Conway has plans to watch hooligans

CONWAY Hooligans who think Conway parks are a great place to make merry on moonless nights might change their minds once the city has installed cameras and the police are watching them doing it.

The city is deploying video cameras soon at Riverfront Park and Marina, where, Mayor Alys Lawson said, vandals have chucked planters into the river and torn brass plaques from the items they are there to commemorate.

Cameras at the park and marina will be placed as the first phase of a three-pronged effort that also will cover the city Riverwalk and nearby areas. The entire project is being done with the help of a grant that Horry County hopes to get from the S.C. Department of Public Safety, and will cost $173,000 from start to finish.

Startup expenses, which include recording and management servers so the Conway Police Department can monitor activity, are estimated at $23,000.

Lawson said she believes the cameras will improve safety and reduce vandalism, and would like to see them in all city parks.

“Cameras have been a topic at various meetings for the past couple of years,” she said.

She said the project is a test, and through it, the city can see if the results are worth the cost.

But she also believes video surveillance can be overdone and does not think Conway will become London on the Waccamaw. The British capitol is noted for a citywide surveillance system.

Lawson said one South Carolina jurisdiction had to take down cameras it had installed on an interstate highway because courts wouldn’t let officials use the recordings to issue tickets to speeders.

Calling all newcomers

Conway is a few weeks into its newcomers program and so far, attendees have been trickling in.

“I think it’s being well received,” said Foster Hughes, the city’s director of parks, recreation and tourism, “it’s just getting the word out.”

The group meets at 7 p.m. the second Thursday of each month at the Conway Recreation Center on Mill Pond Road, and tourism director Betty Molnar, who leads each session, said she tries to line up representatives of organizations that newcomers might not know about to talk about their offerings.

The next session will feature Emily Johnson of the Horry County Historical Society, who will tell newcomers about the group, how they might join it and its tours of the Bryan House as well as the March 31 walks through Conway’s Lakeside Cemetery.

Molnar said Walter Hill, director of the Horry County Museum, was featured at one of the previous meetings.

The gathering is not just for new newcomers and not just Conway residents, Molnar said. Even people who have lived in the area for several years can still be searching for the activities and organizations that will make Horry County truly like home.

“Of course, the more the merrier,” Molnar said of increased attendance. “But I think about 20 people would be a good group.”