Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Hi, I'm Jackie Broach, and this is first Friday with Georgetown county. Thank you for joining us. We have some repeat guests here this week. We have Chief Brent McClellan with Midway fire rescue, and we have Captain Chuck Weaver with the Georgetown county sheriff's office. They had so much fun last month, they asked to come back and talk about some other things. So today, gentlemen, we are going to talk about the marine patrol. We talked about beach patrol last month, and this is sort of the other end of what your patrol does. So who wants to start?
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Gotcha.
[00:00:45] Speaker C: All right, so just to kind of change gears a little bit, going from the ocean to the more of the riverside, the biggest thing that we want us to put out there is, you know, we don't have a patrol like the, the sheriff's office does, but we do respond to requests for emergencies, anything that's going on the waterway. But the biggest message to put out there is the river is changing. With the amount of boats that are out there, with the amount of people, it's great. You know, recreation is a really big thing right now, but on the weekends and even during the week, we're seeing a higher amount of call volume and a higher amount of folks that are utilizing the waterway. So the message that we. That we. I wanted to deliver, too, is just, you know, to be aware of your surroundings, be cognizant of other boaters. There are not only a lot of folks that live here, but there's a lot of folks that are coming here and renting boats, renting jet skis, and they're not familiar with the waterways. They're not familiar with, you know, the different changes in the tides and the things that are going on. So that's a safety message that we want to deliver, is just before you go out, just. Just be aware. Follow all the boater safety rules. Follow everything that we've been taught. Make sure your fire extinguishers are good. Your emergency helps. If you've got your cell phones, they need to be charged fully. There's just so many different things that could happen out there on the waterway that we just want to preach that message of safety, of be aware of your surroundings and have all your safety equipment with you. Watch the weather, please. We're having a lot of pop up storms that happen this time of the year that you don't realize everything's beautiful. You're having a great day and then not paying attention to the weather, and a pop up thunderstorm come out anywhere and, you know, could really cause some scary times. So please you know, that's one of the biggest messages that we deliver, and I'll turn it over to Captain Weaver.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: I would not want to be out on a boat in the middle of the river with one of those thunderstorms like we've been having recently.
[00:02:47] Speaker C: No, ma'am.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: No.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: What do you do if that happens to you, though? Like, what is the safest way to handle that situation?
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Try to get to a safe location, such as a boat ramp. Even if it's not the boat ramp that you put in at, try to get there. I mean, you got several in the ICW, you got the PD, you got sandwor. I mean, like, chief did know your area. Know your locations of safety are, too, as well.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:13] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: Well, with the kind of traffic you guys are talking about, it sounds like it's getting to be where it's like being on the road. I remember when I started driving, my dad always told me, you don't just have to look out for yourself. You have to look out for what everybody else is doing and assume that they don't know what they're doing. So it sounds like maybe we have a lot of that going on on the rivers right now, too, with visitors and people who maybe haven't spent a lot of time on a boat.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: It's true. I mean, in the past few years, the boating's increased every bit of 30%.
I mean, back in the day, you could go out, you pass one boat maybe every seven minutes. Now you pass about 20 boats every three minutes.
[00:03:53] Speaker E: Wow.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: And the congregations of where everybody goes in the areas is growing, is growing more and more. Like chief was saying, and to go back on, what chief was saying earlier is take a few minutes before you leave your residence, make sure that you're prepared before you get to that boat landing. You know what I'm saying? Make sure that you got your safety equipment, everything that's proper and needed, and water hydration. I know some people like to enjoy adult beverages when they're out, too. Make sure we have a designated driver. That's going to get us back safely as well.
The sheriff's office were blessed and fortunate that we have the equipment that we have to assist other agencies and as well, we do some patrols out there. And when we're out and about, we're just making sure everybody's prepared to be on the water. So if you see us come up, you know, we're checking to make sure life jackets are in there. They got their sounding devices, you know, everything required and that is needed to be on the water. And you can go into DNR website and look and see what's needed for all the vessels before you head out. And it even talks about what size boat you have and what's required there as well.
I mean, it's growing.
[00:05:08] Speaker D: It's growing.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: We have eight full time marine guys that are called accessible, and we have eight alternates that pitch in and jump in and help out too, as well. I mean, we're out there with the fire department, DNR case guard, so we assist quite a bit with anything that's going on. Unfortunately, if a boat breaks down, we can't tow a boat with our vessels, but we can assist by bringing somebody back to the hill and waiting there until Seto or somebody gets there, another person that help you get your vessel back as well.
[00:05:44] Speaker C: Yeah, that's a very good point, Cap. We're the same way. We're not trained nor set up to do any kind of towing or we have numerous calls where we'll go out and the folks don't want rescue, they just want towed back and we're just not capable of doing that. But what we will offer is safe refuge. We'll get, you know, folks to safety. Sometimes we end up taking half the boat and, you know, a couple people wait for another agency. One thing we do not want to do is leave a vessel in the waterway for someone else to come in and have an accident. So we call all the other agencies and, you know, we've got a really good partnership, all of us, both of us at this table, as well as South Carolina DNR Coast Guard murals inlet fire rescue Georgetown City fire it takes all of us working hard to ensure the safety. But, yeah, just please know, don't get upset with us. We're not capable of doing the toes. We're not able to offer that service, but we do want to get you to safety.
