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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
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SC city spent nearly $500 thousand on decorations to lure tourists. Did it work?
Editor's note: This story is being updated to correct the headline. (Updated 8:40 a.m. July 21, 2025). Reality Check is a new Sun News series holding those in power accountable, shining a light on local issues, and answering readers' essential questions. Have a question or concern we can answer? Email online@ The city of Conway is known for elaborate decorations that cover its streets each time a holiday rolls around. However, each year, those festivities come with a hefty bill. Conway takes its celebrations seriously, even changing its name to City of Halloween for the month of October, when pumpkins and skeletons loom around every corner. Come Christmas time, the city becomes a twinkling beacon straight out of a Hallmark movie. And the decorating doesn't stop at these major holidays — if there's cause for celebration, Conway dresses itself up accordingly. In the past three years alone, the city has spent more than half a million dollars on its decorations. These holiday expenses, which have increased in recent years, are an effort to attract more visitors to the city, but has it worked? Year after year, putting up festive decorations requires a healthy dose of planning, effort and money. But the city believes it's all worth it for the tourists it brings to town, and the joy it brings its year-round residents. 'Holiday decorations and events offer extra value to the quality of life our residents,' city spokesperson June Wood said in an email to The Sun News. 'Over the last several years, the increased decor has correlated to increased foot traffic and in return more revenue for businesses.' According to city expense reports shared by Wood, Conway has spent more than $100,000 in each of the past three fiscal years to make its holiday makeovers possible. In the 2022-2023 fiscal year, the city spent $116,391 on decorations. The following year, it spent $198,264 on decorations. In the 2024-2025 fiscal year, the grand decoration total came out to just over $229,712. The holiday decorations are funded through the city's 'hospitality funds,' according to Wood. These funds are collected from city businesses rather than through taxes from residents. Conway's holiday decorating as it's known today kicked off in 2019, when plastic jack-o'-lanterns were hung from the trees along Main Street. The festivities have continued to grow since then. 'I think that in 2019 it really started as more of a community-focused event,' Wood said in an interview. But in the first few years of decorating, Wood said she saw interest in holidays spent in Conway expand to a regional, and then a national scale. According to the city's seasonal visitation data, foot traffic has also grown over the years, particularly around Halloween and Christmas. In 2019, Conway welcomed just under 150,000 visitors in October. In the past few years, the city has seen more than double that amount of tourists during the Halloween month, with more than 225,000 people stopping by in October 2024. In December 2019, an average of 4,000 visitors strolled the streets of Conway each day, and about 8,000 visitors came to the city on average each weekend day. As of 2024, an average of just over 6,000 visitors came to town each day in December, with the weekend daily average jumping to almost 12,000. Wood said in an email that the decorations have been a worthwhile endeavor for the city because they give people more reasons to visit the city, bringing in more business. Wood said in a later interview that the city has seen increases in its hospitality funds and city revenue since the decorating started, which opens up more possibilities, as these are the funds used to pay for the decor. She also said that businesses have expressed that it has been a benefit to them as well. In the past few years, Wood explained that the city has also started 'dabbling' in other holidays, such as Valentine's Day. 'We have found that with every new season our residents are excited for the next seasonal celebration and plan family events and vacations that will offer them additional activities,' she wrote. Before decorating for holidays, Wood said that the city didn't bring in much tourism. Aside from some people taking day trips to stroll along the Riverwalk, or families visiting Coastal Carolina University students, Conway didn't experience much outside traffic. While Wood said the city's goal is not generating tourism, but rather making it a better place for residents to live, she noted that decorating the city has brought about a noticeable change in the number of out-of-town visitors. For Conway, the community spirit and new revenue streams generated by decorating has been worth the cost, Wood said. The city has no plans to stop its festivities any time soon. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Yahoo
Reader poll: See what people think are the biggest Myrtle Beach area issues
