Lighting Store Showroom Near Pawleys Island, SC

The town of Pawleys Island will have a seat at the table as Georgetown County prepares a package of capital improvements to fund through a 1-cent sales tax.

It took 15 minutes this week for the two members of the ad hoc Capital Projects Sales Tax Commission who represent the city of Georgetown to select Mark Hawn to fill the third municipal seat on the six-member panel.

Hawn is a managing partner with EY Consulting, formerly known as Ernst & Young. He also serves on the Pawleys Island Planning Commission.

“Mark is one of those people who will be strategic,” Mayor Brian Henry said.

The capital projects sales tax requires voter approval, and Georgetown County Council agreed in October to start the process to draft a referendum ballot for the November 2024 election. A similar tax was approved in 2014. One was defeated in 2012.

This is the first time that the town of Pawleys Island has had a representative on the commission. The process is established by state law. It gives the county three seats on the commission. The municipalities get three seats based on population.

But under the formula established by law, Georgetown is eligible for two seats, but neither Pawleys Island nor the town of Andrews is eligible for one seat. The law requires the two Georgetown appointees to fill the seat with someone from one of the other two municipalities.

Harris Chewning and Reed Tiller, the city’s appointees, met Tuesday. They went into a closed door session, allowed by the state Freedom of Information Act to discuss appointments to public bodies, and returned to vote to seat Hawn.

The town of Andrews nominated Jennifer Coleman, a reading and math interventionist at Andrews Elementary, and Victoria Fisher, who is currently not working, according to her application.

Pawleys Island Town Council nominated Hawn before the county realized that each municipality wouldn’t get a seat on the commission.

After the process became clear, Henry sent Hawn’s application to Angela Christian, the county administrator, and Georgetown Mayor Carol Jayroe. He said he was inspired by Tiller’s comment in an interview that the choice would be based on qualifications.

Pawleys Island’s population in the last census was 130. The population of Andrews was 2,275.

The town’s application was more detailed than the one used by the county. It asked Hawn about his qualifications for the sales tax committee, his interest and his related experience.

“My 40 years business career with two large, global consulting companies, was dedicated to improving organizations, governments and communities,” Hawn wrote. “I spent the majority of my career doing strategy and improvements work, all project based, which is very similar to how these types of efforts operate.”

His interest in serving “is to bring the strengths and blessings I have been entrusted with to bear for the community I live in.”

In addition to his work for the town, his experience includes serving on the boards of the Atlanta and Georgia chambers of commerce, a state reading task force in Georgia and a variety of nonprofit boards.

Asked what he could contribute to the sales tax commission, Hawn wrote about building trust and creating “the environment for change and improvement.” He also estimated that he has been involved in over 500 projects.

Henry was pleased that Hawn was selected.

“The appointee that we put forward should have an eye toward Pawleys Island, but Mark needs to have the perspective of the whole county in mind,” he said.

There are a couple of areas where Henry sees the interest of the town and the county overlapping: recycling and resilience.

The town discovered in 2019, before Henry took office, that the recycling program it started in 2010 was sending material to the county landfill because it wasn’t properly sorted. This year, residents asked the town to come up with a true recycling program.

“Recycling is an area that benefits everybody in the county. It’s an idea that’s been put forward long before I became mayor,” he said.

But Henry toured the county’s recycling facility this summer when items were piled high outside a sorting machine that was installed almost 20 years ago. He thinks an upgrade would be a worthwhile capital project.

The town has also started work to carry out a sea level adaptation study completed last year. It has $250,000 from the state and $150,000 in federal infrastructure funds to get started with drainage projects. Henry would like to get funds for a living shoreline project that would help protect the island’s roads from flooding on high tides.

The county-owned parking lot on the south end of Pawleys Island is the largest free public beach access in the county, he noted.

“People have to drive through saltwater to get to a public access. It’s an issue for Georgetown County citizens who want to come to the beach,” Henry said.

While he understands that the projects listed on the sales tax ballot need to have broad voter appeal, “even if we got a small percentage, we could put it to good use,” Henry added.

