[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Hello and welcome to First Friday with Georgetown County. Thank you for joining us. I am very excited to introduce you to our first guest this month, my friend and one of my favorite colleagues, Julie Warren. Julie is over our digital library. What is your official title? Julie?
[00:00:27] Speaker C: Digital Archives Manager is kind of what I go by these days.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Okay, so Julie actually started here.
You've been here longer than me. How long?
[00:00:35] Speaker C: 2007.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Okay, so that's almost 20 years.
[00:00:40] Speaker D: Almost.
[00:00:40] Speaker C: It's getting, getting close.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: And you started out with a grant funded position, if I recall. And you created our Georgetown Digital Library, which I really hope everybody here is already familiar with because it is fantastic. But talk with us a little about what the digital library is and how it got started and what you're doing with it these days almost 20 years later.
[00:01:00] Speaker C: So we received a grant in 2007 from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly foundation and they gave us money to create something that was really new and upcoming at that point in time, which was basically a digital archive of all the important collections that we have, both in the Georgetown County Library in our archives as well as within the county itself. So the grant was to give us an opportunity to go in and see, scan and digitize and historically preserve the history of Georgetown, both physically with scanners, but also with packing and storing the original archives in archival boxes and things like that.
And then we were also able through that grant to go into the community and work with local partners.
That gave us a chance to add on to our collection and try to tell a little bit more of a complete story.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: So a lot of these are photos, historic photos, but we've also got documents and you've digitized, I forget how many decades of local newspapers.
[00:01:58] Speaker C: Right. So our Georgetown County Library and the Library Society was actually formed in 1799. So we have collections in our library archive that go back to that date.
The Library Society and the Window Indigo Society were founded, which founded a little bit later in that their collections reside in our archives as well as some really other great things. So we were able to go through and really work with those and scan them. Newspapers dating to the 18th and, excuse me, 19th and 20th century newspapers. We have 18th century real estate indentures which are basically land grants from the early days of Georgetown County's history. So those are some of the oldest things that we have. But then we have more recent things that have been given to us by Georgetown residents and that sort of thing. So our collection is always growing.
One of the things that we're working on right now is A collection of invoices from a local businessmen in Georgetown County.
The.
The building that it's. That he owned. One of the buildings that he owned at that time actually went up for sale recently.
And the original invoices from the 1890s were still inside of the building. So when they sold the building, they gave us all the invoices. And he was basically the Walmart of the day. So his invoices were items that he was buying from all over the country and then reselling here in Georgetown to people that needed things like shoes and sugar and, you know, anything like that. So it was a. It's a really interesting collection because it shows us exactly what people were buying in Georgetown at that time. And we also have letters from people when they were writing to him asking, can you send me this item? And I mean, these are people that are living all over the county at that point and needed items sent to them. So no Walmart, but they had this great opportunity to get these great items.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: That's fantastic. So one of my favorite things about the digital library is not only are we preserving these things, but we're making them accessible to everybody. I use the digital library all the time when I'm looking for historical stuff. I just love to see the things people wore there, the things that people did in that time. But we have people from all over the country, if not all over the world, who access this. Right?
[00:04:12] Speaker C: So we do have photo requests and we have ways of tracking, of course, through the website to see where people are logging in from.
Kind of gives us an idea of, you know, what countries and what part of the world. So we do have international users. We do also get requests to use our photos a lot. And those are always exciting. So everything from books and magazines, websites and that sort of thing.
Ken Burns and PBS others have reached out to us recently to use some of the things as well. So our website is openly accessible to anybody that has a computer or a smartphone or anything like that. You just have to log in. It's keyword searchable. And we're always adding new things. We have yearbooks on, on there from Georgetown county, which are very, very popular.
Winyaw High School, Georgetown High School.
It is not a complete collection though. And we have high school or and middle school yearbooks that we would love to collect. So if people have those and want to share those, we'd be glad to scan them and return them. So our collection is always evolving and always growing.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Are there any in particular that you know that you're looking for Particular schools or years.
[00:05:16] Speaker C: I can't think of anything right off the top. But people can go on and see what we have and if they have something that fits in. We have some from Howard, we have Pleasant Hill, we have some Andrews. So we have more than just the city of Georgetown, but we also go beyond that into the county as well. So. But again, our collection is only as good as what we're given to scan. So if we don't have it, we can't scan it. So we hope that people can help us out and fill in in gaps.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: So I know we have lots of historic photos from Hurricanes Hugo, Hurricane Hazel.
