MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – City staff will begin removing the barricades along Ocean Boulevard Wednesday, according to the Myrtle Beach city manager.
According to Myrtle Beach City Manager John Pedersen, the metal barricades should be gone by Thursday.
Though the lines of barricades are scheduled to disappear this week, the police department is asking to city to pursue putting permanent barriers in place.
During Tuesday’s city council meeting, Chief Amy Prock told council leaders the barriers work.
“It is our position that the program has been successful. We do believe it has been successful it definitely has helped us while we manage areas that are significant and we can’t be everywhere at once because we don’t have the manpower even with the resources, they do help us as we continue to address the issues,” said Prock.
Pedersen says he wants to put up the barriers as soon as possible, but as of right now, the city doesn’t know how it will pay for the project.
“We’ll be bringing that back as we get some cost figures together, but I think it certainly has been a priority of city council, and I think that we’ll find a way to make that happen,” said Pedersen.
Pedersen showed city council leaders models they were thinking about for the permanent barriers that were in Nashville and Gatlinburg.
The temporary installments were added to Ocean Boulevard following a shooting Fathers Day weekend streamed on Facebook live that injured seven people and garnered national attention. The railings were originally put up as a trial run on June 22, and law enforcement officials said Tuesday they believed the tactic was an effective way to keep people safely out of the street.
City council also passed the first reading of ordinances Tuesday that would make it against the law to block the sidewalk in any way or to stand on the sidewalk and ask people for money.
Pedersen says both of those actions go along with the city’s plan to make the area feel more safe and more family friendly.
