What we wish for in the New Year for our communities and readers
We begin a new year that promises much political activity and dialogue, and holds hope for a continuing rise in prosperity for all. Achieving progress toward a better place for all of us to live involves a number of key components that we wish to encourage during the coming year.
One of those is transparency in government at all levels, and by all its public servants. Failure to be open about the reasons for a government decision tends to foster doubt about that body’s motives, and that can turn into outright divisiveness and opposition to any action, no matter how well justified. The current nationwide malaise and mistrust of government is contributing to the vitriol in politics and the inability to get things done.
Two recent local examples involve plans for expansion of Brooks Stadium at Coastal Carolina University and regulations in what is known as the Superblock in Myrtle Beach. A closed meeting to discuss the stadium has not been justified or explained. The university needs and should have public support, but discourages it by appearing to hide something. In the Superblock, some business owners questioned the city’s actions against them on the grounds that it has become a high-crime area, saying the downtown section has no more crime than Broadway at the Beach and is being treated unfairly. So far there has not been a clear response to those claims or an .
The past year has seen more dissension over who in Horry County should be in charge of economic development, and how much it should cost. Georgetown has a county employee in charge of that task. We hope both bodies will take aggressive action to recruit more full-time, year-round jobs and clean industry to both counties. One of the most serious drawbacks for prosperity for our residents is the lack of jobs that are year round and pay above the poverty level. That is an ongoing, complicated and systemic problem that can’t be solved in a year but certainly can be attacked and whittled away at.
One of the difficulties in recruiting jobs is the road issue. Major companies do not want to come here without an interstate highway connection. nch-by-inch progress seems to be coming for Interstate 73, which will at least connect us to I-95. In other promising developments, the port of Georgetown is moving toward dredging its harbor and ship channel back to its allowed depth, and slow movement is taking place on completing the four-laning of U.S. 521 between Georgetown and I-95 at Manning.
There are those who oppose I-73, as well as port expansions and other development that sometimes encroaches on land that might best be left undisturbed. But there has to be a middle ground, or a path to compromise, so that the solutions are more agreeable to most. Government officials are not helpful to the cause by name-calling conservationists who seem to stand in the way; and conservationists should be able to offer something besides “no.” Extreme positions prevent anything from going forward.
We will continue to need to help people who can’t get those above-poverty, year-round jobs. They need food, clothing, housing and good will. Two local foundations have been of great assistance with those problems and others faced by our counties, and we know they will stand by us all again this year. Waccamaw Community Foundation and Frances P. Bunnelle Foundation offer the kind of support that public agencies and private pocketbooks alone cannot.
Lastly, we hope the impetus for offshore energy exploration and extraction will fade away. By voting earlier this month to allow foreign sales of U.S. oil, Congress has removed any argument for energy independence as a reason to risk our shoreline. What we have, and the promise it holds for tourism, is worth far too much to risk on energy development and its history of pollution.
This story was originally published January 2, 2016 at 9:27 PM with the headline "What we wish for in the New Year for our communities and readers."