MYRTLE BEACH — A grant awarded to Horry County is allowing for three beach accesses in Garden City to be improved.

The grant – totaling $136,912 – from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management is funding improvements to the beach access points at Pine Avenue, Holly Avenue and Cedar Avenue, according to a press release.

The work began earlier this month and is expected to be done by the end of April. Improvements at the three beach accesses include the installation of water service lines for shower towers, concrete pavers at the street ends and resurfacing and restriping the parking area.

Street ends also will have new signs and curb stops, dunes fences, palm trees, park benches and bike parking racks.

Employees with the county’s public works, engineering, stormwater and construction and maintenance departments are handling the work.

Runoff election for County Council chairman on Tuesday

The runoff election between Horry County Council hopefuls Al Allen and Mark Lazarus is set for Tuesday.

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The runoff is open to all registered voters of Horry County.

Allen and Lazarus were the top two vote-getters out of a pool of five Republican hopefuls who took part in the March 12 special primary election to fill the seat vacated by former chairman Tom Rice.

The runoff was needed after none of the candidates got more than 50 percent of the vote total.

Whoever wins the runoff moves on to the April 30 general election. However, since there are no Democratic candidates, Tuesday’s victor is almost assured to be the next leader of Horry County Council.

StormFest 2013 coming in April

Horry County Emergency Management, the city of Myrtle Beach and the National Weather Service will host StormFest 2013 on April 13 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Ticketrun.com Field, the home of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans.

The family event will feature storm and safety-related displays and booths from agencies like Horry County and Myrtle Beach fire rescue, the American Red Cross, the Children’s Museum of South Carolina and Horry County Solid Waste Authority.

Contact BRAD DICKERSON at 626-0301 or follow him at Twitter.com/TSN_bdickerson.