Horry council votes to move forward with RIDE III; Carolina Forest wants a voice

Horry County Council advanced the effort for a third sales tax referendum to fund roads at its meeting Tuesday, but not before one civic organization said it would like representation on a small, selective commission that will prioritize the projects.

The council voted to create the six-member commission, which can add to, delete and prioritize $530 million in road projects that will be presented to Horry County voters in November 2016. The county will vote to appoint three members, and the League of Cities – a group of leaders from area municipalities – will appoint three members. By law, two of those members must come from Myrtle Beach and the third must come from North Myrtle Beach.

Carole vanSickler, president of the Carolina Forest Civic Association, said the association wasn’t formed in 2006, which was the last time the county passed a 1-cent sales tax to pay for road projects. Now, the rapidly growing area has an association, and the group wants to make sure its voice and needs are heard for road improvements.

“Considering Carolina Forest is in the unincorporated part of Horry County, it’s time that we have council and the RIDE III commission look at the infrastructure problems that were passed over in RIDE II,” vanSickler said. “We feel it’s important to have a representative be a part of the discussions.”

An 18-member committee spent months identifying $530 million in projects stretched across the county, which includes repaving 100 miles of county roads, paving 100 miles of county dirt roads, and addresses the headaches that surround U.S. 501 and additional roads through the rapidly growing Carolina Forest area. It would add an additional lane to U.S. 501 north and southbound from U.S. 31 to the S.C. 544 interchange, extend Postal Way eastward to Waccamaw Pines and make intersection improvements, and extend Middle Ridge Drive eastward to West Perry Road and west to Singleton Ridge Road.

Horry County has done this twice before to build and resurface hundreds of miles of county roads and build such roads as the Aynor overpass, the back gate bridge, the widening of S.C. 707, the southern extension of S.C. 31 and many more.

Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus said he thinks the council will aim to ensure there is representation from all of Horry County.

“They’ve got their concerns and what better way than to have a voice at the table,” Lazarus said. “Unfortunately we only have three positions from the county that we appoint, so we have to be real careful how we do it and where they’re coming from.”

vanSickler said the association would like to see the widening of Carolina Forest Boulevard to four lanes, with turn lanes, the extension of Gardner Lacy to International Drive and others on the list of projects for voters to decide.

“By creating these additional roadways and additional pathways, we can release some of the congestion on 501 and the congestion on Carolina Forest Boulevard that affects us all,” vanSickler said.

She said regardless of whether the county hears their request for representation, the association is already making plans to get out the voters in 2016.

“I know the Carolina Forest Civic Association is starting a get out the vote program, so that we can get people who have not previously registered to vote to come out and get registered and we’re going to be pushing to get them to the polls,” vanSickler said.

This story was originally published July 7, 2015 at 8:11 PM with the headline "Horry council votes to move forward with RIDE III; Carolina Forest wants a voice."