Medical emergencies. We have numerous medical emergencies out on the waterway. Just like I said in our beach stuff, call us, call early. If you end up getting back to the landing safely, that's fine.
[00:06:54] Speaker A: I.
[00:06:54] Speaker C: You got to keep in mind that, you know, it takes us a little bit to get our resources going.
You know, when you see a midway fire rescue boat on the water, that's a crew that's off of a fire truck. You know, we don't have full time. They're not sitting in the boat waiting on the call. We just don't have that resource available. So we're cross staffing and cross manning and sometimes those trucks are on other incidents when we're running 4000 plus calls a year now.
We're busy. And, you know, when you call, call early so that we can get those crews. We do keep a boat in the water ready to go and it's actually a pretty quick transition to watch them go from the fire truck over to the boat and get out to where you need, where you need them. But there's no harm in calling and there's no harm in calling back. If you mitigate your emergency or you come into a landing and we need to meet you at that landing, we'll do whatever we can, but don't be afraid to call us. If you see something or you need assistance, please let us know.
[00:07:50] Speaker A: A lot of people would probably be worried about wasting your resources, but I think this is definitely a case of better safe than sorry.
[00:07:57] Speaker C: Absolutely. We would rather be on the way to you and find out that you don't need us or just get us on the way because like I said, we could be on another active incident and have to leave that to try to get folks in. And we'll use those partnerships, too. We immediately reach out to these guys and all the area, the agencies to put together something to try to pinpoint. A lot of times the people don't know where they're at. We're talking summer stuff right now, but let's talk winter stuff as well. There's still folks out there in the off season. There's duck hunting. There's all these other things that come in with cold weather that sometimes people just aren't able to pinpoint where they're at. And that's where our drones really come in helpful, too. We'll put a drone up and we want to get all those resources out as early as possible to try to mitigate that, that emergency. So please, and like Dekat said, you know, follow your boater safety rules. They're, they're posted on the website. So everybody that has a boat should be very familiar with them. Have all your safety stuff on board and, you know, let someone know where you're going. That's maybe, you know, a loved one or someone that we can get ahold of to try to help track. And same thing goes for the kayaks. You know, we get a lot of kayakers and we're going to be getting a lot more here in the near future. And that's great. I have a kayak. I love it.
But they, they tend to explore those beautiful areas. They are beautiful. And you're going to see some eagles and you're going to see some great things out there. Know where you're at? No, no.
[00:09:30] Speaker A: Where you're headed, be familiar, like you mentioned earlier, not being familiar with the tides. If you're in a kayak, that can be especially tricky because if people aren't from here, they may not be familiar with Clough Mudd.
Talk to us a little bit about that. I know you all have done some rescues.
Just to summarize.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: Well, I mean, you don't have to plug, especially in the creek area merles in the creek Polyson and you're correct, it looks like it's a stable, but as soon as you step in it, you'll sink down several inches, if not a foot or so.
[00:10:03] Speaker A: Carolina Quicksand yes.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: And it is tough to get out of. Smells great. Yeah.
And getting to you, I mean, if you're in a kayak stuck up in the marsh for us, fire department, DNR, sheriff's office, coast guard, you know, we're working to get in there and choosing the right vessel to get up in there as well. Sometimes we have to take a paddle board up in the morse, you know, to help them in the system to get them out. You know, I'm saying. Yeah. And then in rivers, the site keeps with it saying, too, when that tide drops out of, there's a lot of points that have fluff, mud and sand where it shifts back and forth because we have a moving tide all the time. And then if a storm comes through like we did not too long ago, we had that tornado around Sandy island area, the structure that's in the water, you know what I'm saying? So be mindful when you're driving down through there, be careful.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: Yeah. It's easy to happen if you're not familiar with the tide. So make sure you know where the tides are before you go out, I think is the key message there. Now, you mentioned earlier having your safety kit ready on your boat. Let's talk about those safety kits. What should you be taking out with you?
[00:11:17] Speaker B: Well, first of all, you want to make sure that you have a life jacket for every person that's going to be on the boat. Make sure that it's properly fitted. Okay. Check it out. Make sure it's snug in areas and it works good.
Sounding devices. Sounding device can be the boat horn, but we know how mechanical stuff gets after a while. So you can get an air horn or whistle.
Fire extinguisher. Fire extinguisher is the number one thing. If you don't know how the fire extinguisher works properly stop over at the fire station. They'll explain it to you, get it taken care of. And you want to make sure it's in the careen, you know, that is able to work. Also make sure if it's in the boat for a while that you're taking it out, shaking up, tapping it, so the stuff doesn't get compacted in there.