The Sun News asked its readers what they felt is the biggest issue facing the area. Here's how they answered. Almost half, or 48%, of the 63 people who responded to the poll said crime is the biggest issue in the Myrtle Beach area because of over development and lack of action from its cities and counties. The reader poll was published on July 2 and is still available for responses. One respondent who has lived in the area for 20 years said that tourists have been out of control and committing crimes. He said that Myrtle Beach needs a broader curfew. Another local who has lived in Myrtle Beach for 18 years said crime is out of control compared to the country, adding 'the excuse that it's a tourist area is bogus.' Another respondent who moved to the area for golf said all he reads about is crime in the two weeks he has lived there. Many respondents, 22% of them, also indicated they were concerned with over development of the area, some indicating that over development is entwined with the crime they see. Almost all readers concerned most with over development in the area said infrastructure can't keep up. Readers said over development puts a burden on the medical care system and police in Horry County, 14% of respondents indicated traffic is the biggest issue in the Myrtle Beach area. Four percent also talked politics, some stating that public officials are self-interested and neglect real issues. Six percent indicated reputation was their biggest concerns, and many readers discussed other issues harming Myrtle Beach's reputation and tourism, the area's biggest industry. Other concerns included housing, finding a good job and the environment each poling at 2% as the biggest issue facing the area according to readers. Does this sound right to you? We still want to hear from more of our readers. See the reader poll here and let us know what you think is the biggest issue in the Myrtle Beach area. Note: this is not a scientific poll.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Yahoo
Myrtle Beach athletic director on leave for ‘failure to complete' job duties
An award-winning athletic director within Horry County Schools was recently placed on administrative leave with no public explanation. John Cahill, Myrtle Beach High School's athletic director since 2011, was placed on leave May 7 'due to failure to complete job responsibilities,' according to a letter in his personnel file received via Freedom of Information Act request. HCS spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier told The Sun News she had no additional information to provide on the matter, but did confirm Cahill remains on leave as of Monday. Cahill did not respond to a request for comment. He will receive full pay and benefits, according to the letter, and the leave will continue 'until an investigation into this matter is complete.' Cahill was earning about $97,500 per year as of 2023, according to The letter, from HCS Chief Human Resources Officer Mary Anderson, further instructs Cahill not to enter Myrtle Beach High School or any other district property while on leave, and not contact any staff, students or their parents without prior permission from a supervisor. Cahill has earned numerous accolades while serving more than a decade in his role, including being named South Carolina's athletic director of the year in 2016 and 2019 from various organizations, according to previous news reports from My Horry News. Most recently, in March, Cahill received the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association SC state merit award, given to one person annually from each state based off what they do for the good of their state and profession, according to a post from the MBHS athletics website. Aside from the recent letter placing Cahill on leave, the only other disciplinary action documented in his personnel file is a letter of reprimand from Oct. 2023, written by MBHS Principal Kristin Altman. That reprimand was related to a situation that The Sun News reported on last year involving the boys volleyball team. In that instance, a 16-year-old Filipino student on the team was questioned by police and briefly suspended for allegedly making a gang symbol with his hands, while white teammates making similar gestures were not questioned or disciplined. The hand gesture was ultimately determined to be a half-heart symbol and the student's suspension was quickly revoked, but he ended up quitting the team due to feeling targeted, and the district admitted in a letter to his parents that proper protocols weren't followed. Cahill and MBHS Assistant Principal Natalie Hunnell both received written reprimands related to the incident, according to records received by The Sun News via FOIA. Cahill sent a response letter, also included in his personnel file, to Altman disputing the reprimand and claiming 'significant errors' in the district's investigation related to his role in the matter, though most of his response and Altman's initial letter describing the issues are redacted in the versions provided to The Sun News.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- Yahoo
How does Myrtle Beach's weekend traffic control work? What we saw downtown