What are some of your other favorite collections and the digital photos?
[00:05:53] Speaker C: It really depends. But we have some great photos from like Paulie's island in the early 1900s when Paulie's island was sort of being, if you will, discovered a little bit by a lot of the local tourists and people that wanted a cool place to come to.
So we've been able to work with some of those collections and expand those. And those are fun. I mean it is a lot of what Georgetown is and that, that coastline and the, the pool of the tourism. So we have collections from Hobkyle, Barony, Brook Green Gardens. Those were the original organizations that we partnered with. But we also partner with local citizens that may have a collection that they want to bring us as well. We have a lot of things waiting to go online, so not everything is available at this point.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: You are a one woman department.
[00:06:35] Speaker C: I am. I work, I work to try to get everything up as much as I can. But things happen that pull me away from my computer. For instance, of course the library was recently renovated so we had about two years that we weren't in the building and really weren't able to really focus on, on things like that. But we're back now and still working.
[00:06:53] Speaker B: That's great. And tell me just a little bit about yourself and how you wound up doing this.
[00:06:57] Speaker C: Okay.
I am originally from Virginia, from the Charlottesville area. Grew up with history all around me and became a history major in college.
Came to South Carolina a lot as a child because my family, my dad's family was from here. So I visited South Carolina, had a lot of connections here and went off to graduate school in the United Kingdom and then needed a job, of course, afterwards. So I was hired in South Carolina 2004, and then 2007 I took the job at the library. So I've been here in Georgetown ever since. So.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: And we are so glad to have you.
[00:07:34] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: So is there anything else that you would like to mention about your job or about the digital library itself?
[00:07:41] Speaker C: Just if people have questions or anything about history or preserving their family history, we're always there at the library and willing to help people.
I have a talk coming up at Waccamaw September 12 about how to preserve your family history. Because we live in an area where there are a lot of storms and things that are sort of things happen, humidity, floods, whatever. And that can take a toll on paper, documents, photos, and things that people have at home. So we're going to kind of get out there and try to help people understand how. What they can do at home to preserve. To protect and preserve their own. Their own family things.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: That's great. So that's September 12th at the Waccamaw Library. And what time is that?
[00:08:19] Speaker C: 10 o'. Clock.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: Perfect.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: So it's free. Go on out and hear some advice from Julie. And if you would like to check out the digital library, if you've never been there before, it is gcdigital.org is that right?
[00:08:30] Speaker C: Right. It's www.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:31] Speaker C: You got to do the WWW part. So it comes up. Yeah. But if they have questions, feel free to call me at the library or stop by and I'll be glad to show them around.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: Okay. Wonderful. Julie, thank you so much for joining us. And I look forward to seeing everything else that you have coming up.
[00:08:45] Speaker C: Absolutely. Thank you.
[00:08:47] Speaker B: Our next guest is Angie Weaver. She is a community specialist with our Parks and Recreation Department. She is over adult and senior services, I believe.
And Angie is here to talk with us today about a great program we had for seniors called Walk with Ease. And it has sort of evolved into a new group called the Golden Goats, which is part of our Goat Georgetown Outdoor Adventure Trails program. So, Angie, talk with us about Walk with Ease and kind of how that came about and how it has changed over time.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: Walk with Ease has been taking place in the senior centers for years, and I wanted to provide stuff for our community.
[00:09:32] Speaker B: Well, first off, tell us what Walk with Ease is.
[00:09:36] Speaker A: It's a program that helps you get started with walking, and it gets you out to meet other people that have the same type of interests that you have.
It allows them to meet new people and start where they're at.
Because we've always had larger groups.
No one's left behind to walk by themselves. If they're slow, one of us hangs back and walks at their pace. That way nobody feels like, oh, I can't do this.
And it also allows people to go as Far as they can and turn around.
Walking outside is a little different than walking indoors. And you don't realize how far you've walked until you finish it. Yeah. Because you know you're not walking in a circle.
[00:10:33] Speaker B: And this is specifically for senior citizens. And remind me what age that starts at these days for our programming.