As far as rest of it, your lanyard.
They have passed a new law in reference to the lanyard. So if you're going past over idle speed, you're supposed to have your kill switch connected to you. Make sure that's in there, that's working properly as well.
As far as the rest of you got a small safety kit, you know, band aids, any kind of first aid as well. On top of that, a towable seat cushion or life ring. Make sure that's on your vessel as well. You know what I mean? In case somebody falls overboard, you have something to toss to them because it takes a little bit for them to maneuver a boat. You just can't turn like a car, stop it, and then turn around real quick.
So make sure that's on there as well. Some people like to have flares, but that's basically required for if you want to go offshore.
But that's going to be the most of it. And again, like I say, you can go to Coast Guard DNR website and they will tell you exactly what's going to be required for your vessels.
[00:13:05] Speaker A: All right, so you also mentioned some of those adult beverages, right?
DUI is on the water.
[00:13:12] Speaker B: Is that a bui is.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: I'm sorry, and bui gotta use the right lingo.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: Boating under the influence. Boating under the influence is similar to driving your vehicle. Yes. Impaired.
It is possible, especially if you're out in that heat all day long. You know what I'm saying? You're not staying hydrated, so you want to make sure that you got precautionaries that, like Kat, the chief said that you know the area that you're in, because that way, the people that has to drive for it bring you back. They know how to get back safely, too, as well, and have some knowledge about operate the boat.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: Okay, so what else do we need to talk about here? What other safety messaging do you have?
[00:14:00] Speaker C: Be cognizant of air bails. Be aware, number one, where you're at, but be aware of others. Just like you said, when you learn to drive, watch out for the other person. When you're coming into the boat landings, let's be mindful of each other.
You know, there's a lot of people trying to get in and out of the water sometimes at the same time, you know, please just let's all get along and not cause any kind of safety issues at the landings. If you see us actively out and you see our lights on, we are not training, all right?
[00:14:32] Speaker F: We.
[00:14:33] Speaker C: If the lights are on, please give us. Give us room to operate in. And especially if we're coming in and out of landing, we're, as they say, coming in hot. We want to try to get in the water as quick as we can, obviously, and as safely as we can. And sometimes the landings get a little bit congested and when folks see the lights or they see the air assets up, they want to all congregate. And I get it, but just give us our space. We promise you that we will get out of the way as quick as we can, but that just means we're working an incident, we're working something active.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: And the best thing you can do to help is stand back and just stay out of their way, please.
[00:15:13] Speaker C: Please. And you know, we're all team. We all work well together. We have a unified command center. And if you need something or you need our assistance even while we're working on another one, we'll get assets to you as quick as we can. But it's a beautiful, beautiful river. People, you know, some, some people save up all year round to come down here and visit our, our piece of paradise. So just be cognizant of each other and let's all get along out there and let's all operate safely.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: Do you guys want to talk about wakes real quick before I let you go?
[00:15:50] Speaker B: You talk. We have areas in the river ICW that are no wake zones.
Be careful. Those slow down. We got people like Chief Hussain getting their boats out, bringing their boats in, people staying on the docks as well. The wakes of the boat, be careful of those. I know they throw a big wake out behind some of them.
And the jet skis, they like to be careful not to jump over them. You know what I'm saying? Just be mindful of your wakes as well. It's called rules of the road and it's just like driving a vehicle. Stay to your side of the river. Watch your speeds. If you see a congregation of people where they've grouped up and they're enjoying the festivities on the river as well, you know, be mindful. Like I say, idle your boat down. Come slowly through there so you're not throwing people in and out of the water and making boats running to each other as well.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: Okay, great. Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us again. You are welcome back anytime you have anything to talk about.
[00:16:52] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:16:53] Speaker D: Appreciate it.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: Our next guest is also a return visitor, and he is extremely popular right now. Everybody wants to talk to him with all the rain that we've had. Robin Mears with our mosquito control department and stormwater division. Robin, how are you doing today?
[00:17:08] Speaker F: Very good, thank you.
[00:17:10] Speaker A: So you're here to talk with us about a couple of things related to mosquito control. Where do you want to start?
[00:17:15] Speaker F: Well, first of all, is that everybody, I hope you've noticed that, you know, the increase in rain, more than likely you've seen an increase in insects and particularly in mosquitoes.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: They're everywhere.
[00:17:28] Speaker F: Right. And so, you know, that's not unusual. We expect that we're taking measures to try to counteract that as much as we possibly can.
And what we ask is if you just see a few more mosquitoes than you've seen in the past, understand that's normal. But if you're seeing a significant increase, yes, we want you to call the hotline or send us an email or something like that. But, yeah, the uptick we fully understand and we expect it.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: So even with this increase, though, compared to some previous years, our numbers, you said earlier, are still lower than baseline with this new product we've been using.
