility for any calls from that district.
News 13 reached out to Lazarus for an on camera comment on representing district six, but he refused.
He did say there will be no one directly representing district six until the seat is filled in August.
This is a busy time for county council.
Last week council discussed the 2016 fiscal year budget and voting for the budget will happen in June.
That means district six will have no direct representation on next year’s budget.
New 13 reached out to several other council members for comment, but either received no call back or was refused on camera interviews.
Council member Gary Loftus said over the phone, in general, council represents all members of the county and district six will be represented through its neighboring districts
This is not the first time an Horry County Council seat was left vacant because of a death.
In 2002, council member Ray Brown died of a heart attack.
In 2004, councilmember Terry Cooper died of an illness.
Both vacancies were filled by special elections.