[00:10:39] Speaker A: 60, 60 and over. I do a lot of programming for 60 plus, but I do if somebody has arthritis, I'm not going to tell them no. I just won't turn those numbers into the arthritis foundation.
[00:10:54] Speaker B: So if you're 58 and have some, some arthritis struggles coming out, you can walk with her.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: Come see me.
But has evolved into a huge golden goat team that participates with a lot of the Georgetown Outdoor Adventure Trails. We try to support TL's programming as much as possible.
They've actually completed the hike and seek out at Eight Oaks over, I think it was last year and had a blast doing it.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: Some of them even did the bridge to bridge run, which I mean that's.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: They did. And those are my go to gals that they hang. They do everything that I ask. They, they participate and volunteer for the breast cancer awareness walk that we do over at Beck.
And I mean it's just a great group of people. We are growing. We have men involved in the group now, but it's been a little soggy over the past couple weeks. And walking out in the woods when it's wet is not as fun as what you might think.
[00:12:12] Speaker B: You get to find lots of neat mushroom samples, I'm sure.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: Ginormous mosquitoes.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: That too.
[00:12:20] Speaker A: Oh, huge.
But the neat thing is we did hike last year out at Rocky Point and, and we kept seeing all these berries and a couple of the ladies asked me are we allowed to pick these? So of course, you know, I asked, got permission and we went out on a weekend and hiked three miles picking blackberries.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: Oh wow.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: We had a blast.
[00:12:45] Speaker B: So that is one of the things that interests me most about this program. I think you told me previously that some of the people when they start like they couldn't do a mile.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: Oh yes.
We had several folks who would stop halfway. We just started with Front Street. I wanted something simple and we, we'd walk down Front street and come back on the Harbor Walk. And I had like two or three that couldn't do that. They'd stop and take a little break and then walk back to their car.
And I, I. All of them have successfully completed two miles and more.
[00:13:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Now.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: And you have to keep up with them. I do they, they wear me out.
It's, it's amazing.
The, the stamina they, they have. And I'm like, I, you know, I broke my foot not long ago and I'm like, y' all have to slow down a little bit, please.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: I think that's just wonderful. I mean, it shows what this program can do. And you mentioned the Arthritis Foundation. Tell us how.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: So the Arthritis foundation studies seniors mostly that are dealing with some type of arthritis.
I get to talk to them while we're walking about the types of arthritis ways to be successful in maintaining your walking program.
Different stretches to do so you don't get sore.
It's an amazing program that allows people to, who feel like I'm never going to be able to do this. I hurt. And it allows them to take their time and realize that that movement helps them to feel better.
[00:14:41] Speaker B: That's fantastic. So for anybody who might be interested in joining, when do you guys walk?
[00:14:47] Speaker A: When and where we walk Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Right now, because of the weather, we've been walking from 7 to 8.
Typically we walk 8 to 9, but I post on the Georgetown Outdoor Adventure Trails Facebook page, our calendar because it's so wet, I think we're going to take until September and walk downtown. But they can always reach me on, on my phone. It's 843-833-1852 and they're welcome to call me. Ask questions. It's a free program.
You don't find much free today in today's world. So we provide for county programs. That's right.
But it' it's fun. It, it will get you out of the house and you know, outdoors aren't for everybody. But if you do enjoy it, we, we actually are planning a trip, just a day trip. We've taken other day trips but we're going to go down to Andrews and is it the cypress preserves and hike and we're going to kayak while we're there.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Oh, that sounds great.
[00:16:04] Speaker A: A lot of my seniors enjoy paddling and impact. Yes, I've, I had an 82 year old lady that went with us. She started out in my tai chi and she went with us paddling for the first time. All of her kids and grandchildren were on the bank videotaping her.
But it, it just is a wonderful program and us getting to join in with the go the goat herd gives them a challenge. I have a couple that are aspiring to be iron goats.
We're just fit goats right now because we've all hit our hundred mile.
[00:16:47] Speaker B: So fit goat and iron Goat are levels that you can try to achieve in the goat program. Fit goat, I want to say it's like it starts at 100 miles in a year and iron goat starts at like 500 miles a year. You can find more information on that at our website, gtcounty.org goat but anyway.
[00:17:05] Speaker A: I have two that are, are this close to being iron goats already.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: That's fantastic.
[00:17:10] Speaker A: Yes, I'm, I'm so proud of them. They really inspire me to work out more.