[00:18:08] Speaker F: Well, we'd like to think it's that we're actually doing several things now that we've improved on from the past. One is we think we're using a much better product, a much safer product, of course, but we're also doing a lot more larviciding. We're trying to get ahead of the situation much better than we have in the past. And kind of in that light, the increase in rain is going to increase the amount of water that you see in your yard. It's going to increase the water in your bird baths and your flower pots and things like that. And we ask you to please empty those because that's where mosquitoes love to lay their eggs.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: You're basically growing your own mosquitoes in your yard if you've got that standing water.
[00:18:53] Speaker F: Absolutely. And then from a county perspective, one of the things that we have to pay very close attention to is what we call catch basins, which the rest of you probably know as grates or the drains that you have in the street or even in your yard.
With this increase in rain, they will actually have water in the bottom of them. And believe it or not, the mosquitoes that breed in those areas are the mosquitoes that carry the most diseases. So we try very hard.
Our staff has been all over the county recently treating as many catch basins as we can locate. Primarily, if it's in the street or it's in the counties or the states right away, then we'll treat them. What we don't do is we don't come into your yard, but we know that there are catch basins in people's yards.
We would ask anyone that has those to please try to treat them. There are many products out there on the market. They're called larvicides, and you can buy them online, and a lot of them are just those dunks, things like that. But we also have some products that we recommend.
If you've got any questions about it, please give us a call, because, again, we feel very strongly that those need to be treated simply because of the type of mosquito that they breed.
[00:20:23] Speaker A: You said it is a breed of mosquito that is more likely to carry those diseases, and that's why you see them more with that type. Is that what you were saying earlier?
[00:20:32] Speaker F: Yeah. Without giving you the scientific name, the particular mosquito that we see there, we've got data from the state that tells us that that particular type of mosquito that likes to breed in these catch basins and in bottle caps and in your trash that you leave out in your yard, any kind of standing water breeds these particular type of mosquitoes in this area.
[00:21:00] Speaker A: Hard to believe that just a little bottle cap is enough for them to breed in, but it is.
[00:21:06] Speaker F: Over 100 eggs can be laid in one bottle of captain. Yeah. And then they'll sit dormant until, you know, the conditions are right for them to hatch.
[00:21:15] Speaker A: There's another reason not to litter, y'all right.
[00:21:18] Speaker F: Absolutely.
But that's something that we want to emphasize this year, and we think that we've done a much better job than in the past of treating most of the catch basins in the county. We try to go from subdivision to subdivision and take care of this, particularly if the Hoas are not taking care of it. But we're still identifying places. We've actually just purchased a software through a grant in the state that will help us to keep an inventory of all these catch basins. It's something that we learned that North Myrtle beach has been doing for several years now. So we want to do the same thing, because, again, that's where we believe the biggest problems are.
[00:22:02] Speaker A: That's great. Now we also have some new mosquito traps you wanted to talk about, I believe.
[00:22:08] Speaker F: Yeah, we do. We have. We went from a trap that most of our traps were probably over 20 years old, and they're made out of metal and they're rusting and they're falling apart and they're not very attractive. So we went searching and we found what we believe out of Australia.
It's a trap that we were pretty impressed with, but we also found that we could purchase it, you know, through vendors here in the US.
So we've gone to that type of trap. So you might see them around the county. We were able to put a lot more of them out than we could before just due to the cost.
But these traps, people have got to understand. We try to have them all identified with the county's sticker. So you'll know that there are traps. And we ask you to please avoid, and particularly your children avoid, you know, going and messing with these traps because there are two different type of chemicals that are in there that are, in fact, harmful. Now, they're in a small amount, but, you know, if a child gets a hold to them, that's not something that, you know, we, we would like to see.
So just please, if you see any, any kind of mosquito trap, they're black and, you know they're going to be plugged in. They have to be plugged into a source. Some of them would be on the ground. Some of them might be hanging in a tree, some of them might be hanging on a, on a post that we've built. But once again, we just ask that you avoid, you know, touching them, because that's how we determine to what the populations are in various areas in the state and where we're going to spray.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: Yeah. So, and you also wanted to talk about your spray trucks and the safety of your spray truck drivers in particular.
[00:24:02] Speaker F: Yeah. Lately we've had a lot of incidences where folks have flagged down our spray truck drivers.
We ask you, please do not do that. There's a couple of reasons for it. First of all, most of the time they're spraying at dusk. And so it's, you know, it's very hard for, you know, you all know from driving around here at dusk, it can be challenging to begin with. But if he's got to watch out for people walking in front of him or flagging him down, that's just another safety item for both you, for both the citizens and for the driver.
And then the second thing is, you know, they have a job to do, and if you interfere with their schedule, it's just going to put them behind. And now they have to play catch up and, you know, most of these guys are spraying to nine and 10:00 at night anyway, so we certainly don't want to keep them out any later than that because every one of our drivers has a full time job during the day. This is something that they do, you know, extra. And so we just. We just ask once again, for your safety and theirs. Please do not approach the spray trucks when they're spraying.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: Now, I occasionally will get complaints about the trucks. They must have been going 55 miles an hour down my road. Are the trucks even able to do that when the sprayers are activated?
