Lighting Store Showroom Near Murrells Inlet, SC

MURRELLS INLET, S.C. (WMBF) - After nearly 40 years in Surfside Beach, Neal and Pam’s is bringing their brand south.

Owners said the new restaurant, Neal’s Creekhouse, will incorporate many of the things people love about Neal and Pam’s, into a new marshfront restaurant.

Neal’s Creekhouse will be located near the Murrells Inlet Marshwalk, off of Highway 17 Business, in the old American Steak and Oyster Bar building.

“I’m very excited and I wish them luck,” said one woman from Murrells Inlet.

Pam Stapleton, one of the previous owners of Neal and Pam’s said the name of the new restaurant is to honor her late husband Neal.

“He was quite a character in the area,” said Stapleton. “If you ever knew him, you wouldn’t forget him.”

Construction is currently underway and the building is transforming.

“A little water view. I think it’s going to be nice,” said a regular at Neal and Pam’s.

Current Neal and Pam Owner, Zach Baker said this location is a perfect spot.

“On this side of the highway in Murrells Inlet, on the water, I don’t know that there will ever be anything in our lifetime that comes available again,” said Baker.

Baker said they’ve been thinking about this expansion for years.

“When we found this place, we have such a good following in the Inlet already and even further south, down into Pawley’s Island. We thought this was the perfect location to continue our journey,” said Baker.

This journey is one that many people thought might never happen after a fire forced Neal and Pam’s to close for eight months last year.

“We got back open, we had a great summer and this came available and we jumped at the opportunity,” said Baker.

Neal’s Creekhouse will have more space and a bigger kitchen, allowing Baker’s team to be more creative with their menu.

Baker said they will also have music and of course karaoke.

“We always say food doesn’t have to be pretentious to be delicious, and it’s more fun to eat in a bar than drink in a restaurant,” said Baker. “So that’s the kind of vibe we’re going for here.”

Baker said they can’t wait to serve the community, but they have a lot of work to finish before they’re ready to set a grand opening date.

Copyright 2023 WMBF. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: What Myrtle Beach people, places or things make you nostalgic? Tell us more about this story or other notable stories that our journalists should know about our community. Email us at online@thesunnews.com.

At first glance, one can be fooled into thinking that the goats have returned to Goat Island located behind Drunken Jack’s restaurant in Murrells Inlet.

But the goatly-shapes are fake - metal statues that are a symbolic gesture of what once was a popular site for locals and visitors to the MarshWalk.

The goats - often numbering between six and seven - have lived on the island from April through November since about 1982.

One of the big events for onlookers was the rounding up of the goats around Thanksgiving each year to move the goats to their winter home. It was during that time that restaurant owner Al Hitchcock and volunteers would make “fools” out of themselves, chasing the goats around the island and through the marsh, Hitchcock said.

He doesn’t know how people found out about the date and time of the roundup, but he suspects it was a restaurant employee who would leak the information. About 150 to 200 people would come to watch.

However, in October 2022, things changed drastically for the goats when they were removed ahead of Hurricane Ian.

During Hurricane Ian, the water was chest high on the MarshWalk, Hitchcock said. A photo on Hitchcock’s phone shows only a tiny part of the island with the rest surrounded by water. If volunteers hadn’t removed the animals ahead of the storm, “We would’ve lost the goats,” he said.

“They would’ve hung me, run me out of town or put me on social media,” Hitchcock said of the goats’ fans. “I didn’t want any of the three.”

In February, Hitchcock made the decision to not return the goats after the island suffered extreme erosion from the king tides and hurricanes over the years, limiting space for the goats to roam safely, Hitchcock said.

In addition, Hitchcock said that relocating the goats on and off the island was stressful for the animals. Since the goats are pets, he was concerned for their safety and well-being.

“Us chasing the goats is not safe for us or the goats,” Hitchcock said.

On a sunny, but chilly Thursday, the Murrells Inlet goats are roaming a large patch of land, eating grass and soaking up the sun.

It’s their winter-now permanent location at Osprey Marina in the Socastee area. Hitchcock said the owners of the marina have been wonderful over the years to allow the goats to live there.

After their permanent removal, the marina’s owners took on the responsibility of caring for the goats. They seem happy in their location, but Hitchcock said they were also happy to get to the island.

