Here’s what you missed in North Myrtle Beach’s final election candidate forum

With less than two weeks until the Nov. 4 election, North Myrtle Beach mayoral and city council candidates gathered in North Myrtle Beach to promote their campaigns, infrastructure, business development and more.

Throughout the night, one theme kept recurring: slowing the rise of residential growth.

The event, led by WMBF’s Makayla Evans, kicked off with a forum for the council hopefuls. Council candidates Tony Warren Jr. and Dr. David Weitzman joined incumbent candidate Trey Skidmore to campaign for the at-large council seat. Windy Hill council candidates Jeri McCumbee and Jolene Puffer also participated, but unopposed Ocean Drive council candidate Bubba Collins didn’t show.

Although Evans’s questions rotated, with a new question for each candidate every round, promises to ease the ever-increasing residential development, improve infrastructure and boost businesses echoed across the stage.

For the mayoral forum, current Mayor Pro Tem J. Baldwin and former City Manager Mike Mahaney took the stage, but candidate Troy Spencer didn’t attend.

Both men touted their extensive experience in city affairs, with Baldwin having served in a mayoral capacity and Mahaney logging 15 years as the city manager.

Mahaney highlighted his work with Destination North Myrtle Beach to promote the city’s reputation as a family beach — taking a shot at Myrtle Beach while he did — as well as his professional relationships with county, state and federal officials to work efficiently during hurricanes.

The former city manager also spoke about the importance of communication between the city and businesses, challenges with short-term rental properties and continuing growth despite the slow timelines of infrastructure projects.

“Everybody wants to move here for a lot of reasons ... That growth is going to continue to happen, and it’s very, very hard to stay ahead of that growth because of the length of time that it takes to do these [infrastructure] projects,” said Mahaney.

Both candidates agreed the city suffers from a lack of workforce and affordable housing. While Mahaney said North Myrtle Beach needs workforce housing, which would have to be built on the inland side of the Intracoastal Waterway, Baldwin said there simply wasn’t space to build it, adding that the city would need to work with county to address the shortage.

Baldwin’s answers focused on slowing growth, conserving remaining land from residential development, and maintaining tourism to keep taxes low.

“I’m not interested in annexing any more property in our city. I’m not interested in us growing and, when I say annex any properties, I mean residential,” Baldwin said. “I’m not interested in our city growing any further ... We need to protect any property that is left from being developed that we just save it.”

When asked about business in North Myrtle Beach, Baldwin praised the city’s “thriving” business climate and spoke on the need to support the business community.

North Myrtle Beach voters can cast an early ballot weekdays at the Horry County Voter Registration Office at 1515 Fourth Ave. in Conway from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. until Oct. 31, or visit their polling precinct on Election Day from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The full forum, which was livestreamed by Destination North Myrtle Beach, is available below.