Horry County Council Transportation Committee Meeting – May 26, 2026
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Horry County Council Transportation Committee Meeting – May 26, 2026
The Horry County Council Transportation Committee convened on May 26, 2026, at 3:00 PM. Chairman Dennis DiSabato called the meeting to order, followed by an invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance. No public input was scheduled. The committee approved the agenda and the minutes from the March 24, 2026 meeting. Key discussion items included updates on the road fee lawsuit, beach renourishment, RIDE program projects, and a railroad CRISI grant application. Multiple resolutions and one ordinance were adopted unanimously.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Agenda and Minutes: The agenda for the meeting and the minutes from March 24, 2026, were approved unanimously.
- Resolution to Accept Roads and Drainage into County Maintenance System: The committee approved the acceptance of roads and drainage in the following subdivisions: Auberon Woods Phase 3 (Auberon Parkway, Yellowstone Drive, Smokey Drive, and Bear Claw Way – 0.69 miles), Auberon Woods Phase 6 (Yellowstone Drive and Bear Claw Way – 0.40 miles), Handfield Place Phase 1B (Tibetan Street, Culpeo Drive, Fox Rae Drive, and Corsac Court – 0.49 miles), Handfield Place Phase 1C (Tibetan Street – 0.13 miles), Handfield Place Phase 2A (Corsac Court – 0.04 miles), and Warner Crossing Phase 1 (Warner Crossing Way, Little Caboose Court, Runaway Train Drive, and Ribbon Rail Way – 1.04 miles). All were approved unanimously.
- Community Benefit Funds Allocation: A resolution allocating $2,334 in Council Community Benefit Funds (from Districts 1 and 2) to Christian Academy, Inc. for athletic complex improvements was approved unanimously.
- Transfer of Funds for Aynor Recreation Center: A resolution authorizing additional funding of $525,000 for the Aynor Recreation Center project was approved. The new total project cost is $14,310,000. Funding sources include $1,900,000 from Impact Fees for Parks (replacing $1,850,000 drawn from General CIP Contingency), $300,000 from Tree Mitigation Revenues, and $175,000 from Recreation Sunday Liquor Sales Revenues. The motion passed unanimously.
- Ordinance to Reallocate Mass Transit Funding: An ordinance repealing Section 19-12(b)(1) of the Horry County Code, which allocated $6.50 per vehicle from the Road Maintenance Fee to public transportation, was approved on first reading. The funding source shifts to the RIDE 4 sales tax program, which dedicates 5.45% annually to mass transit operations and capital projects. The motion passed unanimously.
Discussion Items
- APWA Region III Backhoe Rodeo Champion: Randy Plummer, Public Works Director, recognized Justin Herring for winning both the backhoe and excavator events at the APWA Region III competition, making him the overall champion among 19 competitors from seven states.
- Road Fee Lawsuit Update: David Jordan, County Attorney, reported that the litigation over the Road Maintenance Fee is expected to be dismissed within the next 30 days. This follows a state law making the fee retroactive and a South Carolina Supreme Court ruling upholding similar retroactive legislation in other counties.
- Beach Renourishment Update: Brandon Elvis provided an update on two concurrent projects. The locally funded Arcadian Shores project (Horry County portion) began May 6, 2026, with a bid quantity of 220,000 cubic yards (CY). As of May 17, approximately 204,214 CY of sand had been placed, covering about 4,900 linear feet out of 5,500. The Myrtle Beach portion started May 17 with 230,000 CY placement, projected to complete May 31. Additionally, the federally funded Army Corps of Engineers project (Hurricane Ian restoration, $72.3 million) is underway: Reach 1 (North Myrtle Beach) is complete; Reach 2 (Myrtle Beach) is about 30% complete with a second dredge (Padre Island) assisting; Reach 3 (Garden City/Surfside/Georgetown County) is scheduled for July–August 2026.