When it came time to load up the goats to bring them to the island, Hitchcock said the ones who had been there before would line up at the gate. That’s because they would dine on leftovers from the restaurant, including items from the salad bar such as carrots and lettuce ends and hushpuppies.

At one time the island also had about six to eight peacocks. However, a hurricane one year came and blew them away, killing three, Hitchcock said.

The rest were rounded up and brought back to the island, but they flew away again. They are now living behind a boat landing in Murrells Inlet. There are about a dozen peacocks there.

Hitchcock has numerous stories about the goats, including a time when a goat got loose and roamed Murrells Inlet for two months. Another goat got loose and crossed the roadway into a woman’s garden and ate some of her vegetables. “I had to buy that lady two cases of collard greens,” Hitchcock said.

The goats were placed on the island to help keep the grass and underbrush down, according to Drunken Jack’s website.

But the truth is that it was another kind of grass that prompted Hitchcock and another man to bring the animals to the island.

Hitchcock said the goats were a prevention solution after some men began growing marijuana plants on the island. He said Murrells Inlet was a small town in the early ‘80s, and no one wanted it there. The goats took care of the problem, eating the plants.

When asked if the goats were affected by the marijuana, Hitchcock wasn’t sure, replying, “I don’t know what a high goat looks like.”

Hitchcock understands that people miss the goats. He said there’s not a day that he doesn’t get asked, “Where are the goats?”

While the metal goats are just a stand in, Hitchcock wanted people to know that the goats were OK. So he placed a sign with a photo of the goats on the farm on the side of his restaurant that says, “We miss y’all too.”

This story was originally published December 9, 2023, 7:00 AM.

GEORGETOWN COUNTY, S.C. (WPDE) — The days are numbered for neighbors who can provide input or raise questions in regard to the Murrells Inlet dredging project.

The county-planned project would dig up more than 16 miles of creeks and channels in the Inlet. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is receiving public input until Nov. 30 as the county needs certain permits for the project. It also will involve a first for the county and the state in how county-hired engineers plan to dispose of the dredged material.

According to county data shared by the Corps, 754,616 cubic yards of sediment, or 1.05 million tons will be dredged out of the estuary.

READ MORE: Georgetown County officials look to dredge Murrells Inlet

It's a project that's been in the works for years. Officials dredged parts of the Inlet near the Marshwalk 5 years ago. This plan would deepen more creeks and channels, but also impact more salt marsh and oyster beds.

"We have some concerns with the extent of the dredging," said Monica Whalen with the South Carolina Environmental Law Project. "We just want to make sure that this is fully assessed and that we aren't losing more than they would gain."

Engineers working on behalf of Georgetown County report that Inlet is seeing some deterioration of marshes and oyster beds already due to stormwater runoff and increased development around it.

"What I want to do is restore the water flow in Murrells Inlet to its natural state," said Rep. Lee Hewitt who's helped secure millions in state dollars for the dredging and calls the inlet home. "I'm afraid Murrells Inlet will be in a worse situation without this dredging."

Since the county is footing most of the bill for the project, years of studying have also led them to pitch a first in South Carolina; dumping the dredged material back into the ocean.

"It's going to be several hundred yards off of Huntington Beach. What it is, it's an area where you pump the sediments onto the ground and work on having the mud balls offshore and the sandy on the inshore," Hewitt said.

To do this, the Corps and county also say monitoring would have to take place to ensure the dredged material does not surpass a thickness of 5.5 feet. It would also have to stay out of the surf zone.

"This would be the first time that this technique has been implemented in South Carolina and we want them to look into more feasible alternatives," Whalen said. "We have talked to some other scientists who have raised questions."

Whalen says the questions that linger surround how the county plans to monitor the dump site, and if DHEC will be involved in case the dumping surpasses that 5.5. ft threshold. Also, they'd like to have a better idea of what the 'surf zone' is.

To counteract the impacts of salt marshes, the county is pitching the idea of adding sediment to dying or impacted marsh areas to promote regrowth.

"Putting some of that sediment on top of the marsh grass not much about 4 to 6 inches that will raise that up and will allow the Spartina to come back," Hewitt said. "I in no way want to hurt Murrells Inlet."

