North Myrtle Beach City Council will hold a public hearing for first reading of the next fiscal year’s budget on Monday.
The proposed budget for July 1, 2015 – June 30, 2016 shows $7.6 million slated for capital improvements in North Myrtle Beach, that’s up from $5.5 million in 2015.
According to city spokesperson Pat Dowling, “most of that is actually for water and sewer projects. We have a couple of big ticket items there, one is a booster pump. We’ll also have a fairly expensive water and sewer project to go along with SCDOT’s widening of Ocean Boulevard in the Crescent Beach part of the city.”
The $6.5 million project includes $3.5 million from SCDOT for street widening that will add a third lane to the middle of Ocean Boulevard, new bike lanes and a new side walk.
The second part of the project,will convert power and communications utilities from overhead to underground. Santee Cooper and the city will cover the $3 million costs.
Dowling adds, “and while that’s dug up, the city will go in and do some major work on expanding and increasing the capacity water lines and some of the sewer lines as well”
He says some working sewer lines are more than 40-years old; the project will impact the roads from 15th Avenue South to 28th Avenue South.
The underground conversion, road widening and sewer line projects are all scheduled to start in the fall or winter of this year.
The other big ticket item, a booster pump station will ensure strong water pressure for the growing city especially during the busy summer months, nearly doubling current daily capacity.
The city has budgeted about $2 million for the project, an exact location has not yet been determined.
North Myrtle Beach’s proposed total budget is over $80 million for fiscal year 2016.