The Horry County Council held its regular meeting on August 19, 2025, at 6:00 PM in the Council Chambers. Chairman Johnny Gardner presided. The meeting included an invocation by Dr. Jenna Dukes, the Pledge of Allegiance led by Mr. Tyler Servant, public input, approval of the agenda and minutes from July 15, 2025, unanimous approval of the consent agenda, presentations recognizing employees with 30 years of service and Jamie Norman as GFOA Outstanding Professional of the Year, and several second-reading ordinances with public hearings, followed by one first-reading ordinance and a memorial dedication.
So we can end on time. And we start every meeting with an invocation tonight by Dr. Dukes, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, which will be led by Mr. Serbant. If I get everybody, please stand. Heavenly Father, we come before you tonight to thank you for another beautiful day, another opportunity to gather as community leaders and friends to be the business of the county. As we begin tonight, we ask that you would bless us with wisdom, patience, and your guidance as we work together for the betterment of our residents in this county. We ask that you would especially place your hand of protection upon our first responders that selflessly serve each and every day to keep us safe. Things we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Attention to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which we're going to be able to do which it stands. Liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Please be seated. Next up is public input. We have a couple people that have signed up tonight to tell us about this golf. Just like to remind them that you have five minutes to talk about this. We have the sliding system here that'll help you with your time. The green is go and yellow is one minute left, and red is you're out of time. We'll start with ladies first, Miss Ashley Cohen. Good evening, Councilman and lady. Hope you're all doing well. I had this whole uh Ashley Cowan. Um I live in um District 7. Prefer not to give my address. Um great to see you all. I had this whole spiel planned out for what I was gonna say. Um, however, I had to like change it last minute because I think we've made some wonderful progress in the last 24 hours. So I'm gonna wing it. Um I want to say thank you first and foremost for everybody who has given their interest to us in the last couple of weeks. I know it's been probably a barrage of emails and phone calls for some of you. Um so thank you for your patience and for your interest. I also want to thank Parks and Recreation. I think they've done a great job, um, especially this last week, listening to what we've had to say, the disc golf community, um, and really kind of honing in on what we've been asking for, which is for our 18 holes at the Saucustie uh recreation park to be not only preserved but to um retain them or move them or find some way to work with the new plan so that we get to keep our very beloved Disc Golf course. So thank you to them, um, especially Ray, I know met with some of our community yesterday and gave us a path forward. So thank you to them. Um had to pivot what I wanted to say. I want to offer just a couple of words of wisdom. I know we have a lot of capital projects coming forward for parks and recreation. A lot of them are very near and dear to my heart, having worked on them in the past. Um, Green Sea, Ayner, Lorish Recreation Centers, um, the Dog Bluff Park that's being renovated, um, Stalvey Creek Rosewood, Forest Brook, Little River, all of these are great, awesome projects that the community's been waiting for, that I know you've been waiting for. My advice is to please stay involved. Please make sure that the community can stay involved, that the user groups for those recreation centers get to be involved throughout the process. If we can ensure that that happens, then the issue that we had with disc golf this time at Saucustie may not happen for those parks. We have existing user groups, they should be involved, not only from the beginning, but throughout the process, before it goes to bed, before a final plan has been, you know, uncovered and actually engineered. So please help that process along. And finally, I just want to say thank you again. Thank you for listening to us.