North Myrtle Beach, Surfside Beach library work gets under way

Residents in North Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach could see new and bigger libraries in their towns come next year.

Construction work has already begun on the new North Myrtle Beach library on First Avenue South in the city, and the Surfside Beach library closed on Friday to give library staff ample time to clear out the books and other equipment before construction begins there.

Steven Gosnell, Horry County assistant county administrator, said contract negotiations for the renovation of the Surfside Beach library are being finalized and the chosen bidder should be on-site in mid-September. Work on the library's $3.8 million, 14,000-square-foot expansion will take 10 to 12 months.

The roughly 20,000-square-foot North Myrtle Beach library, which is part of the city's long-term plan to build new facilities along and near Second Avenue South, is expected to be completed in the spring, said Clifton Boyer, director of the Horry County Memorial Library System.

The North Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach libraries are two of three library projects included in a $12 million bond secured by Horry County officials for construction or renovation.

The other is a library in Carolina Forest, which is being prepared for site work, Boyer said.

Plans for the North Myrtle Beach library include an expanded stack collection, a separate children's room, an expanded computer area with about 24 public-access computers, additional seating, a young adult area and a larger meeting room, Boyer has said. He said the floor plan is almost identical to the Socastee library's and is the same as for the planned Carolina Forest library.

A new library in North Myrtle Beach has been in the works for several years now as city officials have been looking to redevelop land along Second Avenue South between City Hall and the Intracoastal Waterway.

The library property is in addition to more than 100 acres in an area surrounding City Hall, where the city has plans for a complex of arts and recreation facilities.

Those facilities could be in place within 20 years, according to city officials.

All four full-time staffers at the current 7,200-square-foot library in North Myrtle Beach will move to the new facility, library officials said. But additional staff were not approved in the library system's fiscal year 2011 budget, Boyer said.

"We would like to add more staff, but the money is not in the budget to hire additional staff yet," Boyer said.

The North Myrtle Beach Area Historical Museum board plans to secure the city's current library on Second Avenue North for the planned museum to move into once the new library is built, city officials have said.

The Surfside Beach renovation will increase the library's size, and Gosnell said there will be more room for the 40 to 50 new computers with Internet access that are coming to the library.

The meeting room will also get some improvements, and a new HVAC and lighting system will be put in.

But the expansion of the Surfside Branch was not without controversy.

Surfside Beach residents came out in droves a year ago for a Town Council meeting on a decision to transfer a quarter-acre of land near the existing library from the town to Horry County.

The land would remain a buffer to meet stormwater setback requirements. But to do so, the town must make up the loss of the 0.25 acres of park space, according to S.C. Parks, Recreation and Tourism regulations.

Residents were up in arms because the town plans to substitute the 0.25 acres at Fuller Park with a lot the town owns next to Sundown Restaurant and Sports Pub, and there were concerns about what kind of park usage that would encourage.

Then-town administrator Ed Booth said the plan was to put in some grass and benches to replace the 0.25 acres of grass that will be transferred to Horry County, not to create a park in the space next to the Sundown Restaurant.