The Horry County Council held a regular meeting on February 17, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers. The meeting included public comments on vehicle registration complaints and concerns about a special tax district, recognition of a 40‑year employee and volunteer award recipients, consideration and approval of a telecommunications tower permit, and second readings of ordinances authorizing a bond issuance and a budget amendment. All votes were unanimous except where noted.
Meeting for February 17, 2026. We start on time so we can end on time. And we always start with the invocation tonight by Mr. Hardy, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance tonight by Mr. Di Sabato. If I can get everybody please stand. Our father, thank you for this day. Help us and guide us and help us get the wisdom and decisions that would be better for the people of Ore County. We ask that you keep all and everyone safe on their travels, and we ask that you please keep all our first responders out of harm's way that they may return to their families. We ask all of us in your holy name. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag United States of America and to the Republicans. One nation under God, indivisible visible with liberty and justice for all. Please be seated. Thank you very much. Next up is public input, and I would like to say a few words before we start public input. I used to say I've been on council, this is my eighth year, and the first year I used to say that public input was my favorite part of the night because we got to hear new things from our constituents, and uh sometimes they were good and sometimes they were other than not so good. But um we haven't had much public input in the last few years, and there's a reason for that, and the reason is our staff at the county has never worked as hard as they're working now. We have some super duper professionals that are answering the bell, answering the call, but more importantly, or just as importantly, the men and women sitting on this dais work very hard for their constituents. County council has never been more accessible and never been more in tune with their constituents' issues and problems and helping work them out and resolve them. And as a result, we get few and few complainers coming up here. And we want to hear from anybody and everybody that's a resident here, if they have an issue that we can help, we can't help with the southern border and things like that. But if it's an Ory County issue, we can help you. We want to hear about it. But for the people at home watching us and the people here in this room, it's important to know that when somebody does come to that podium, their issue has more than likely been addressed by a staff member, maybe a committee, at least one council member, their district council member, maybe a standing committee that we have. There may have been a community meeting about that. Sometimes those issues get resolved that way, and sometimes they just can't get resolved. So this council has taken the position that when it does come time to for public input, it is just what it says. Public input. It's not a debate, it's not a question and answer session. It's for the public to give input. So we're not going to go back and forth on them. We want to hear from them. It's their time to shine. By rule, they have five minutes. It's a professional venue. They're not going to call people out, they're going to be professional, they're gonna not gonna use anybody's names or be derogatory, defamatory, or anything of that nature. They have an issue, they want to be heard on, they're gonna be respectful, and we're gonna be respectful, and we're gonna listen to them because we want to hear them. So I'm happy the way things are working out, and with uh that's enough for me, so we'll keep moving. First up is Michael Tompkinson. He wants to talk about laws and accountability, and he's been here before, so he knows he has five minutes. He knows we have this wonderful clock here. Green is go, go, go, and yellow is one minute left. Don't shut the clock in. And red is what? Okay. Stop. Okay. Okay. My name is Michael Tomkinson.