- RIDE Program Update: Anna Barnhill, RIDE Program Manager (with new Deputy John Christmas introduced), reported on RIDE 3 and RIDE 4 progress. Under RIDE 3, 6.83 miles of Group 3 dirt roads have been paved (out of 26.11 miles total); US 701 widening in North Conway began mobilization; US 501 realignment and mainline widening are underway with summer lane closure restrictions in effect; US 17 Business intersections remain in utility relocation; Forestbrook Road clearing and grubbing has started; SC 9 widening in Loris is substantially complete. RIDE 4 projects in design include River Oaks Drive, Augusta Plantation Interchange, SC 90/East Cox Ferry, 38th Avenue North widening, US 17 Bypass/Robert Grissom Parkway Interchange, and SC 31/Sandridge Road Connector. RIDE 4 revenues for the first 11 months (May 2025–March 2026) totaled $118,469,491, about $1.48 million below projections, but March was a strong month. The first full year of collections will be available after April data.
- R.J. Corman Railroad Annual / CRISI Update: Adam Boyles (R.J. Corman) and Jackson (Government Affairs) presented an update. In 2025, the Carolina Line moved 4,410 railcars (17,640 trucks off Horry County roads); 2026 is projected at 5,260 railcars (21,040 trucks). A CRISI grant application is being submitted for approximately $16.89 million in rail upgrades (ties, switches, ballast, crossings) on the county-owned and R.J. Corman-operated lines in Horry County. The federal funding pool is about $2 billion; the application deadline is June 22, 2026. Horry County has allocated up to $1.5 million in matching funds from CIP contingency interest.
Key Outcomes
- All four resolutions and one ordinance were approved unanimously by the committee. They will be forwarded to the full Horry County Council for final adoption (the ordinance requires additional readings).
- The committee took no other formal votes or referrals. The next Transportation Committee meeting is scheduled for July 21, 2026.
Meeting Transcript
Meeting to order if you wouldn't mind standing for the invocation and pledge. Please bow your heads. Lord, please give us the wisdom to make the decisions that are right for our community in this transportation committee meeting today. Please allow the decisions that we make and the works that we do be pleasing to you. We ask that you please keep our county employees, visitors, and all residents of Oregon County safe while they are here visiting or uh in their day-to-day lives. In your name we pray, amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right, thank you. I see that we have uh no public input set up or scheduled for today, so we'll move on to a review and approval of the agenda contents. I'll entertain a motion for approval. So moved. All in favor? Aye. All right, I just have it. Uh now we'll move to approval of the minutes for the March 24th, 2026 meeting. I'll entertain a motion. All in favor? All right. Moving on to discussion items. We will have uh Randy Plummer come up and speak with us about the APWA region three backhoe rodeo champion. Well, Justin Harry, how are you? Uh thank you, uh Chairman and members of the committee uh for having us today. That's good to talk uh about one of our shining stars among many in the public works department. Um a couple of months ago, uh Justin was uh invited to uh compete in the APWA region three competition, which is a competition among seven different states uh that makes up region three. Uh there were 19 competitors across those seven states. Uh he um they or they competed in two different events, one with a backhoe, one with an excavator. Um he kind of made it easy on them because they would uh take a combination of the scores and determine a winner. Well, Justin not only won one competition, he won both. So he was the overall winner. So uh we just wanted to highlight Justin and congratulate him on the job well done and uh very good representative uh for the county. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. All right. Do we need to do that in executive session this next item? No, sir. Okay, and David come on up, talk about the road fee lawsuit update. So as you know, we have been litigating the road fee, road user fee lawsuit since 2021, 2022. The Supreme Court General Assembly passed a bill that they made retroactive to allow everyone's um fee. And that was challenged. Uh there was some case law from the 70s on through that would not allow the General Assembly to have a retroactive bill. Supreme Court overruled itself in the Georgetown and Orangeburgh County cases. So we would anticipate ours being dropped sometime in the next 30 days. Okay. Any questions? No. All right. Thank you, David. Next, we've got the beach renourishment update for Brandon Ellis. Good afternoon.
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