Surfside Beach residents learn about Memorial Day weekend plans, traffic loop

The city’s police officers will be wearing new body cameras and officers will be strictly enforcing traffic and other laws during the expected crowds over Memorial Day weekend, which will bring Atlantic Beach Bikefest attendees and other tourists to the area.

More than 40 people piled into Surfside Beach Town Hall Thursday evening to hear what its city is doing to deal with those crowds, and how a weekend traffic loop will affect South Strand residents.

Surfside Beach Mayor Doug Samples kicked off the meeting explaining Surfside’s goal is to stay safe and secure as thousands of bikers and tourists pour onto the Strand for the Myrtle Beach Bikefest.

“Given the unfortunate events around the nation, we want to make sure we’re safe, you’re safe,” Samples said. “For those of us who live at the family beach, we want to keep it the family beach.”

Three people died and seven were injured in eight shootings on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach last year , prompting Grand Strand officials to take a number of steps to make sure their residents and tourists are safe.

All 21 sworn police officers in Surfside Beach will be working this year, with 11 officers coming to town through mutual aid agreements, Keziah said.

Surfside Beach purchased 23 body cameras for every officer who works full and part time, and they will all be activated during the weekend, Keziah said. Police will be more visible this year as part of an action plan developed by area police departments and officials, with all 220 Myrtle Beach police officers on duty.

“This is going to be all-hands on deck type of weekend – we’re going to use all our resources,” Keziah said.

Surfside police are also planning to to keep their zero-tolerance attitude when it comes to traffic violations, but encouraged residents to call the department’s non-emergency line to report any noise or traffic violations during the weekend. Police have participated in several training sessions – including cultural diversity classes – to prepare for the onslaught of motorcycle and pedestrian traffic.

“Regardless of who it is, we’re going to treat everyone with respect,” said Lt. Kenneth Hofmann. “Probably better than we’re going to be treated sometimes.”

Most of the questions posed during the meeting were about the traffic loop. The loop, in effect from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. May 22 to 24, was developed with the goal of keeping traffic moving and cutting down on street parties, which officials say lead to violence.

The loop routes drivers from 29th Avenue North on Ocean Boulevard south and around to Kings Highway, north to Harrelson Boulevard – which turns into George Bishop Parkway – west to Waccamaw Boulevard, which runs next to U.S. 501, onto S.C. 31 heading north to Grissom Parkway south, then onto U.S. 17 Bypass and down 29th Avenue North.

“Getting the map alone was helpful,” said Bob Childs, Surfside resident and town council member. “The police have done a good job on all this; they’ve been working on it for almost a year.”

Childs said the solution to the traffic loop was simple: “Staying off the road from 10 p.m. to 2 p.m. will probably solve most of your problems.”

The general idea of the traffic loop, expanded police presence and zero-tolerance attitude toward bad behavior is to ensure one thing: everyone’s safety.

“We plan for the worst and pray for the best, and we all hope you help us do that,” Keziah said.

This story was originally published April 30, 2015 at 8:53 PM with the headline "Surfside Beach residents learn about Memorial Day weekend plans, traffic loop."