As tourists converge on downtown Myrtle Beach for the summer, the city has implemented its 'flushing' traffic control to keep Ocean Boulevard moving. 'I understand why they have it,' said Uber driver Darin Shaw. 'It's kind of just to help so it's not all clustered, because there'll be over 50 cars, just going in a row. They're all going one mile per hour, and everybody's trying to show off their car.' According to the Myrtle Beach Police Department, the Summer Emergency Vehicle Access Plan re-routes traffic to improve response times, increase visibility and allow officers to address concerns. 'It's nice if they can travel back and forth, the cops have a much faster response time for, like theft, everything,' said Stephen Mace, who works in an Ocean Boulevard storefront. 'They get here so much quicker.' It works like this: from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, the northbound lane on Ocean Boulevard is closed from 9th Avenue North to 16th Avenue North. Additionally, between 8th and 9th Avenue North, all traffic is blocked and re-routed to Kings Highway. Although a road sign alerted motorists of the ban on northbound traffic at 16th Avenue North, and cones with 'no left turn' signs were set up on streets intersecting Ocean Boulevard, some drivers seemed confused. On Friday evening, The Sun News saw more than 20 cars drive northbound on Ocean Boulevard in the flushing zone. Drivers made confused U-turns or pulled right out of oceanside hotels and businesses. 'It's not common,' said Mace. 'Every once in a while, it's typically somebody that's drunk, but also older people that don't see the signs, then it happens, but every once in a while you get a DUI out of it.' No officers were out to direct the flow of traffic, and one unmarked police vehicle–a black Dodge Charger–traveled southbound in the northbound lane around 5:40 p.m. Other than that, there didn't appear to be much of a police presence to enforce the traffic pattern early in the evening. MBPD did not respond to requests for comment on Friday evening. However, around 6 p.m., marked police vehicles began patrolling the area. 'The cops normally hit the beat on the strip around 5,' Mace said. 'You have all the kids revving and people doing whatever the hell they want, and [around] 5, the cops are out here, and everybody kind of settles down a little bit.' Car alarms blared, trash cans toppled and pedestrian traffic slammed to a stop when a brief but powerful summer storm hit around 6:30 p.m. But police presence remained as rain poured down, as patrols continued and a recruitment truck set up between lanes around 14th Avenue North. Over the course of the evening, The Sun News witnessed one traffic stop for a car traveling north in the flushing zone, around 7:20 p.m. By 10 p.m., two officers were set up between lanes on the 900 block of North Ocean's Boulevard near the location of the April 26 shooting where 11 people were injured. In addition to the MBPD cars, The Sun News saw at least one Horry County Sheriff's Office van and one State Trooper vehicle on Ocean Boulevard. But the limited traffic pattern can complicate work for rideshare drivers in the area. 'When this is going on right here, it's hard it's hard to even pick people up off the boulevard, when there's tons of trips on the boulevard,' said Shaw. The city does have designated rideshare pick-up spots adjacent to Ocean Boulevard on Withers Alley, but it's difficult to direct 'clueless' customers unfamiliar with the area and convince them to meet there. To get to customers on the oceanside of the boulevard in the flushing zone, Shaw said he has to 'weasel' his way to their location and turn on his hazards. 'If I were to go to the designated spots that the city has, it's gonna piss off the customer, because they have to walk all the way to the car,' Shaw said. 'It could be frustrating and prevent us from getting tips, and that's pretty much our main source of income, because Uber takes about 50 to 60% of the ride fare.'
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Yahoo
Update: 12 hospitalized after fights cause panic at Atlantic Beach Bike Week
Twelve people were sent to the hospital after fights created a mass panic at concerts in Atlantic Beach Bike Week, authorities said. Any reports of mass casualties are false, wrote Atlantic Beach Police Interim Chief Carlos Castillo in a release. During concerts late Saturday night, fights erupted in the town of Atlantic Beach — which hosts the motorcycle rally — and caused the crowd to panic. People were injured as they were trampled trying to leave the festival, Castillo wrote. At 11:57 p.m. Horry County Fire Rescue dispatched to Atlantic Beach due to a disturbance with injuries, according to a social media post. EMS brought 12 people to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries and an additional six signed a medical transport waiver. Law enforcement officials saw the fights but believed agitators ran and disappeared into the crowd, Castillo said in an email to The Sun News. No one has been arrested. The music paused but the festival continued until it closed at 3 a.m. Celebrations in Atlantic Beach will continue until 3 p.m. Monday, police said. 'We sincerely regret that anyone was injured, but we also regret the unfactual information that is being falsely spread about the Atlantic Beach Black Pearl Cultural Heritage and Bike Festival,' Castillo wrote. In the aftermath, on a rainy Sunday morning, the ground and area near the concert stage was littered with trash, shoes and sunglasses. Hilton Dewitt, who was at the event, told the Sun News there may have been an argument on the street near Ocean Boulevard, which caused concert goers to rush toward the stage. Dewitt said it happened about 1 a.m. 'They started panicking,' Dewitt said of the crowd. 'It was a stampede.' Atlantic Beach Bike Week, also known as Black Bike Week, happens annually during Memorial Day weekend, among other festivals and concerts that take place in the town of Atlantic Beach. Bikers also spread out in the area, spending time at the Myrtle Beach Mall parking lot and in downtown Myrtle Beach. This is a developing story. Check back at The Sun News for updates.