[00:17:16] Speaker B: And I bet a lot of friendships have been forged.
[00:17:19] Speaker A: Oh, wonderful friendships. Yes.
Several of them woke up. Several of them got together and did the bridge to bridge and they get together and have breakfast. After we walk, they'll go and grab some breakfast. And a lot of them have gotten together and swapped plants and said, hey, I have this. You want to trade for some of these bulbs? You know, they, they found different commonalities outside of their hikes.
[00:17:50] Speaker B: They've built a community. I love that this is such a great program. But you also mentioned tai chi and I'm glad you did because I want to talk about some of the other things that you guys offer that can help senior citizens get active, start moving and, you know, be around friends, find community.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: Tai chi is a wonderful program. Also.
I was trained through the Arthritis foundation with that because they do the statistics and kind of track where seniors fit into the broadcast picture of all of the, the people out there exercising. Because health is so important and it's becoming more important to everyone.
But Tai chi is an active form of meditation.
Most of my people that have joined feel they don't feel the same when we've missed a week.
Just for example, guacamole shut down for a couple, couple days and we missed Tai chi and they were all just craving to get back in there and start moving. It's low impact. They're very slow movements and you wouldn't have to worry about being sore.
The, the biggest fear would be being so relaxed and driving home.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: Yeah, that would be a problem.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: It's, it's just very Zen.
They, they love it. I have a lady in my Andrew's program that couldn't pick her feet up off the ground when we first started.
And today she picks her, her knees way up and she does a great job.
She went out and picked green beans by herself this year and she does amaz and she's 82 or 83.
[00:19:49] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: They just amaze me.
[00:19:53] Speaker B: Well, for anybody who would like to become part of this wonderful program or check out some tai Chi, reach out to Angie. She is always happy to welcome new people to the group. Anything else you'd like to add, Angie?
[00:20:07] Speaker A: I offer that program at Andrews, Beck and Waccamawa.
So please come out and see me. We'd love to have you join.
[00:20:15] Speaker B: All right, great. Angie, thank you so much for talking with us.
Having. I hope that you get some, some new participants.
[00:20:21] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:20:22] Speaker A: Come see me.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: And our last guests of the day, we have two deputies from traffic patrol with the sheriff's office, Deputies Livingston and Yarborough and they're going to talk with us a little bit about a couple of things in the traffic world. The first being the new hands free law that went into effect earlier this on September 1st. So guys, tell us about the new law and what people need to know. As you know, that has gone into place.
[00:20:51] Speaker D: So earlier this week, September 1st, the Hands Free law officially came into effect. Right now for 180 days, law enforcement officers will be issuing warnings. That's just to get the word out there. It's been posted all over the place now. But now that it's actually gone into effect now we're actually going to start doing enforcement on it. Of course we're going to issue warnings first because this is a new thing. It's getting rid of our old statute in reference to texting and driving. Now this one goes a little bit more in depth. So it's a completely hands free law.
[00:21:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I can't even have my cell phone on my lap. Right.
[00:21:21] Speaker D: Nothing at all. Literally. It's it. The only thing that it doesn't substitute, you can still utilize like your wristwatch or other things that assist with hands free. Like a lot of vehicles have Apple CarPlay and all that stuff, that's perfectly fine. But we come up next to you, let's say if you're a stoplight or whatever and you have that phone up, looking at it and you begin to move, that's an issue with the law.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: So it stopped. I'm fine. As soon as I start to move again, that's a problem pretty much. Okay.
[00:21:48] Speaker D: And to kind of go into a little bit more detail with that, the after 180 days from earlier this week, so believe it's February 28th, that's whenever we will actually start issuing citations. And it's kind of like a tier system with the citations now. So your first offense will be $100 fine. It's no points against your driving record after that. I believe the second offense is $200. And then you start building points on your driving record. Like any other moving violation.
So it's definitely something to pay attention to. Don't be out there on your phone. Just if it's important, pull over. We don't need anybody getting rear ended or even more traffic accidents. With the increased amount of traffic we're having on our roadways right now.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:22:30] Speaker D: Phone is definitely not necessary. Not, not right now.
[00:22:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:33] Speaker B: So make sure you've got some sort of a hands free holder on your dashboard. If you don't have the, the fancy in dash system, something like that.
