Could the Grand Strand see more manufacturing jobs? Gov. McMaster weighs in

The Grand Strand could see more manufacturing jobs in the future, diversifying the tourism-based economy in the area, the governor said Monday.

"There's plenty of room for manufacturing," Gov. Henry McMaster said during a tour of Horry Georgetown Technical College's Advanced Manufacturing Center Monday evening. "Young people and older people can come here and be trained in 40 weeks and walk out with excellent jobs."

"They have 100-percent graduations, 100-percent placement rate already. And these are good jobs, as you see, there's no grease on the floor, no smoke in the place, you could wear a tuxedo or a ballgown in here and work all day and go home and be perfectly ready to go out for the evening."

While McMaster does not have an exact plan in place to bring manufacturing to the area, he applauded HGTC's facility, saying, "It is a great thing."

The facility teaches welding, HVAC services and machine tool technologies, to name a few.

"This is not going to detract at all from the enormous tourist attraction and the family attraction of Myrtle Beach or any place on the coast," McMaster said. "It adds another dimension to it so people can get a good job and work and buy them a house and then maybe have them a vacation in Myrtle Beach."

However, much of the focus was on an executive order that McMaster passed earlier in the day to give the state's prison system more money to hire and retain prison guards.

The order comes after riots that left seven inmates dead and 22 injured at the Lee County prison near Bishopville.

"We've got to get through this labyrinth, this maze of bureaucratic authorizations in order to do what we should have done before, and that's allow the director of prisons to have the equipment and personnel he need to keep the prison safe and orderly," he said.

"I'm hoping that the kind of economic growth that we see from this facility that we're in here, this is such a great barometer and sign of what is coming, not only what's here now, but what is coming, that with great economic growth we'll have more money to spend on things that we really do need and our prisons, the personnel there, the officers, we've got a lot of work we need to do."

This story was originally published April 23, 2018 at 8:11 PM with the headline "Could the Grand Strand see more manufacturing jobs? Gov. McMaster weighs in."