[00:25:28] Speaker F: No, the sprayer, they get an alarm, believe it or not, when they go over not even 20 miles an hour. Actually, at 19 miles an hour, they get an alarm, and then after that, the sprayer will actually shut off. So if they're going any faster than that, they can't spray. Now, once again, if they're going down the road, a 45 miles an hour road or a 55 miles an hour road, they can do the speed limit, but they don't spray.
And that might be something that I want to tell the folks about. If you live on a highway where it's 45 to 55 miles an hour, I'm sorry to tell you, but, you know, there's no way that we can spray you. It will not. The spray will.
First of all, it just dissipates too much at that speed.
And second of all, the driver now has to slow down to 20 miles an hour to spray on a road that's 55 miles an hour.
[00:26:26] Speaker A: So it's a major highway. Creates traffic and safety issues itself. So we can't do that.
[00:26:31] Speaker F: That's right. We've had an issue where logging trucks have actually come up on them, and they've actually had to hit the ditch to get out of their way. Oh, goodness.
[00:26:39] Speaker A: That's not good.
[00:26:40] Speaker F: Yeah, so we've told, you know, that was back a few years back when they would try to spray. So if you live on a highway at that speed, unfortunately, just for the safety of our drivers, they're unable to spray your area specifically.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: Well, that's unfortunate, but it's always got to be safety first.
[00:26:59] Speaker F: Absolutely. Absolutely.
[00:27:02] Speaker A: Is there anything else you want to talk about today?
[00:27:05] Speaker F: No. Those were the main items that we wanted to cover. And just be aware that our staff is out working very hard to, you know, to find where the hotspots are in the county. We're looking at doing some things in the near future, probably with planes. It's not to spray and kill mosquitoes. It's more to spray and kill the eggs or the larva.
Once again, we've learned from other counties that if we approach it from that perspective, that seems to be a lot more effective than waiting on mosquitoes to hatch out and bother everybody.
[00:27:43] Speaker A: Well, Robin, thank you for everything that you do for us this time of year, and also to all of your spray truck drivers and staff. We do appreciate your taking care of those mosquitoes for us.
[00:27:53] Speaker F: You're very welcome.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: Thank you for joining us.
Our next guest is Holly Richardson, our director of planning and zoning for Georgetown County. Holly has been very, very busy this last, I'd say a few months, but it's more like a couple years. So just this last week, county council gave final approval to the land use element of the comprehensive plan. And that kind of puts the end on a long chapter for you. Right, Holly, talk to us a little bit about that.
[00:28:26] Speaker D: Sure.
[00:28:27] Speaker E: We've been working on the land use element in some version, really since October of 2020. We started with another draft and kind of pulled back, worked on some other elements of our comp plan, and then came back to the land use element of the comp plan. Utilized a consultant from Columbia that has helped us. We had a lot of public information meetings. We had a lot of public input that we received in writing and in person. The drafts have circulated a good bit, and we've had a good bit of workshops, and we finally, like you said, got our council third reading and final approval on the element at the meeting Tuesday night.
[00:29:01] Speaker A: And that is probably one of the most significant elements of the comprehensive plan, I would say. Would you agree?
[00:29:10] Speaker E: Yes, it's a very important element. Of course, they're all important. This is kind of the meatiest one. This is where we talk about the development in Georgetown county for the next ten years. What type of development, what land use policies do we want to look at, including as part of our regulations in the future? So it is a pretty important one.
[00:29:29] Speaker A: Which, of course, is also a topic that a lot of people feel very strongly and passionately about, which, you know, they should. It's an important issue for us. But this chapter is closing, yet we are immediately opening another one. Right. So tell me what happens now that the land use element has passed? You unfortunately don't get a break.
[00:29:50] Speaker E: Correct. We're not going to be resting on our laurels. We're going to take some time and appreciate the fact that the document's been approved and finalized. But if you heard at the end of the council meeting, even council members had some direction for us straight out of the gate to get to work.
We had one specific recommendation that we'll be looking at in August to deal with the maximum density levels to match the plan. So we're working on that piece of it right away. And then we were also given a general direction to move forward with implementing this, implementing the zoning ordinance to make the changes that the land use element recommends. We've said all along that the land use element is a guide. It's policy recommendations. But the real meat, the real changes will occur once the zoning ordinances and the zoning maps get updated.
[00:30:34] Speaker A: So this is where the action is actually going to happen, which I think is an issue that has been confusing for a lot of people. But now is where we're really going to see, see the things that are making changes for our community happen. And tell me a little bit about that and what those changes are going to look like.