[00:22:42] Speaker E: I believe if you go ahead and start today to kind of get it in a rhythm, then after that 180 days you won't have to worry about it because it'll ready be a habit that you don't have to use.
[00:22:53] Speaker B: Well, I'll be interested to see like after this first month how many stops you guys have had to make if people are actually taking it seriously or.
[00:23:02] Speaker E: Hopefully none, you know, hopefully not. Our primary objective is zero fatalities and zero distracted drivers. So we're proactive on it. So within that 180 days, hopefully we get enough stops to educate and it'll kind of play itself out and everything will fall in line.
[00:23:20] Speaker B: So what else do you guys want to talk about today? Summer season is finally over, so hopefully traffic is, is starting to decrease a little bit. But what, what do you guys mostly have to stop people for?
[00:23:32] Speaker E: I would say it's a mixture and, and the texting law that's in effect now. I stop a lot for that Nepali's island area.
A lot of changing lanes without signaling.
Something that may seem so small is a big contributing factor to collisions.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: Oh yeah.
[00:23:52] Speaker E: In that area. And people don't think about it because they get in that habit. They're all being be on their phone or they'll be distracted talking to the kids in the back and before you know it, they'll change lanes and there'll be another car coming up beside them and then you have a career in collision.
Speed is definitely a factor. Like we mentioned, just not paying attention to signs is a huge contributing factor to it.
17, by statistics is probably one of the most dangerous highways in the United States.
But ours is probably one of the safest.
And I think a huge part of it is because the efforts that our traffic teams have, our administration, chef Carter Weaver, the autonomy that they give us, our leadership city council to go out here and enforce these laws. So.
[00:24:40] Speaker B: So you mentioned before we went on that I should probably not use keeping up with the flow of traffic as an excuse.
[00:24:46] Speaker E: If you pull me over you should not.
And I like to tell people, whatever that speed limit sign says, that's the speed you should go. I can't count how many times that I stopped somebody and I said, hey, you were traveling at such and such speed. And they say, well, I'll just keep it on floor traffic.
That's not at all, you know, it's not a law.
And I use this example as if that car was going 100 miles and a 45, would you go 100 miles? And I have yet to say, hear anybody say yes.
So there's no such thing as floor, floor traffic.
[00:25:20] Speaker B: So we're going to be a little bit less serious. Tell me about some of your favorite excuses that you have heard when you've pulled people over.
[00:25:26] Speaker E: A big one is I was getting ready to run out of gas, water, speeding, I have to use the bathroom.
I have to hurry up and cook before my wife get mad. Typically understand that one. But you know, that's, that's probably the main one, you know, using the bathroom or running out of gas. I'm like, you know, you burn more.
[00:25:50] Speaker B: Fuel the faster you go. Yeah.
[00:25:53] Speaker E: What about you?
[00:25:54] Speaker D: I would say one thing that I would like to reiterate on. Earlier in August this year, sadly we did lose the South Carolina Highway Patrolman due to the move over law. And that law has been into effect for a while now.
And troopers on a traffic stop got hit by a box truck that was not obeying the move over law. Guys, everybody who's listening and watching this, just move over now. Just slow down.
[00:26:21] Speaker B: That should be pretty self explanatory, but if somebody doesn't understand what the move over law is.
[00:26:25] Speaker D: So basically that goes into any law enforcement official, any EMS service of fire, if you see a fire truck on the side of the road, cop car, and it even comes down to tow trucks because they're out there as well. You see those amber flashing lights? If you see those blue flashing lights or the red flashing lights, if you're unable to move over, at least slow down way below the speed limit so we can. If I look back and I see, okay, this, this guy's trying to move over, but nobody's letting them in, that's no big deal because you know, if you're doing, doing this 45 mile per hour zone, you slow down to five even, you know, five, 10 mile an hour, I'm like, okay, I can clearly see that this vehicle's trying to move over, but they can't. Yeah, at the end of the day, everybody's just trying to be safe.
[00:27:11] Speaker B: So if you have somebody pulled over, just try and get as far away so you have room and are not at risk.
[00:27:15] Speaker D: And that's the biggest thing. And another thing, too, I see it a lot. If people aren't letting you move over, don't try to. Just cut them off to move over. We don't want other traffic accidents on top of what we're already dealing with.