The sales tax is estimated to generate about $10 million a year. Unlike the previous capital projects sales tax, the county won’t be able to borrow money and use the tax revenue to repay the bonds because it has reached its debt limit with a $67 million bond issue to build a new jail.

In agreeing to move forward with the referendum, County Council members said the makeup of the commission was key to getting to projects that fit the financial constraints while meeting needs and appealing to voters.

The council appointed Gary Cooper, owner of Palmetto Infusion, and Ashley Nelson, senior director of the Bunnelle Foundation, who live in the Pawleys Island area, and Robert Crenshaw, who is retired from the state’s readySC job training program and lives in the western part of the county.

The council also had applications from Dan Stacy, who chaired the 2012 commission; Doug Eggiman, the former Midway Fire and Rescue chief; and Dave Philips, who is chairman of the private Willbrook Plantation Road Maintenance District. They all live in the Pawleys Island area.

There were also applications from Franklyn Nelson and Dennzon Winley, who live in the Georgetown area.

Georgetown County Board of Education: First and third Tuesdays, 5:30 p.m., Beck Education Center. For details, go to gcsd.k12.sc.us. Georgetown County Council: Second and fourth Tuesdays, 5:30 p.m., Council Chambers, 129 Screven St., Georgetown. For details, go to georgetowncountysc.org. Pawleys Island Town Council: Second Mondays, 5 p.m. Town Hall, 323 Myrtle Ave. For details, go to townofpawleysisland.com. , .

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PAWLEYS ISLAND — Construction of a Pawleys Island grocery store is one step closer to becoming a reality.

Discount grocer Aldi would join other stores along the Hammock Coast including Fresh Market, Publix, Food Lion and Lowes Foods with one more favorable vote by Georgetown County Council.

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Plans call for building a 19,432-square-foot store on a more than four-acre site near the corner of U.S. Highway 17 and Petigru Drive. The vacant lot sits across the street from Pawleys Island Plaza, which includes Publix and a mixture of other national retailers including Petco, T.J. Max, Rack Room Shoes and others.

Councilman Bob Anderson confirmed to the Georgetown Times on Feb. 7 that Aldi hopes to build on the site. This would be the sixth grocery store in Pawleys Island.

“We can use all of those grocery stores," he said. "They all seem to stay busy enough and that, just to me, is a barometer for development."

Anderson said a third and final vote could come at the next council meeting, which is scheduled for Feb. 13. The proposal was deferred during a Jan. 23 meeting.

“We (were) trying to figure out what was going on with a bike path that may be going through there,” Anderson said. “But I think we have that pretty well straightened out. I talked to the lawyer that represents the company and hopefully, they will be able to settle that out before (the next meeting) and we can have the third reading."

Anderson said he thought the bike path would eventually end up on the north side of Petigru.

Aldi, which is short for Albrecht Discount, is an international chain known for stocking a variety of no-frill products, mostly under its own label, as well as fresh meats and produce. It also doesn’t provide free shopping bags and requires a refundable quarter deposit for a shopping cart to help keep prices low, according to its website.

Dan Stacy, an attorney working on the project, declined to discuss plans for the property other than to say a national retailer intends to locate there. He wouldn't identify the store.

"There'll be an announcement," he said.

An Aldi spokesperson said the company did not have any information to share regarding an expansion for the Pawleys Island area. Currently, there are 50 Aldi stores in the state, including locations in Conway, North Myrtle Beach and the Surfside Beach area.

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Another German-based grocer planned to build a store on the site a few years ago but pulled out.

The property was originally rezoned in 2015 as a flexible design district from general commercial to allow for a 35,250-square-foot mixed-use development on a 4.82-acre tract. In 2017, the site was amended to only allow a 35,962-square-foot grocery store on the site. But for unknown reasons, discount grocer Lidl pulled out and County Council reverted the site to the 2015 plan.

Last year, Arkansas-based coffee chain 7 Brew opened a store in that area beside Pawleys Wine & Spirits.

Plans also allow for a 2,800-square-foot expansion and an additional estimated 6,850-square-foot footprint consisting of either a future retail store or an office building.

