MYRTLE BEACH — When Iris Borrero and her family moved from Orange County, N.Y., to Horry County two years ago for her new job as Frontier Communications territory marketing manager, she spent about 20 hours online to get information about the area.

She wanted to know such things as the median age of residents, the percentage of renters to owners, the crime rate, the school system’s graduation rate, how much she could expect to pay in taxes and the cost of living.

How much better, she said Wednesday, if it had all be available in one place.

It soon will be.

The Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp. formed a committee to create a website geared to families who will be relocating to the Grand Strand, those with a new job and family members who move with them.

“We kind of put ourselves into the mover’s role,” said Laura Crowther, CEO of the Coastal Carolinas Association of Realtors and chairwoman of the committee.

The information, which should be available within a month at the EDC website, www.mbredc.org, includes all the things that Borrero was looking for plus additional categories such as culture and recreation, theaters, and distances to other places in the U.S.

The site further will give spouses who are relocating with the family, such as Borrero’s husband, help finding jobs by listing temporary job agencies and the area’s largest employers.

“One size won’t fit all,” Crowther said of the information, “but (jobs for spouses) is a huge concern when people are moving.”

Borrero, for instance, said she and her husband checked to see if there was a reasonable chance he could find a job in construction. The information they found gave them the assurance they sought, but she said it still took six months before he found employment.

The EDC site also will give relocators information on HGTC and CCU, which also would have served Borrero as her 22-year-old son is enrolled at CCU.

One further feature of the website – temporary housing information – would have been useful to Borrero’s family as well. She said that they rented a house near Carolina Forest when they first moved and planned to be there for a year before buying. But Borrero said the family had a great Realtor and they bought a house in the Lakes just two months after arriving.

Crowther said that eventually, the EDC site will have a video on “A Day in the Life” for each of Horry’s municipalities.

“Our intent is for the viewer to be able to visualize living in the county,” she said.

The website is intended to be another way the EDC can assist the new businesses and manufacturers it lures to Horry County. While it will be an online effort, the information can be printed out by any company that wants to distribute printed copies to employees it will bring to the area.

“If this is their first look into Horry County,” Crowther said of the EDC information, “we want them to like what they see.”

Contact STEVE JONES at 444-1765.