City of North Myrtle Beach Hurricane Evacuation and Reentry Procedures, and More


The official hurricane season for the Atlantic Basin (Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico) is June 1 to November 30, but it never hurts to get a head start on preparing for the season.

Mandatory Evacuation Procedures

 IF a hurricane threatens our area and, IF the Governor issues an evacuation order, evacuation routes will be managed as follows:

-- Once the Governor issues a mandatory evacuation, lane reversals automatically occur
for two sections of Highway 501— U.S. Highway 501 from SC 544 to SC 378, and U.S. Highway 501 from SC 22 to the U.S. Highway 501/SC 576 split in Marion. Once you enter a lane reversal pattern, you will not be able to get back out. Never enter a lane reversal pattern unless directed to do so by law enforcement.

-- The Horry County evacuation plan to which all in North Myrtle Beach are subject requires all people located north of Briarcliffe Acres to evacuate via SC 9 North to I-95 and beyond.

-- These requirements stem from the South Carolina Hurricane Evacuation Study for the Northern Conglomerate released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2012.

Reentry Procedures

When reentering the city of North Myrtle Beach after a hurricane evacuation, property owners, renters and business owners should be prepared to show either their driver’s license, a copy of a recent water bill or property tax bill, a rental agreement, or other form of identity that proves residency or property ownership within the city.

Owners of businesses with employees who do not reside within the city limits but who are essential to business recovery should provide those employees with a letter written on company letterhead identifying them as being essential to the recovery of the business. When identifying an employee, please use their name as shown on their driver’s license so that authorities can match the two for verification.

The City of North Myrtle Beach does not require filing residency or business information prior to a storm.

The City’s goal is for the return of property owners and others to North Myrtle Beach as soon as possible following a hurricane evacuation so that all can help in the recovery process. However, some areas of the city may not be safe or essential utilities damaged, resulting in delayed reentry to the affected locations.

Be aware that other jurisdictions that you may travel through on your return to North Myrtle Beach from a hurricane evacuation (State, County, or other municipality) may have different identification requirements or different reentry priorities depending on damage that may have occurred in their jurisdictions.

Do you know your ZONE?

 You may remember that different areas of Horry County, including North Myrtle Beach, have been assigned different “Zones” with respect to the potential impact of hurricane storm surge on a given land area.

IF a hurricane is to strike our area with force, and IF the Governor calls for a mandatory evacuation, he might do so by identifying the ZONES that must evacuate. The zone locations in Horry County are as follows:

Zone A

All areas east of U.S. 17 Business (Kings Highway), up to intersection with U.S. 17 (Kings Highway) and then all areas east of U.S. 17 (Kings Highway) to the northern county line.

Zone B

All areas south of S.C. 707 and Longwood Drive, including all areas in Longwood Plantation (Blackmoor) to the Waccamaw River and all areas east of U.S. 17 Bypass (Mark Garner Highway) to U.S. 17 (North Kings Highway) and all areas east of U.S. 17 (North Kings Highway) to the northern county line.

Zone C

All areas between U.S. 701 and S.C. 544, south of Brown's Chapel Avenue and Hwy. 814, plus all areas east of S.C. 31 (Carolina Bays Parkway) to S.C. 90 and all areas east of S.C. 90 to U.S. 17 to the northern county line.

The Horry County Emergency Management Department provides an interactive Zone Map. Access County information at www.horrycounty.org.

How will the City stay in touch with you?

 During a hurricane emergency, the City will communicate advisory, damage assessment, reentry and other information to the public using these resources:

-- www.NMB.us (See “Press Releases” on the home page)
-- Via our Email News Group, whose members receive all news releases at the same time we send them to the news media. This is a free service. To be included in the Email News Group, provide your email address to Pat Dowling at pcdowling@nmb.us Please specify if you want to

receive all City-related news or only hurricane-related information. We will not use your email address for any other purpose. You can opt out at any time.

The City also forwards its information to local and regional news media outlets, Horry County Emergency Management, the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce, and the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. The North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce shares City of North Myrtle Beach announcements with its members and its social media audiences.

The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce serves as the umbrella agency for the Area Recovery Council (ARC), which serves as a clearinghouse for information from all sources within Horry County during hurricanes and other disasters.

Questions about North Myrtle Beach procedures?

Contact Pat Dowling at pcdowling@nmb.us

City of North Myrtle Beach Begins Oyster Mitigation Project

The City of North Myrtle Beach has begun work on the mitigation of oyster beds disturbed during the recent dredging of the Cherry Grove canals. As required by its U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredging permit, the City must reestablish oyster beds that were disturbed during dredging.

The oyster shells will be placed at various locations in the marsh, outside of any future dredge paths. The oyster shells will serve as the hard substrate to which developing oysters will attach themselves as they mature over several years.