At the end of the day, everybody wants to be safe. Everybody wants to get home to their families. It doesn't matter if you're wearing a badge, if you have a fire suit on, or if you're just out there trying to make. Make your living, you know, helping everybody else out with towing vehicles or helping somebody who's broke down on Saturday.
[00:27:42] Speaker A: Yeah, sure.
[00:27:43] Speaker D: If you see those flashing lights, just move over.
[00:27:45] Speaker E: That.
[00:27:45] Speaker B: That.
[00:27:45] Speaker D: That's all we're asking. That's all we're asking.
[00:27:48] Speaker E: And I think it just. Just to kind of hammer it home, I think you just move over, period. You know, whether it's emergency vehicle or a grandma on the side of the road trying to change a spare tire, just give that common courtesy because you'll be, you know, anybody who's been driving for a length of time, wherever you look, your vehicle tends to go that way.
[00:28:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:07] Speaker E: And before you know it, we have a collision, and you can't come back from that. It's not like a PlayStation game where you can push a reset button and we're wanting. Once it's done, it's done.
[00:28:17] Speaker B: And if you've ever been standing on the side of the road, it can be pretty scary to have cars whizzing by you that close.
[00:28:24] Speaker E: Absolutely. You know, we do it all day, every day. And I kind of have to catch myself sometimes because you can kind of get into that relax mode because you do it repetitively. Because on a traffic team, that's. We do a lot of education, but the bulk of our job is out here trying to prevent collisions. So we're stopping. You know, sometimes we'll have somebody stop in the middle of the road. Sometimes they'll be halfway on the shoulder and stuff. And we have different techniques that we utilize, but that's advanced training that an average person doesn't have to know to go from the. The passenger side and conduct their business and stuff. So kind of keep that in mind. We're all human beings, and those people have mothers, daughters, child. Children as well.
[00:29:00] Speaker B: Absolutely.
So what else can you tell us? What do people. What. What do you wish people knew.
[00:29:09] Speaker E: As it relates to traffic?
Traffic is so broad.
You know, I would like to, if you, anybody had to take anything away from this podcast, I would say, hey, listen, when we stop you, it's not always to give you a ticket.
You know, we'll have between the both of us, 700 contacts. I don't want to say traffic stop survivors. Well, 700 contacts. And the bulk of those, we spent a lot of time educating, believe it or not, because people a lot of times don't know the law. You know, they don't know that, you know, you have to use your signal approximate feet away. They don't know that you. You can't talk in Texas because they're. With Georgetown being near the beach, we have a lot of people to come from other states. It's a tourist attraction. And I'll spend. Well, the average traffic stop may take one to five minutes. I'll spend 10 or 15 minutes roadside just educating, you know, and not only that, we're. We're. I believe that we're depositing that social capital for not only the Georgetown county citizens, but the future citizens. Just taking that extra step to educate them on different laws as it applies to speeding, texting, on proper use of horn, improper colors, you know, improper colors, Colors of light. You know, you have a lot of people that ride around with the red, blue light headlights.
[00:30:30] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:30:31] Speaker E: Illegal in the state of South Carolina.
[00:30:33] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:30:34] Speaker E: Some states you can have that, but we don't allow that because it looks too much like emergency vehicles, and a lot of people don't know that. And when we stop them, they're like, well, why are you stopping me? Well, you're light. Well, I came from such and such state, and nobody likes to be pulled over, not even me. You know, And I've been doing this for 17 years.
[00:30:52] Speaker B: You get pulled over a lot?
[00:30:53] Speaker E: I do not. I wouldn't say that.
But nobody, nobody, nobody wants to get pulled over. And one of my primary objectives when I do make a contact with a citizen is I want them to feel as comfortable as possible during that education period.
So once we disengage, they understand one, that whatever they did was against the law, and two, how they can be in compliance.
[00:31:22] Speaker B: Okay.
I also want to hear about the illegal use of horn. That's a new one on me, too.
I'm kind of imagining what that entails, but I'd like to hear what it actually is.
[00:31:32] Speaker E: Well, you can't just lay on your horn to a point where it'll cause a disturbance.
A lot of times if somebody's in front of you, and they just beep the horn, let traffic go to notify the person in front of you. That's all. That's fine. But when you utilize your horn, just going down the highway, just blaring it, because you have some sense of rope. Road rage. It's illegal. You can't do it.