Anderson said he is aware of concerns from some of the public over another grocery store coming into the Waccamaw Neck.

“You’ve always got people that have concerns,” Anderson said. “It doesn’t matter what it is. You just have to weigh those out. I would rather see a grocery store than I would more high-density development.

“We’ve got new parts of the comprehensive plan coming out, so hopefully we can solve some of these issues about how dense developers are able to construct things when they decide to put in another residential development.”

PAWLEYS ISLAND, S.C. (WBTW) — A Georgetown County resident reeled in a bonnethead shark over the weekend.

A bonnethead shark is a type of hammerhead shark.

Johnny Cooper’s fishing rod caught beachgoers’ attention Saturday afternoon when they noticed it pulling him closer to the water.

Once he reeled in the shark, he unhooked it and threw it back in.

Daniel Abel, a marine science professor at Coastal Carolina University, said once they’re caught, the time starts ticking for the sharks to be released safely.

This wasn’t the first hammerhead Cooper’s caught, but he said every time he has, it’s been while boat fishing — never surf fishing.

“Five of the nine total kinds of the hammerhead sharks are found in our waters,” he said.

Abel said a bonnethead is the most common to catch out of the five.

“It’s not rare to catch one but their diet is specialized. They like to eat crabs and crustaceans and small fish,” Abel said. “So, they don’t always pick up the bait that we may be using when targeting other species.”

Cooper said it’s easy to tell the difference between a bonnethead from other hammerhead sharks because they have rounded heads and spots along their bodies.

Abel added that these sharks have small teeth, so they aren’t a threat to people swimming at the beach.

“They get to be about five feet long as adults and they mature right around the size that he has,” he said.

Cooper said surf fishing is more challenging.

“You got to really cast out a good wave sometimes to get a good fish and the waves pulling your line,” Cooper said. “You’ve got to distinguish between the bite and the waves and the wind movement.”

Cooper said he also caught four black tip sharks, blues and whiting kroger and some sea trout.

“When I got it up on the beach after a 20-minute fight, it was pretty exciting,” he said.

Cooper said he threw the bonnethead and the black tip sharks back, but kept the other caught fish.

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Jackie LiBrizzi is a multimedia journalist at News13. Jackie is originally from Hamilton, New Jersey, and was raised in Piedmont, South Carolina. Jackie joined the News13 team in June 2023 after she graduated as a student-athlete from the University of South Carolina in May 2023. Follow Jackie on X, formerly Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, and read more of her work here.

Property owners at Prince George are seeking federal and state approval to move Pawleys Inlet nearly half a mile north in order to restore the beach they say has been lost because of a renourishment project on Pawleys Island.

The beach that now stretches 2,500 feet south of the public parking lot on the island would be reduced to 435 feet under the plan submitted last month to the Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

And the proposal from the Prince George Community Association would allow it to limit future movement of the inlet.

“Experts agree that an inlet management zone is the best way to address the existing erosion problems and prevent such damage in the future,” the association said in a statement.

The inlet has migrated about 1,000 feet since the town of Pawleys Island completed a renourishment project in March 2020 that placed 1.1 million cubic yards of offshore sand on the island’s beachfront. Most of that sand was placed along the narrow south end.

The movement of the inlet prompted three lawsuits from property owners at Prince George, a gated community on the south side of Pawleys Island. They name DHEC, which approved the project; the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, which helped fund it; the town, its engineers and its contractor; and ask the Circuit Court to order the beach at Prince George be restored to its condition before the renourishment. The suits are scheduled for trial sometime after June 3.

While the suits are pending, all the parties agreed that plans could be made to restore the beach and inlet without prejudicing their legal claims.

The permit request calls for cutting a new inlet across the 750-foot-wide southern end of the island and using the sand, estimated at up to 185,000 cubic yards, to fill in the existing inlet. Up to 115,000 cubic yards of upland sand will be needed to completely fill the inlet and rebuild the beachfront at Prince George, according to the permit request. That will be hauled by truck through Prince George.

Once the new inlet is cut, the sand that is currently part of Pawleys Island is expected to migrate to Prince George.