[00:30:52] Speaker E: It's kind of twofold. I mentioned the map and the ordinance. So the document actually makes some recommendations for changing zoning in certain areas, some areas that might be approved today. In zoning for high density development, the plan recommends, because they're adjacent to some existing neighborhoods with predominantly single family uses, that we consider down zoning. Those that recommendation is in the plan. So that will be a main priority once we start updating. There's also policy recommendations. So things in there like adding protections for natural resources, there was a lot of discussion and a lot of input from the public about natural resources. Our county feels like that is one of our most treasured possessions and something we want to protect. So those protections won't take place until we can have ordinances there that we can enforce. So that'll be another thing we'll start working on, for example, additional buffers for wetlands, refining tree protections, and maybe expanding some protections that we already have in place.
[00:31:53] Speaker A: Now, I'm assuming this is not all something you're going to be able to do overnight. What is the timeline for all of this look like?
[00:31:59] Speaker E: Well, like I said, we're working on that immediate text change in August, but the time frame, I mean, it's probably going to take a year to revise the whole zoning ordinance. Our zoning ordinance has kind of been patched together through the years. The county has had zoning since the seventies, and the text has just been sort of updated and pieced together. But we feel like we really need a significant rewrite. We need to update some of our categories to match the new categories in the land use element.
[00:32:27] Speaker A: A few things have changed since the seventies. That's right.
[00:32:29] Speaker E: A lot of the references in our zoning ordinance are out of date. We refer to things like telephone booths and notion stores and five and dimes and terms that aren't even used anymore.
[00:32:38] Speaker A: We may have some listeners who. We need to explain what a telephone is.
[00:32:42] Speaker E: Correct. Correct. So we need to clean up a lot of that language. And really just have a cleaner and kind of. My goal is also to have a more easy to read document for the public.
[00:32:52] Speaker A: Okay, great. Well, at the same time, you're not entirely done. With the comprehensive plan yet. Just because the land use element is done. What do we have left to do to finish our comprehensive plan update?
[00:33:03] Speaker E: We are so close. We are so close. We can see the finish line.
[00:33:06] Speaker A: I can hear the relief in your voice.
[00:33:08] Speaker E: That's right. The priority investment element is one that we have a draft ready for. And should have it up on the comp plan webpage. On the county's webpage. The planning commission is going to be reviewing and hopefully voting on that draft. At their August 15 meeting.
Once they're ready, they'll make a recommendation, and that'll be on to county council. We also have the natural resource element that planning commission voted on. Council ended up deferring. So we need to bring that before county council. And we'll be looking at some meetings to do that in the next couple of months.
[00:33:39] Speaker A: Yeah, that's another one that has generated a lot of public interest. So we'll probably be a heavily attended council meeting when that comes back up.
[00:33:48] Speaker E: Yes. I expect that to be another hot button element as well.
[00:33:52] Speaker A: Now, I think you also mentioned that we do have a new element this year. That we didn't have before. That is not actually required by law. Beach management.
[00:34:02] Speaker E: It's not new, but the county makes it part of our comprehensive. It has always been included in the comp plan. And that's something that I believe our public works division is working with a consultant on. So once that's updated, we'll make that a part of the comp plan as well.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: Okay, great. Well, Holly, is there anything else you want to talk about or mention? No, thanks.
[00:34:21] Speaker E: Just keep an eye out.
[00:34:22] Speaker A: All right. Holly, thank you so much for joining us. And thank you for all the work you and your staff have done on this. I know, I know. It's a lot. So just thank you.
[00:34:31] Speaker E: Thanks. Appreciate you having me.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: Our last guest today is Dwight McEnville, our library director. Because we had something very, very exciting happen this week. Dwight, yesterday we opened our Georgetown library.
[00:34:44] Speaker D: Branch, and it was so exciting. We had so many people come through the doors, and they were so eager to get in. It's been almost 14 months since we greeted people at this facility, and the folks that came in were so excited to see the new auditorium and the new picture hanging gallery, as it were, the new digital components on the walls, the new meeting spaces, the lowered ceiling with improved lighting, the beautiful foyer, the new public service desks, the computers, the teen tech room, which is now new space for us. So it was a well received, a soft opening. But, Jackie, it was indeed a soft opening.
[00:35:30] Speaker A: And tell us why that is.
[00:35:32] Speaker D: Well, we're going to have a grand opening at the end of October, beginning of November, but right now we want it to open up to the public as soon as possible. And so there are shelves that don't have tops on them. We are still missing the delivery of some shelving and furniture, so we had to use some old furniture, but it worked fine. And so we still have books and boxes. And our storytime room is still filled with a quantity of creative children's materials because the large storage room that we have available for her doesn't have the storage shelving installed yet.
[00:36:14] Speaker A: And we were talking a little earlier. You know, our, our landscaping out front is not looking the best right now. That may be a case of don't judge a book by its cover. Right. Because the inside is beautiful.
[00:36:24] Speaker D: That's right. And I must say that although the landscaping immediately to the right of the front door is not in good shape, everywhere else is beautiful.
[00:36:34] Speaker A: And we do have a new little garden area that the friends of the library did for us and back when we've never had landscape.
