Conway notebook | Crawl no more, friends of Conway

CONWAY -- Crawl no more, friends of Conway.

Now, thanks to Conway Downtown Alive, the Conway Chamber of Commerce and city government, you can be sure of walking upright among other upright walkers at Alive after Five, this year’s iteration of the oftentimes popular Conway Crawl.

Some people felt the name “crawl” just didn’t convey the correct mental image of the event or the city, said Larry Biddle, president of The Burroughs Co., which owns more downtown real estate than anyone else.

To him, “crawl” evokes a picture of a street laden with bars and other nightspots and perhaps staggering revelers crawling from one to the other, he said.

Not the scene Conway wants to sell, and in truth, not truly descriptive of the Conway Crawl.

The primary activities at the Crawl, said Hillary Howard, executive director of Conway Downtown Alive, were, are and will be shopping and entertainment. Downtown stores remain open until 8 p.m. on Crawl, oops, Alive nights. There is also a band or some other musical entertainment on a portable stage on Third Avenue which is closed between Main and Laurel streets to accommodate Alivers.

This year, the event will be staged the first Thursday of each month, June through November. In the past, it was at times once a week. In December, Howard noted, downtown Conway is a Christmas wonderland packed with holiday events.

Howard said Alive’s organizers (Aliveanizers?) also want special activities – a sock hop maybe, an ice cream social – to go along with each event.

“We always had better attendance when we had another event paired with the music,” she said.

Aliveanizers are exploring the idea of possibilities like bed races, a nighttime 5k run and a carnival night, Howard said.

Whatever it’s to be and whatever it’s to be called, upright walkers can be sure the evening will, as always, be unlike many nighttime activities along the Grand Strand and in a setting refreshingly and historically unique in Horry County.

Biddle said the new name for the night is more appropriate, and Howard agrees.

“I think it has a nice ring,” Howard said. “I think it is a good match.”

Serious about speed

The residents of Sanctuary Boulevard in the Wild Wing subdivision of Conway are serious about the speed limit along their dead-end street, and now they have the Conway City Council’s blessing to be sure drivers obey it.

The Conway Police Department put a sensor along the street at residents’ request and found that, during the time it was in place, the average speed was 23 mph, 3 mph above the posted speed limit.

John Laudeman, representing The Sanctuary at Wild Wing Property Owners Association, told council members that children walk along the street to get to school buses on mornings when the sun’s not yet up. That’s not safe, especially if some drivers are going too fast, he pointed out.

Council members said it was fine by them if speed humps are installed along the street.

The residents will pay for them.

There will be four.