Thursday’s second editorial takes on
a more obscure topic: Fighting invasive species in South Carolina:
Students of S.C. agriculture know all
too well the frustrations and problems brought to the South by the invasive
kudzu bug. The Asian insects, which were first discovered in the U.S. in 2009,
emit a foul odor and a stinging chemical. In colder months they can invade
homes and vehicles. They feast on legumes such as soybeans and can reduce a
farmer’s soybean yields by as much as 60 percent.
Friday’s editorial is a decent
reminder as we get closer to our peak beach/outdoor season:
The phrases should go without saying:
The beach is not your ashtray. Litter is everybody’s business. The river is not
a garbage disposal. Trash goes in the trash can.
And yet we must say them. And say
them again. And apparently say them again. As The Sun News reported on Tuesday,
volunteers with the Ocean Conservancy picked up nearly 10 tons of garbage from South Carolina’s beaches
back in September. (They picked up more than 200 tons in North Carolina.) Last month, more than 200
big-hearted folks collected more than 4 tons of trash from the waterways around
Murrells Inlet.
Friday’s editorial gives some kudos
to Rep. Stephen Goldfinch, who’s been impressive in his strong work ethic thus
far in Columbia:
Take a look at what most of our
freshman legislators have done thus far in Columbia, and you might get the
understandable idea that they’re largely getting their feet under them and
finding out how it all works before attempting any substantive work.
Together, the four newcomers from
Horry County – Sen. Greg Hembree and Reps. Heather Ammons Crawford, Kevin
Hardee and Mike Ryhal – have proposed three insubstantial resolutions honoring
local folks, one road-naming resolution and two actual lawmaking bills, neither
of which got further than the committee level.
Wednesday’s editorial reminds readers
of the good work that turtle watchers do each season along our coast. They’re
expecting the flippered gals to start showing up late in May this year:
Sea Turtle patrols in Georgetown and Horry counties and along the Carolinas are making ready for another sea turtle nesting
season, beginning in May with the first nests and continuing into October with
the last of the hatchlings.
Jeff McClary of Pawleys Island
is in his 30th year of helping protect loggerheads and other sea turtles. He is
a founder of S.C. United Turtle Enthusiasts or SCUTE, the umbrella organization
for the area turtle patrols. McClary says the cool spring suggests nesting
later in May, after several days of higher temperatures that warm the ocean
water. The patrols will begin in May and continue into October. From May into
August, female loggerheads will crawl ashore and make nests in the sand, laying
100 or more eggs in the cavity. The adults return to the ocean. Eggs hatch in
six to eight weeks, starting in mid-July and continuing into October.
Is the area poised for a comeback?
Sunday’s editorial sure hopes so:
Spring is nearly here. Blooms are
starting to peek out and pollen will soon fill the air. It’s an optimistic time
of year as the world wakes from its wintry slumber, and this year we’ve got
even more reason for optimism: building signs are popping up around town, and
construction sites are buzzing once more.
The national jobless report released
Friday morning held good news for all of us concerned about the economy, but
particularly good news for our region, as many of our main industries were
among the top job creators. Construction businesses added 48,000 jobs. Leisure
and hospitality added 24,000. And retailers added 23,700. All three are major
drivers of our local employment situation, and after years of attempting to
claw our way out of the hole dug in the recession, it’s encouraging to see some
daylight at last.
Sunday’s editorial weighs in on the
proposal to allow local municipalities to raise the accommodations tax to pay
for beach renourishment projects:
Beach renourishment will always be a
concern for our area, as it will for every developed coastal community.
Especially if the recommendations of the recently completed report of the
state’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Shoreline Management are adopted,
abandoning the state’s 20-year policy of beach retreat, continued renourishment
will be a given.
But do we need a higher tax to pay
for it? No. Not now. Hopefully not later.
Tuesday’s second editorial highlights
the good work of one of the lesser known nonprofits in the area:
Kristi Falk is on a mission: “to get
people in the area healthier.”
The former owner of a health food
store in Conway, Falk parlayed that experience first into five years of putting
on the Wellness Expo of Myrtle Beach at the city’s convention center. From
there, she founded the Wellness
Council for South Carolina in 2006. The nonprofit council seeks to teach
local residents how to be healthy people in all aspects of their lives, whether
nutrition or recycling, exercise or emotions.
Sunday’s editorial takes a look at
the shoreline management report that came out on Monday and what it might mean
for us around here:
The report on
managing our state’s beaches released this week after two years of study by
S.C. leaders is a mixed bag for beach lovers. As you might expect after
prolonged negotiations between competing conservation and development
interests, it ended up a fairly flaccid, middle of the road report, with no
radical recommendations for state lawmakers. As state Rep. Tracy Edge, a member
of the committee that put together the document, told us recently, “the report
is kind of milquetoast.”
Sunday’s editorial describes how a state
law that only got half finished is costing local governments hundreds of
thousands of dollars and could lead to an unnecessary tax increase in Horry County:
How does Horry County’s bill for
disposing of old TVs and computers unexpectedly spike from $30,000 a year to
around $300,000 a year, raising with it the possibility of a tax increase for
county residents? It wasn’t a giant increase in TV purchases. No, blame a
hurry-up-and-stop legislative process.
We’re getting tired of waiting for
updated coastal policies. Especially as development picks up again after the
recession, it’s time to get moving, as Thursday’s editorial explains:
Few things in government move
particularly quickly. We’ve accepted the reailty that delays in public
initiatives are inevitable and progress is painfully slow. But South Carolina’s
plodding efforts to prepare new guidelines for managing the state’s shoreline
are trying our patience.
Five years after the state’s
Department of Health and Environmental Control began its Shoreline Change
Initiative to update coastal policy, the policies are still being developed,
discussed and haggled over. Meanwhile, the coast continues to require
expensive, regular renourishment, development rules are still fairly lax and
misunderstood, and instead of the state’s hoped for retreat from the coast, builders
have continued to erect or redevelop property seaward of the line drawn in the
sand 25 years ago.
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