Mayor Rhodes, council members commemorate last day on Myrtle Beach City Council

Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes went out with a bang, as he hit his gavel for the last time at the Dec. 12 City Council meeting.

The meeting was the last one of 2017, and ended the terms for council members Randal Wallace, Wayne Gray and Mayor Rhodes.

“I truly mean this sincerely that we are going to miss the three of you and I’m going to miss you sitting right here,” Councilman Mike Lowder said. “Your friendship I know will continue. I’ve got all three of your numbers on speed dial. Again, thank you for your service to this community.”

On Nov. 7, Wallace lost to Lowder, Jackie Vereen and Gregg Smith. For Rhodes, the election went into a runoff with Brenda Bethune, who is the new Myrtle Beach mayor-elect. Gray decided not to run for re-election.

At the end of the meeting each outgoing member gave a speech to commemorate their time on the dais.

Wallace, who was originally elected in 2001, and was re-elected in 2005, 2009 and 2013, said, “It’s been a real privilege to sit up here. Life takes a lot of odd turns. Here I am 20 years later trying to figure out what I should do now that I’m out of city politics. I grew to find something that I admired and liked about every single person that sat on the dais with me.”

For Gray, thanking city residents and employees made up the majority of his speech.

Gray served on council from 1998 to 2002 and was re-elected in 2005, 2009 and 2013.

“I thank you for the trust you bestowed in me,” Gray said. “I realize that I am an imperfect person. I am ready to assist you in any way you see fit. We must be engaged, we must be involved.”

The most emotional of the group was Rhodes who, shed tears while looking back on his 12 years in the mayor’s seat.

“We still have a lot of things we’d like to do, go forward with and it was all in trying to redevelop the downtown area and also off the boulevard and also some of the places that need to be cleaned up and moved forward,” Rhodes said. “And also, look at more involvement in sports tourism and growing it more because its a $15 billion industry in this country, it’s one of the fastest-moving things there is and there really is no, it’s almost recession proof. I think that we’ll be able to go forward with sports tourism down the road so I like that.”

Looking back, Rhodes said that some of his biggest accomplishments were unifying council and building sports tourism. The one that meant the most to him, however, was Savannah’s Playground, an area near The Market Common where special needs kids can play.

“That’s special because that was for the kids, the kids with special needs, the kids that need somewhere to play to teach them joy, to be able to be a part of life the way it should be,” Rhodes said. “That’s one of my best accomplishments.”

He ended his speech by giving advice to Bethune as she prepares to become mayor on Jan. 9.

“Rule with passion, rule as a team and always, when you wake up in the mornings to when you go to bed at night the welfare of the City of Myrtle Beach has to be number one on your mind,” he said. “And I’m sure she’ll do a good job and Greg and Jackie will also.

“So, we’ll miss it, we will probably have to go get together on the first council meeting we’re not involved and eat lunch, do something to remind us. It’s been great. 12 years, it’s been fun.”

This story was originally published December 12, 2017 at 6:28 PM with the headline "Mayor Rhodes, council members commemorate last day on Myrtle Beach City Council."