This is why your Horry County neighborhood park could close down

Between 20 to 30 percent of Horry County Parks and Recreational offerings could be closed in the coming years if something is not done soon.

Horry County Council members and staff members gathered Wednesday morning to discuss the FY2020 budget at its annual budget retreat. One of the first line items was the quickly-depleting fund to maintain recreation offerings.

The recreations department runs many boat landings, athletic and outdoor programs, recreational centers and regularly-scheduled events. If council does nothing, the fund balance for the department would hit zero in the next couple of years.

Parks and recreation gets most of its funding from property taxes and fees associated with using recreational facilities. In the FY2018 budget, the recreation department spent more than $400,000 than it brought in through revenue. It operates the county’s parks, playgrounds, boat landings and programming like youth athletics.

Horry County Administrator Chris Eldridge and several other council members said that the staff of the parks department do their best with what they have, but the vastness of the county creates a lot of strain on maintenance and operations, driving up operational costs.

If the county cannot guarantee the parks are safe, Eldridge said that they will have to be closed.

Barry Spivey, head of the finance department, presented four options to council to address the problem. At the current rate, Spivey said the county will need to close its offerings and reduce its staff.

“We have insufficient funds to maintain operations,” he said.

Four options were presented to council. The first of the options would result in a decrease in offerings to get expenses more inline, others would increase recreational activities. Obviously, increased offerings means increased expenses which could necessitate a tax increase.

Nothing was decided on during the discussion, but council members debated how they can keep providing recreational offerings — ideally without a tax increase.

The underlying issue is how to pay for all these projects, three of the options had tax millage increases to expand operations. Council will have to decide which direction the recreation department will move in and where that money will come from.

Outgoing Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus told council members to keep the packet of options given to them by staff. He said that this is going to be one of the big issues as council continues to debate what to fund next year.

Council member Al Allen said that his district in the western part of the county depends on recreational offerings, especially for youth. But that the more populous side has gotten most of the money in the past for infrastructure building. He wants to see more attention given, including more indoor recreation opportunities in the Loris, Green Sea and Aynor areas.

During the division requests, the Parks and Recreational divisions asked for centers in Aynor and Loris. Assistant County Administrator Steve Gosnell said that these requests came after hearing from the public.

Council member Tyler Servant wants to get rid of the Community Betterment Fund and relocate the funding to help build centers in the western part of the state. He thinks council must explore other options before raising taxes on people.

“We better start cutting before we start taxing,” Servant said.

Council voted at the end of the meeting to move most of the Community Betterment Fund to the parks. It failed 9 to 3, with Servant, Dennis DiSabato and Lazarus voting in support.

At the end of the budget retreat, council voted to consider allocating over $200,000 to the parks system at its upcoming meeting on Dec. 18.

This story was originally published November 28, 2018 at 2:26 PM.