The county plans to also submit another plan to lay out their proposed mitigation plans that could include more living shorelines.

Still, environmentalists are requesting the county abandon some plans before the dredge craft hits the water.

"We think the project proposes dredging that is less than 10 feet from these areas [reefs and marsh vegetation] and it's SCELP's position that if the channels are too narrow to allow for a 10-foot buffer they should be excluded from the project," Whalen said.

The county, in its application, has promised to respect that 10-foot buffer between the dredging area and marsh areas.

READ MORE: Land along Black River in Georgetown Co. protected for recreational water trail, revitalization efforts

The project itself would not begin until Fall 2025, Hewitt says. It would take several months to complete. He supports neighbors sending in as many questions as possible.

Whalen and SCELP are asking for at least 20 commenters to request that DHEC and the county hold a public hearing on the dredging.

"This will allow community members to express their viewpoints in a direct manner. Whether they are in support of the project, or they oppose it, or if they want to request that the project is minimized," Whalen said.

You can submit comments in writing, identifying the project of interest by public notice/file number (SAC-2020-00449), to nathaniel.i.ball@usace.army.mil.

"Whatever we can do to restore a natural water flow to Murrells Inlet and mitigate some of the things that we are seeing out there now I think is a much better option than sitting there and letting it continue to deteriorate like what we are seeing," Hewitt said.

GARDEN CITY, S.C. (WBTW) — Sunday’s nor’easter that rolled through the Grand Strand damaged many areas and put the Murrells Inlet dredging project on hold.

Almost four blocks on South Waccamaw Drive in Garden City were blocked off on Tuesday because of the amount of sand on the roads.

“So, we got two feet of water,” Airanna Perez said. “As far as inside, you know, especially with that tide and the rain we got, it’s just a perfect storm.”

Businesses along Atlantic Avenue were filled with between 6 and 24 inches of water. Perez, a property manager at a realty group in Garden City, said sand in the roads and in their property’s pools is a common issue when heavy winds come in contact with dunes during storm surges.

She said their business did not sandbag their doors for the storm.

“We don’t actually do that, simply because it doesn’t do anything, especially when they don’t close down the roads,” Perez said. “People are driving through anyway. Those waves are crashing up against businesses, so it’s coming in no matter what.”

Homes along the Grand Strand weren’t the only things impacted by Sunday’s storm. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ dredging project in Murrells Inlet also had heavy winds take a toll on their workload.

“We are still evaluating the impacts of the storm,” Project manager Jacob Kyzer said. “The contractor expects they will be cleaning up for several days before they are able to resume.”

Many machines were in the streets working to put the sand back on the beach. One store along North Waccamaw Drive had 6 inches of water inside of it.

Eagles Beachwear was in the middle of repairing its roof that was damaged in Hurricane Ian last year when Sunday’s storm rolled through.

Pete Benninghove, one of the store’s maintenance personnel, said the original roof estimate was about $6,000 and that the additional damage might cost them another $1,000 or so.

“Basically, we’re removing all the AC units from the roof, covering all those penetrations, and removing the porch for the ductwork. Things like that,” he said.

Benninghove said he hopes to finish the roof repairs in the next day or two and that the repairs will hold for the next storm.

* * *

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.

About 13 miles south of Myrtle Beach is Murrells Inlet, a community that was once primarily a fishing village and has since developed into a tourist and retirement location. Probably best known for its MarshWalk, a half-mile-long boardwalk overlooking a salt marsh, it’s a nature lover’s paradise. Just a few steps down and across Highway 17 sits one of the best gift shops in South Carolina that is so massive, you will want to have plenty of time to explore everything inside. It’s just one of many fun things to do in Murrells Inlet.

The City Of Camden In South Carolina Just Turned 290 Years Old And It's The Perfect Spot For A Day Trip

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Visit the Lazy Gator’s website and the Lazy Gator’s Facebook page for more information. And for a delicious lunch or dinner after shopping, head over to Lee’s Inlet Kitchen, a restaurant loaded with local history and delicious seafood. It would be a shame to be in the seafood capital of South Carolina and not have any seafood while there!

Have you ever been to the Lazy Gator? Did you buy anything or sample the homemade fudge? What flavor? Share all about it with us in the comments section below!

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