Beginning this weekend, about half of the overflow parking lot at the Heritage Shores Nature Preserve at 53rd Avenue North will be closed so that trucks delivering the oyster shells can unload them on to barges that will ferry the shells to the locations where the new oyster beds will be created.

It will take about 23,000 bushels or 1 million pounds of oyster shells to create the new oyster beds, which equates to about 50 barge trips.

The work must occur now because it synchronizes with the maturation time frame of oyster larvae.

HOW OYSTERS DEVELOP

Fertilized oyster eggs drift in the water column undergoing cell division until they become juvenile larvae. Oyster larvae live in the water column for about two weeks maturing through different stages. Larvae swim in the water currents in order to follow the phytoplankton, their source of food. Larvae are not capable of swimming horizontally, but they can move vertically. Once the larvae are about two weeks old and in the pediveliger stage (larva with a foot), they begin to concentrate at the bottom of a water system to search for a hard substrate. The larvae utilize an appendage that they grow called a foot. This foot helps them crawl around on the bottom to find a suitable substrate for them to attach to. Once they have successfully located a suitable location, usually an oyster shell, they begin to attach to the shell by secreting a glue. The larvae then undergo a complete metamorphosis of internal anatomy and become what we call a spat. From there, they develop over time into a full grown oyster. -- Source: University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science Horn Point Oyster Hatchery

The accompanying photo shows oyster eggs or "spat" attached to an oyster shell.

Medicine Drop-Off Tent Offered at May 12 MayFest on May Festival in North Myrtle Beach

MEDICINE DROP-OFF TENT OFFERED AT MAY 12MAYFEST ON MAIN®FESTIVAL
During the May 12 Mayfest on Main® Festival, the North Myrtle Beach Public Safety Department Department will offer a Medicine Drop-Off Tent at the main entrance to the festival closest to U.S. Highway 17.

Bring your unused, expired and unwanted prescription and over-the-counter medicines to the Medicine Drop-Off Tent during festival hours.

Do not bring liquids or syringes. 

Unused medicines in homes create a public health and safety concern because they can be accidentally ingested, stolen, misused, or abused.

Revised: DIVAS® Half Marathon $ 5 K is Sunday, May 6 in North Myrtle Beach (updates on the route)



DIVAS® HALF MARATHON & 5K IS SUNDAY, MAY 6 IN NORTH MYRTLE BEACH

This revised release reflects changes race managers have made to bypass some current road construction projects in the city.

The Divas® Half Marathon & 5K will be held in North Myrtle Beach on Sunday, May 6.

The Divas® 5K will start at 7am, and the Divas® Half Marathon will follow at 7:10am.

Both races will start on Ocean Boulevard just south of Main Street and will finish on Main Street.

The Divas® Half Marathon Series is held annually in some of the country’s best vacation destinations: Honolulu, HI; Long Island, NY; San Juan, PR; San Francisco, CA; and North Myrtle Beach, SC.

The event will follow a rolling road closure, which means that the flow of traffic will be impacted for a short period of time before the first runner enters a section of road and will return to normal when the last runner leaves that section.

North Myrtle Beach Police will reopen roads as soon as race course operations cease, with the half marathon course officially closing by 11:00am.

2018 DIVA ROUTE -- TURN BY TURN

START—Between 2nd & 3rd Ave. South on Ocean Blvd. and go south
Right—14th Ave. South
Left—Holly Dr.
Cross 17th Ave. South and stay on Holly
Right—26th Ave. South
Right—Madison Dr.
Right—22nd Ave. South
Left—Hillside Dr.
Left—Main Street
Right—Ye Olde Kings
Right—2nd Ave. North
Left—Hillside Drive
Left—16th Ave. North / Prince William
Right—Princess Anne
Right—11th Ave. North
Right—New road—Capt. Hook Way
Left-----New Road—Bonnet Dr.
Right----Sea Hope Way
Right—Graybill Way
Right—Seabrook Plantation (behind Hobby Lobby)
Left—Surf Estates Way
Right—Palm Bay
Right—Surf Pointe / 20th North
Right—Spring Street / Ocean Blvd
Right—Main Street
FINISH

RESULTS: April 16 North Myrtle Beach City Council Meeting

Prior to the April 16 North Myrtle Beach City Council meeting, City Council members met in an executive session for a legal briefing on possible property acquisitions, and for a legal briefing on a potential contract between a Designated Marketing Organization (DMO) and the City of North Myrtle Beach. Council took no action.