[00:36:40] Speaker D: Oh, that's true. And it's a beautiful, beautiful. I think it's like a little japanese garden area. It's beautiful. But the friends also came out in force, and they planted a lot of trees along Church Street, Highway 17. And those are beautiful as well. So there's some improvements. But, yes, we must get those bushes to the right of that front door taken care of as soon as possible. We even have some vines climbing up the walls. So, folks, remember, this is definitely a.
[00:37:10] Speaker A: Soft opening, but the inside is beautiful. Just bear with us as you walk in. Close your eyes. But we're going to have that taken care of. And we've got some other things we're going to do before the fall.
[00:37:23] Speaker D: That's right. And I think an exciting space that people are going to enjoy seeing and maybe using is a space that we're in right now. You know, this is our new digital video production lab. And our digital videographer, he's going to be teaching people how to create digital videos. In fact, he's been doing it with the help of a grant from the state library for the last year with the young people in the community, and he's been going to schools and meeting with them at different sites to do that. But now that we're back in our home, so to speak, we'll be able to do it here with people as well.
[00:37:58] Speaker A: That's wonderful. Well, I'm personally excited to be back in here. You know, this is my, my home library branch, and I was very excited to bring my daughter in yesterday. So who was more excited? You were the people coming through the doors.
[00:38:11] Speaker D: Both. Both. We've been missing people. We've missed you all so much, and we're so glad that you're coming back in again. And we would encourage you to continue to use us, even though we're in our soft opening period. Someday this place is going to be absolutely perfect.
[00:38:29] Speaker A: And even though it is a soft opening, all of the services are available right now.
[00:38:32] Speaker D: All of the services are available. We have the scanning, we have the. The copier, we have the reference services, and our computers are up, and we have plenty of books on the shelves, folks. We had 90,000 books that we had to unbox and put on shelves, and we got it done and in really good order, too. So you'll be able to find what you want and what you missed getting here, I assure you.
[00:39:01] Speaker A: Well, that is wonderful.
What else can you tell us? We are. I saw the sign out front. We are raising funds for a sculpture.
[00:39:08] Speaker D: Yes, we're going to have a special Harriet Tubman sculpture. She was a special person to Georgetown county in that she sent money from her job up north to her nephew, who lived here. And he was a person who she had helped to escape from slavery at a plantation. And later he went to school, thanks to her, became very well educated. He came back to Georgetown, and he helped others to benefit from education. But she sent books, and she was an inspiration to him. And I'm assuming that many people in our audience know who Harriet Tubman was.
[00:39:53] Speaker A: We would hope so.
[00:39:54] Speaker D: We would hope so. But just in case one doesn't, she was a former enslaved individual. She freed herself by escaping from the plantation where she was, but because of her family still being there, she returned and she rescued them as well. And then she not only did that, but she continued to free a lot of people using the underground railroad. And you can imagine what she had to go through to rescue people at that time. And then later, she led Union soldiers on the Combahee raid, and that was a raid of rice plantations on the Khambahi river. And she rescued hundreds of enslaved people at that time. So she really was a very dynamic lady. Very small, but very formidable and very.
[00:40:48] Speaker A: Dedicated to making sure that her nephew was educated. So it seemed extremely appropriate that we would have this wonderful sculpture in the children's area.
[00:40:57] Speaker D: But thanks to the friends, they are raising $40,000. They're almost there. And if they exceed that goal, which they expect to, then we can have a larger statue.
[00:41:08] Speaker A: That's wonderful.
[00:41:08] Speaker D: Yeah, it's going to be made out of bronze, and it's a new statue that has never been seen before by.
[00:41:15] Speaker A: The same sculptor as who did the sculpture that was on display. And was it rainy park?
[00:41:21] Speaker D: Rainy park. Of course, the sculpture there was much larger than the one that we can afford, but this will be positioned right outside of the children's department.
[00:41:30] Speaker A: Well, that is so wonderful. I cannot wait for that.
[00:41:33] Speaker D: And, in fact, yesterday, you and your daughter may have seen the poster that we have of the statute.
[00:41:39] Speaker A: We did? Yes.
[00:41:40] Speaker D: It shows you kind of what it will look like. But we have a special committee who is meeting to decide what clothing they want to have her wear because she dressed differently at different stages of her life, like we all do. And they're even bringing in a hairstylist to help them to determine exactly how her hair should be depicted on the statue. So they're really doing a good job. It's a bang up group of volunteers. I think everybody's going to be very pleased with the results.
[00:42:12] Speaker A: Interesting. And if you couldn't tell, Dwight is a lover of history. You also recently gave a presentation right here in our library auditorium as part of the 225th anniversary series that we have going on. And you gave the library's history. You went all the way back to the year one ad?
[00:42:32] Speaker D: No, not. Well, actually, I did.
[00:42:34] Speaker A: Yes, you did.
[00:42:35] Speaker D: Because we talked about the ancient roman empire and the. And the public libraries that they had there. But. But the main focus was on the year 1799 to 1859. And I will be doing a presentation in September to bring it forth to the present. And so that should be interesting. But we have been having an exciting series of programs for the 225th.
