The Horry County Council held its regular meeting on September 15, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. in Council Chambers. The meeting included public input on animal welfare, highway extensions, and data centers; approval of a consent agenda; presentations recognizing 30-year service and proclaiming Suicide Prevention Awareness Month; public hearings on comprehensive plan amendments and zoning changes; and final votes on ordinances including a joint industrial park with Georgetown County.
We'll be led by Mr. De Sabano. I get away, please stand. We thank you for all the many blessings you've given us. Thank you for the privilege of serving this great county and the people that call it home. We ask for your wisdom and guidance as we do your work and the work of the people. And we ask that you protect our community and direct our people as we move forward and direct us as we and keep us safe as we leave this place tonight. In Jesus' name of pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Could you be seated? Next up is our public input. We've had four people sign up. I just want to briefly recap the rules. This is a professional venue. We want everybody to be professional. We want to hear from you. So please speak up in the podium, identify yourself. By rule, you're allowed up to five minutes. We have this wonderful clock system to help you monitor yourself. Green is go, go. Yellow is one minute left, and red is stop. And we'll start with Suzanne Roman speaking about animal welfare. Hi everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this evening. I'm Suzanne Roman, and I am here tonight representing Friends of Carolina Animals. We are a 501c3 nonprofit here in Ory County. And what we do is focus on exporting shelter pets to qualified rescues and organizations in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, where they don't have as many animals as we do here, and those animals get a good opportunity at finding a good home. And we also focus on providing free spay and neuter opportunities to our local families who cannot afford it or have a hardship paying for it. So in the past year, we have gone ahead and sent over a thousand animals to the Northeast, and we have altered over 110 county animals. So we are very involved, and we are very happy to have all of the other animal advocates in the area supporting us, and we feel like we are finally starting to make an impact in something that's important to us. Did that for about five years and retired finally. And now I am involved in doing the Friends of Carolina Animals Rescue Transport and Spay and Neuter. And I'm here tonight just to address with the council the need to continue to support spay and neuter efforts here. I think everyone knows that the overcrowding in both the Animal Center and at Grand Strand, it's pretty bleak. If you walk in there, you just cannot believe the number of animals that they are dealing with. And as someone who has worked in this field for a long time, I will say that I think they both do an excellent job for the resources they have and for what they have available to them. Our area is mushrooming, and animals are just pouring in by the dozen. So what I would personally like to see the council address is more spay and neuter resources. And how I would like to see that happen is through some sort of committee that perhaps could be funded once the results are known. But I thought that a committee with perhaps some of the council members or the animal center or whoever is deemed appropriate could gather data so we can see exactly what we're dealing with. And then go ahead and engage the community, local veterinarians, local veterinary teams, volunteers to help increase capacity and our capabilities. And again, I think the Animal Center, who is also doing spay neuter, they're doing a fantastic job, but those poor people can only do so much. So what I think would be a good way to show a result would be to get something like that started. We would be happy to provide some input or some guidance if that's something that the council wanted. But the end result is going to be re-decreased shelter intake. You're going to have reduced costs in your animal control budget, your shelter staffing budget, and your shelter medical budget. You're also going to have healthier pets owned by your residents and decreased public nuisance complaints from animals that are free roaming and looking to mate. So again, I appreciate your time and please consider continuing to support animal welfare here in the community.