“Periodic inlet relocation projects are likely needed as part of future renourishment projects depending on the rate of southern migration of the inlet,” according to the application.

It includes data from a 2010 study of Pawleys Inlet by Coastal Science and Engineering that was commissioned by the Prince George association that showed the inlet had moved within a range of 2,800 feet over 80 years. It recommended establishing an 1,100-foot “management corridor” within the middle of that historic range.

The Prince George permit request would place a new inlet at the northern end of the corridor. According to aerial photos, that is where the inlet was located in 1977.

Historical data shows the inlet migrates south at a rate between 40 and 75 feet a year. When the southern edge of the inlet reaches the southern edge of the corridor, planning will start to move the inlet back north.

“Assuming no additional nourishment sand is added to Pawleys Island, the inlet relocation cycle is estimated to be between 5-10 years,” according to the application.

The southern limit of the proposed inlet corridor is about 400 feet north of Beach Bridge Road, which provides access to the beachfront houses at Prince George. The road is now protected with a rock revetment.

Without the project, the houses, the road and utilities will be threatened by storms and high tides, the application said. Since the south end of Pawleys Island has grown wider as well as longer, it is less likely that the inlet will relocate as the result of a breach.

“The only benefits from this condition would be the longer beach for walking and some additional habitat on the spit/southern end of Pawleys Island, which would be subject to human intrusion,” according to the application.

It calls the proposed project “a return to the natural conditions.”

The agencies have not yet issued notices for public comments on the application.

Georgetown County Board of Education: First and third Tuesdays, 5:30 p.m., Beck Education Center. For details, go to gcsd.k12.sc.us. Georgetown County Council: Second and fourth Tuesdays, 5:30 p.m., Council Chambers, 129 Screven St., Georgetown. For details, go to georgetowncountysc.org. Pawleys Island Town Council: Second Mondays, 5 p.m. Town Hall, 323 Myrtle Ave. For details, go to townofpawleysisland.com. , .

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Think, “Midsommar.” Or “Shaun of the Dead.” Or, “The Wicker Man.”

These are some of the movies that have inspired 21-year-old film director Mathew Epp in a latest film project that takes place in Pawleys Island.

Epp, a Charlotte, North Carolina, resident, graduated from University of North Carolina at Charlotte recently and is working on a new project, “Eden Avenue.”

Pawleys Island has the perfect small town nature to it, Epp said. He had been visiting a friend — the lead actor — for the past five or six months and decided it was a perfect setting for the film.

“I just realized like the more and more I go down there, you know, it’s a small town,” Epp said. “It’s a local community. And it’s beautiful.”

“Eden Avenue” follows a group of recent college graduates — Michael, Allie, Nick and Brandon, as they decide to take one last vacation together.

The beach town they end up at is inviting at first, Epp said. The town name “Eden Avenue” is supposed to give the area a motherly, inviting feeling.

But there’s a darker side.

The people of Eden Avenue are infected by the algae in the waters. It turns them into a cult-like group of people bent on infecting the protagonists, Epp explained.

It takes on a theme of “group of kids versus everyone else,” he said.

All of this occurs as the protagonists face internal struggles about change. The movie is character driven, and is much more about personal conflicts, such as accepting change than the cult, he said.

With about 20 working on the project, including a crew of 10 and around five to 10 actors, it’s still a while before local residents can see Pawleys Island on the screen.

Epp said that “Eden Avenue” was still in a pre-production stage, but filming is set to begin this month and will take a few days. The crew is still working on getting permits to film in specific areas.

Local viewers can expect to see a recognizable area in Pawleys Island, including the Pawleys Inlet toward the south end of the beach. Epp said he was working with Clam Bake Cove or Oakley as possible settings as well.

He anticipates a spring 2024 release, with “Eden Avenue” distributed on public platforms and then premiering locally in theaters.

The project members are asking for donations to help with production.

And “Eden Avenue” still has some spots left for extras in some scenes, he said.

Those interested can email Fortis Fortuna Films, the production company, at Fortisfortunafilm@gmail.com.

This story was originally published August 11, 2023, 5:00 AM.