[00:42:59] Speaker A: And if you've missed any of those programs, if you'd like to go learn about the library's history right from Dwight. It is. All these videos are posted on the library's YouTube page. YouTube channel. Which is, of course, very active.
[00:43:12] Speaker D: Oh.
As of this year, we reached a million views of our YouTube channel, a million. Yes, we have a huge digital presence with ebooks, of course, with our video library, with our Georgetown county digital Library. So if you want to read books online, you can. If you want to see videos online, you can. If you want to enjoy the digital photographs and old newspapers online as well, you can do that as well.
We have almost as many people using our e sources as we do coming in.
[00:43:49] Speaker A: I love the Libby app. I'm listening to an audiobook on that right now. And Julie does just a bang up job with the digital library. We'll have to add her on the podcast to talk about all that she does.
[00:43:59] Speaker D: Oh, definitely. She would enjoy speaking to the public and telling them about that.
[00:44:03] Speaker A: I don't know if she would, but we're going to ask her if we.
Dwight, is there anything else you can tell us about the new library?
[00:44:10] Speaker D: I just want to underscore what a good team the library has and how hard everyone has worked to make this possible.
If you guys had seen the efforts that people have gone through, toting boxes, unpacking boxes, putting books on the shelves, making sure that all the books were in picture perfect order, remember, they had to do this 90,000 times. In addition, they had to set up all of the computers. Again, you can imagine the extreme amount of work that that involved. And then, of course, we had to move furniture out of two storage areas here in the library that I compared to the tomb of the pharaoh king Tut, as it were. And I mean, they were packed to the ceiling. A lot of great effort went into this, and I know people enjoyed it yesterday, but we hope that you will come in soon to enjoy it just as much.
[00:45:11] Speaker A: I don't know what I can possibly add to that. Dwight, thank you so much for joining us.
[00:45:16] Speaker D: Thank you for the invitation. It's been very enjoyable.
[00:45:18] Speaker A: We can't wait for the grand opening.
[00:45:20] Speaker D: In the fall, and that's when everything will be perfect.
[00:45:23] Speaker A: I believe it. That's it for the August episode of First Friday with Georgetown county. If you listened this far, thank you so much for your attention and your interest in Georgetown county government. As usual, there are a few dates that I would like to go over with you for things that are happening in August. 1 off for residents in the spring Gully community, the Georgetown area, and the Andrews, we have a series of public meetings occurring to gather input for a grant that we're receiving from the Environmental Protection Agency. We are looking for brownfield sites that we can assess and potentially redevelop in these three communities that I mentioned Georgetown, Andrews, and Spring Gully. The meetings will occur on Monday, August 5 from 630 to 07:30 p.m. at the Georgetown Library Auditorium. Auditorium Tuesday, August 6, the same time, six to 07:30 p.m. at the Andrews Library and again on Thursday, August 8 from 630 to 07:30 p.m. at McDonald Elementary School. For the senior residents in our community, we're having a special event at the Walgreens store in Pawley's island. Our emergency services director, Brandon Ellis will be a guesthouse speaker for a senior prep session. This community event will take place on Tuesday, August 6 from 10:00 a.m. to noon. Again, that's at Walgreens and Polly's Island. Brandon will provide some essential insights into effective hurricane planning. Additionally, Mandy Halloran, the director of public health and disability integration for Able South Carolina, will share crucial strategies for planning to cater to the needs of individuals with special needs and disabilities. I believe they're also going to have some specially set up shelving and aisles and things so you can help get your your hurricane kit ready without having to go search high and low on all the shelves for everything. So that should be a great event and it is completely free.
On Monday, August 5, gsats will have a special safety action plan meeting. This meeting is going to take place from five to 07:00 p.m. at the library auditorium at the Waccamaw Library.
The Georgetown County Planning Commission will meet on August 5 at 05:30 p.m. in council chambers.
As a reminder, during the summer months, Georgetown County Council only meets once a month, so their meeting for August will be on August 27 at 05:30 p.m. in county council chambers. And I'm going to mention this even though the dates are just tentative. Right now we are scheduling a series of public education sessions on the two sales tax referendums that people will see on the ballot this November, a capital project sales tax as well as a local option sales tax.
We want to make sure all the voters know what they're voting on when they get to the ballot box. We will have a series of meetings throughout the county. The first of those is likely to be Tuesday, August 13 at the Chappie Recreation center from 530 to 07:00 p.m.
we'll have another one likely. Again, these are tentative on Tuesday, August 20 at Carvers Bay, and then we have one that is already confirmed. We know that this date is correct, at least unless something happens on Monday, August 26 at the Waccamaw library. Now, those are just the ones we have in August. We'll have quite a few more of them happening throughout September and October, and I'll give you more on those dates soon. So just go ahead and be looking for these. And I hope that you're able to attend at least one of the sessions so that you can learn about these sales tax initiatives. Again, thank you for joining us. I really do appreciate your time. This has been first Friday with Georgetown.