And that's another thing that we did touch on is, is road rage. Very.
[00:32:01] Speaker B: It, it's getting scary. I've read several stories, even locally, about people who have died in road rage, road rage engines.
[00:32:08] Speaker D: It's a little scary.
[00:32:09] Speaker E: It is.
[00:32:10] Speaker B: Are you seeing more of that?
[00:32:13] Speaker E: Not on a level that other municipalities see, but we do see it occasionally.
And that's another thing. Us being seen and people seeing the lights, it kind of deters them from that.
I think a lot of people that come from other areas, especially rural areas, when they get in certain parts of the county, they're not familiar with that type of traffic, and they're used to, you know, going from point to point A to B.
[00:32:41] Speaker B: Doesn't work that way on the walk.
[00:32:43] Speaker E: It doesn't work that way. You know, at certain times of the day, traffic can be backed up, up for a long time. So we don't see it. We don't see it too much, but it is. We do see it.
[00:32:54] Speaker B: What do you probably stop people the most for? Speeding.
[00:32:58] Speaker E: I, I, I don't like to be a radar cop.
[00:33:04] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:33:05] Speaker E: For. I like to have a blended source of, of violation. Because, again, our primary objective is to stop, you know, collisions and fatalities. And fatalities are not always for speed.
Distractive driving could be many different things other than Texan.
[00:33:23] Speaker B: Just gonna put on my makeup here.
[00:33:24] Speaker E: Right, Right.
[00:33:26] Speaker B: While I drink my coffee and have my breakfast.
[00:33:28] Speaker E: Right.
[00:33:28] Speaker D: Driving a car with their knee.
[00:33:30] Speaker E: Right. Yeah. You know, seat all the way back like this. Driving and, you know, tent on the windshield is a huge thing for me.
The state of South Carolina doesn't allow any tent on the windshield past the AS one line without a medical exemption.
And with that medical exemption has to be an affidavit. You know, your sidewinders could be no less than 27% for your sedans. Then as you go up to your SUVs and trucks, it's different. I stopped somebody the other day with 0% on the side windows, and I said, well, how do you see it?
And she said, I can see. And I'm looking at her like, you know, when somebody says something, you kind of look at your cell phone. You're like, how? You know, it's zero percent light illuminating through that Right. So when you at night time and you turn a corner and that window isn't down, if a pedestrian is crossing the street, you won't be able to see it. Yeah, you won't be able to see a zero percent.
Now your, your, your newer cars have different sets of headlights on them.
So the tent may not obstruct it as much, but it's still a contributing factor. It's still reduce visibility with that 10 on there.
And the people with the medical exemptions is still, you know, at risk, but they need it for certain issues far as light sensitivity or cancer or something like that. And that's what that medical exemption is in place for. But that's, that's probably one of my go to's if you had to ask me. It's not always being it's tent in that distracted driving. Because if we can cut down on the distracting part of the driving, I think that'll cut down on the speeding because they'll pay attention to the speedometers, paying attention to the speed limit signs and everything that's going around your surroundings.
[00:35:15] Speaker B: Yeah. So we also have fairly new the, the law against the squatted pickup trucks. Is that still a big issue here?
[00:35:22] Speaker E: It is. I'll let Aaron talk about that as well.
[00:35:24] Speaker D: That's, that's one of my pet peeves.
[00:35:26] Speaker B: Oh yeah.
[00:35:27] Speaker D: The biggest thing is, is luckily, thank goodness we haven't had any fatalities in our county in reference to one yet. But some of our surrounding counties have had more issues, especially in Myrtle beach, etc. With the Boulevard and everything else, you have a lot of pedestrian traffic, etc. If your vehicle's sitting up like this, there's no way you'll be able to see a 10 year old walking across the street with let's say if their mom's only five foot tall, there's no way you'll be able to see that. And most of the time whenever you have a truck that's squatted like that, they're going to have 10 on the windshield, 10 already around the vehicle. You're not be able to see anyway. Even if the vehicle was within proper specifications in reference to the elevation.
It's still, it's. You can't it. I'm glad South Carolina has enacted this and within it's been a thing for.
[00:36:20] Speaker E: What, roughly about a year?
[00:36:23] Speaker B: I would say About a year.