Seven City employees received Employee Longevity Awards. Provided in five-year increments, the awards recognize employees who consistently demonstrate excellent customer service. Receiving awards were Communications Technician & Lead Jailer Loria Gore (20 years of service), Fire Lieutenant Christopher Nash (10), Firefighter/EMT David Reed (10), Computer Technician II Michael McLamb (5) Heavy Equipment Operator Pete Stanley (5), Safety Specialist & Business License Inspector Joe Turner (5), and Heavy Equipment Operator Mackrese Vereen (5).

City Council approved a Resolution to extend a lease between the City and Midcon Cables Company for three years. The City leases to Midcon a portion of its warehouse located on the corner of 6th Avenue South and Bay Street. The annual lease rate for the first two years of the renewal term is $171,444.60 and in the third year, the rate increases based on a formula contained in the lease.

City Council approved the2018 Music on Main concert schedule. All concerts will be located at the Horseshoe on Main Street. Visit http://parks.nmb.us for performers and concert dates.

City Council held a public hearing regarding the City’s proposed FY 2019 Budget.

City Council passed first reading of a proposed ordinance setting the City’s FY 2019 property tax levy at 43.3 mils on each $100 of assessed value. The proposed rate includes two parts. The first part is 6.2 mils for the annual debt service on the $15 Million Park Improvement Bonds for the land purchase and construction of the 162-acre North Myrtle Beach Park & Sports Complex, and the second part is 37.1 mils for operating expenditures for the General Fund. The proposed 43.3 mils property tax levy for FY 2019 represents an increase of 2 mils over FY 2018.

City Council passed first reading of an ordinance providing for the adoption of the proposed FY 2019 Budget. The city’s fiscal year is July 1-June 30. The proposed FY 2019 budget involves 16 separate funds with significant interrelations and transfers between the various funds. The proposed budget is $96.2 million, about $8 million less than the FY 2018 budget

The proposed budget identifies key funding needs that include:

·     A variety of capital improvement projects

·     A state retirement system-mandated $260,000 funding increase in the City’s contribution for police and fire retirement for FY 2019

·     Increased health insurance costs
·      
·     Imbalances in police, fire and other employee pay categories as compared to other cities of similar makeup

·     An imbalance in the Sewer Fund

·     A pass-through increase in the county solid waste fee

·     The start of replacement of decade-old roll-out containers

·     Adjustments to the business license fee rate structure

Proposed funding for these needs includes: 

·     A property tax increase of 2 mils. On a $350,000 home (the median home price in North Myrtle Beach) 2 mils amounts to a property tax increase of $28 annually.

·     A sewer fee adjustment. For about 12,660 of the city’s sewer customers the base rate on a 3/4-inch meter would increase from a current $6.32 to $8.00, plus 7-cents per gallon increase for 10,000 gallons. The total increase would be about $2.38 for the first 10,000 gallons. Larger meter sizes could realize larger increases.

·     A sanitation fee adjustment for single-family residential customers. The fee would increase by $3.00, from $19.00 per month to $22.00 per month. $2.00 of the increase is a pass-through increase from the Horry County Solid Waste Authority, and $1.00 would go toward replacement of aging rollout garbage containers. Containers are over 10 years old and replacement will occur over time.

·     A business license fee increase generating a total of about $700,000. The last time business license fees were adjusted was in 1986. Under the proposed FY 2019 Budget, 25% of the rate difference between North Myrtle Beach rates and Myrtle Beach rates. Example: In the Building, Auto Parts and Clothing category, the current Myrtle Beach base rate is $105 and the current North Myrtle Beach base rate is $35. Applying 25% of the rate differential would bring North Myrtle Beach’s base rate in this category from $35 to $52.50

The proposed FY 2019 Budget is available for review at www.NMB.us. Look under “Departments” in the menu at the top of the homepage, click on “Finance”, and scroll down to the bottom of the page to find the “Proposed Budget FY 2019.”

City Council passed first reading of a proposed ordinance to amend Chapter 23, Zoning Ordinance, regarding temporary display tents at businesses.

At the February 5, 2018 City Council meeting, a member of the business community asked Council to revise the City’s temporary tent ordinance for businesses to expand the maximum time tents are allowed to be used during busy seasons from one week to two weeks.

The amendment would allow permitting of a temporary tent for 14 days instead of seven, while still preserving the total 28-day yearly maximum. In the first and fourth calendar quarters, many seasonal businesses have no need for a temporary tent permit. The proposed changes would allow tent permits to have either a seven-day permit length or a 14-day permit length, with associated gaps between permit periods of 10 or 30 days. This would allow seasonal businesses to utilize the 28-day yearly allotment within their two busiest calendar quarters.

Shown left to right in the accompanying photo are Employee Longevity Award recipients Loria Gore, David Reed, Christopher Nash, Joe Turner, Michael McLamb, Pete Stanley, Mackrese Vereen, and City Manager Mike Mahaney.