Clock ticking for visitor center saves

LITTLE RIVER -- You might call the Bishop family connoisseurs of Carolina road side stops. Driving from Beaufort to Cherry Point, N.C., to visit relatives, the four family members make at least three or four stops each way to let out their two small dogs, usually at gas stations. But on a recent Saturday, they stopped at the S.C. Welcome Center in Little River.

The center, just a mile south of the N.C. border on U.S. 17, is a lot cleaner than others she'd been to, said Dixie Bishop, who spoke while her adult son James attended to the dogs, a Jack Russell terrier and toy poodle. Ever the barometer of a rest stop, the bathrooms at other stops she'd been to off Interstate 95 were filthy, she said.

Whether the Little River center remains open for dog walkers and others of the Carolina roadways is in question after budget cutbacks at the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

The agency is looking to not-for-profits - such as chambers of commerce, convention and visitors bureaus, or regional tourism groups - to pay for eight of its welcome centers around the state after the S.C. legislature cut more than $5.6 million out of this year's PRT budget.

The not-for-profits have only three days to apply to take over operating a center. The North Myrtle Beach and Little River chambers of commerce said they are still considering it, while the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce said it won't apply. PRT aims to turn over operations of the centers to not-for-profits Sept. 1.

This isn't the first time cutbacks have affected the centers - PRT shut all centers two days a week during part of 2009 to save money.

The centers have since resumed their seven-day-a-week, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule, allowing visitors to ask questions and pick up maps and brochures. Other amenities at the Little River center, restrooms, vending machines, picnic tables and the dog rest area, remain open around the clock.

Helen Bruce of Harrisonburg, Va., stopped at the wooded rest stop in Little River recently to take a break from the road before arriving in Myrtle Beach for her vacation.

"I like this one the best because there are a lot of trees. It's cool, it's quaint, very South Carolina," she said, while smoking a cigarette with her husband.

The Saturday that the Bishops and Bruces visited was fairly typical, said Debbie Causey, one of three full-time travel development coordinators at the Little River center. As of 3 p.m., the people counters attached to the door had registered 731 visitors for the day. More than 128,000 people visited the center in 2009, according to PRT.

"A lot of people come in and want us to plan out their vacation for them," Causey said.

Travelers without hotel reservations often stop in for help finding a room, Causey said, and during peak season it's not always easy. Causey said she called 13 hotels earlier that week to find space for a family of seven. Last year, the center helped place 4,904 reservations - more than 4,000 along the Grand Strand and 737 for the Charleston area.

Even locals and repeat visitors to the area sometimes stop at the center to get directions, Causey said. One couple, Lynn Ramsey and Tom Shepler who own a condo in Sunset Beach, N.C., drove to the center to get directions and information on the casino boats that dock in Little River.

"This is so well located and right over the border," Shepler said. "It's a bright and clean facility. They shouldn't cut it if it helps tourism."