[00:36:24] Speaker D: About a year now.
[00:36:25] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:36:26] Speaker D: And we, we're still seeing it of course is we're not seeing it as much as it was prior to the law coming into effect because People have sort of getting the memo that, yeah, we're out here, we're ticking it forward it, we're educating, we're doing what we need to do to try to get people into the right mindset of just lower. And not just that, you know, we're out there looking forward. And you have a lot of the citizens within the county who are starting to get annoyed of it as well.
[00:36:53] Speaker E: And.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: And the issue, of course, is that if it's tilted up like this, you can't see over the hood. You can looking at the nose of.
[00:36:59] Speaker D: The hood, you cannot.
[00:37:00] Speaker E: And your lights are going up, up.
[00:37:02] Speaker D: So at night you can't. You're definitely not going to be able to see. And that's also another thing that a lot of people don't think about. You're also blinding oncoming drivers. Because with how a vehicle is designed from the factory is there's a lot of stuff that goes in behind the scenes, but every headlight is designed for a certain reason. You know, how far out the lights go and then how deep the lights go. And you know, you have a lot of those newer vehicles now where the new LED and hid lights and stuff, they're bright, but they're still not so bright to the point of where you won't be able to see, but to a point. But then you have, you know, some of these older vehicles where people buy aftermarket headlights on top of the having a vehicle elevated, you're talking, you know, 25, 30,000 lumen light even on a regular vehicle that would blind somebody. But if you're sitting like this and you have an SUV coming at you, that light's going straight into the face of the oncoming driver. And the last thing we need is somebody to be looking at that vehicle get blinded. You know, now you have spots in your eyes and everything else. And you know, Lord forbid if you run off the road or you don't see somebody who's merging in front of you or whatever, that'll cause an accident. And that, that's our number one mission, is to prevent all of these accidents because we're trying to get down to that target zero.
Because at the end of the day, nobody should have to be having that worry that I don't know if I'm gonna get home from work tonight or I don't know if my wife or daughter coming home from school is going to be able to make it because somebody's out there on their phone or somebody's out there speeding. There's no need for that. There's no need. Share the road, practice defensive driving and practice safe drive.
[00:38:38] Speaker B: Absolutely.
Well, anything else you guys can think of to add? That was a a great way to close.
[00:38:44] Speaker E: Yeah. And any any questions that they have about laws, you can always follow us on our Facebook page. Go to our Georgetown County Sheriff's Department apps. We try to update that that is monitored. One thing we didn't touch on is we do school zones as well as well as if someone was to submit a tip, say hey, this person is speeding this area, they can go on the app and then the traffic unit.
[00:39:05] Speaker B: Will not while you're driving.
[00:39:07] Speaker D: Not while you're driving.
[00:39:08] Speaker E: Not while you're driving, but be safe.
[00:39:11] Speaker B: Great guys. Thank you so much for what you do. And thank you for coming on and talking with us today.
[00:39:16] Speaker E: Yes ma'.
[00:39:16] Speaker D: Am. Not a problem.
[00:39:17] Speaker B: Thank that's it for this month's episode of First Friday with Georgetown County. Thank you for listening. As always, I'd like to end with some events happening in the next few weeks.
Georgetown County Council Council goes back to its twice monthly meeting schedule this month. Council will meet this month on September 9th and the 23rd at 5:30pm in council chambers at the Historic Courthouse on Scriven Street. The Planning Commission will meet at that Same location on September 18th at 5:30pm On September 25th at 6:00pm the Rich Johnson duo will perform Hits from the Beatles at the Waccamaw Library. This show is free and open to everyone.
Also on September 18, there will be a free fiction writing workshop at the Waccamaw Library at 10am with Debra Daniel. It's free, but space is Limited. Call 843-545-3363 to register.
Free guitar lessons led by Dan Sacks continue to be offered at the Georgetown Library at 1pm on the first Wednesday of every month.
There's literally always something happening at our local library branches, so check out our
[email protected] for more events and programs.
Applications for accommodations tax grants are being accepted from now until 5pm on September 30th. Grants are available for projects and events occurring in the 2026 calendar year. Read
[email protected] you can find more upcoming events and public meetings on our
[email protected] Please also keep up with us on social media and by subscribing to our monthly newsletter.
As always, thank you for listening to this podcast. Join us again next month.
