Town Council - Regular Meeting

It is now 6 p.m. It is my distinct honor and privilege to call to order the regular town council meeting of September 8, 2026, in the town of Surfside Beach. Please stand as we begin with an invocation by Pastor Oki Landers of Pine Drive Gospel Church.

to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, thank you very much. All right, I will now ask if there are any motions related to the agenda. Hearing none, we'll move on to minutes approval from last meeting.

Is there any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? None. Motion carries. Meeting minutes are approved. will now move on to public comments on agenda items only do we have any public comment all right we'll now move into communications uh looks like we got a double header police and fire recognition however you guys want to do it you're meeting the mayor council public so this is i know i've probably said this before but one of my favorite things i like to do

all right thank you very much gentlemen we do appreciate that and it is uh emblematic of the family beach um we'll now move on to our business items uh business item 7a strategic payment services uh director gruber are you going to introduce that someone i'm melissa ellie come up and give a presentation about the services they provide And since we have an outside speaker, I'm going to suggest that we wait on a motion until after the presentation. Yeah, we could probably hit at least the front lights.

That's it. All right. Thank you very much. I am now going to request a motion to approve this proposal as presented. I'm going to make a motion to approve this presentation, to approve this process as presented. Second. All right. I'm going to start the discussion then. So Ms. Elliott, come back please. I'm not through with you yet. So I'm just going to be blunt and lay it out there.

So the rebates are actually much larger and you get a portion and we get a portion. Correct. And so the hypothetical tractor supply or anybody else is willing to pay these because they get security as well. Correct.

And then I have one question for Director Grover. Is there any downside to this?

Anything else? In that case, the motion on the table is to approve this service as presented. Ms. Medina, will you call the roll?

Yes. Motion carries six to one and the process is approved. Thank you very much. Thank you.

All right, we will now move on to the award of courthouse bids, Creech and Associates.

This is going to be a pretty short presentation. So, yeah, go ahead and make the motion, or somebody can make the motion first.

All right, thank you very much. Any questions or comments on this recommendation?

Okay. I think that's it. Okay, I got a couple. So you said you're going to be the contract administrator. Yeah. On the previous project that they're talking about, no big secret, it's the pier. That service was not offered by the architectural firm that we contracted, is that correct?

So right there's a difference, and you should be keeping track. And speaking of due diligence, you're familiar with the other companies here, BEC or not. and that's where you did the research, I'm assuming that means you have a comfort level with the others that you didn't. You already know that they have positive feedback on projects.

But again, you have some comfort level with those other companies for what you have heard. Okay. So the one you didn't know, that's where you did the extra due diligence. Correct. Okay. I want to make sure it's clear how that is. So has staff reviewed the EC construction? I mean, I don't know if John Adair, Director Adair, has had any work with them, anybody? That would be EC Construction. Okay, so we are going strictly with what Creech & Associates is saying. That's correct. Okay. Well, one thing I see here, I will give you a hand. The bids come in with a total of 12.6% total variance from to

So basically, these bids have come in right at what they told us they should be. So that, again, makes me feel a little bit better. That means you're doing your homework well. All right, that's all I have.

I'll just say this as a clarification. CREACH and BDC, assuming it gets the, it can't do anything without approval.

So it's whether it's you or it comes to council. That's what it is.

review process to ensure these things are absolutely necessary and that's something that will be covered in the month of reports okay from reaching associates okay yeah i said so we we will get those we will get those yes sir thank you i i'm going to go on a second one um you said maybe as as often as every two weeks you'd be doing reports but certainly monthly um i believe in our contract with creech going back year or so, we had a few review, large reviews, and that would be you coming here. When you're talking these two weeks to a month, that's just the two of you talking. Is that correct?

So then getting back to Mr. Lawhorn's concern, I mean, I don't envision a whole lot of showstoppers that you meet and today we just discovered something that we have to stop work unless you approve this change order. I mean, that's not going to be a likely scenario, correct?

But from past experience, a regular two-week cadence should allow you, you know, you're looking ahead, you know, you should be able to envision, you, the contractor, the administrator, should be able to envision what's coming over the, you know, again, you're not looking six months ahead, you're looking two weeks at that and and like, oh, this could be an issue, plenty of time for him to alert us if we get nervous or something like that. We can concern ourselves for better or worse. Okay, all right, and also in the contract, we do have a few reviews with them before council, do we not? Like a

Any others? All right, the motion over the table then is to accept the recommendation to accept the apparent low bid from BEC Construction at $4,060,350. Ms. Medina, will you call the roll?

Yes Yes, yes motion carries unanimously the bid is accepted and we'll start to open the contract Why with that we are now going to the chief Mikkel show and Go through several memorandums of agreement

If there's no cost, who does pay? for their services?

And kind of like our discussion with the juvenile center, I mean, we can't deal with these effectively

All right. Thank you. Any others? All right. And the motion on the table is to accept the memorandum of agreement on the Children's Advocacy Center. Ms. Medina, will you call the roll?

Yes, motion carries unanimously. I'll request a motion for the next one.

Okay, I wanted to go along with Mr. Coleman. Yes, that was the question I was going to go for. He's not going to get, our part-time officer is not going to get a call because something's going on in Horry County, for instance, unless it has something to do with us.

But that could also happen on one of our cases.

he may have other jurisdictions or agencies with their cases as well but he won't be there with the best and and likewise we could get somebody from oregon county somebody absolutely whatever okay all right i just wanted to clarify that all right uh mr wallace i think you want to i just i did want to also bring up for the good of the order uh how our relationship here had to do with during my short term on council we've had two majors

All right, with that, Motion on the table is to accept this memorandum of agreement with DEA as presented. Ms. Medina, will you call the roll?

Yes. Motion carries unanimously. Carry on.

Second. You got a second there, Ms. Medina?

No, okay. By signing this or approving this, it goes both ways, right?

forward to us where we are reaching out to them.

Thank you. Anybody else? All right. The motion on the table is to approve the memorandum of agreement with Coastal Carolina University. Ms. Medina, will you call the roll?

Any others? All right, the motion on the table is the approval of the memorandum of agreement with the city of Conway. Ms. Medina, would you call the roll?

Motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Chief. All right. We are now at public comments. Public comments on town services or business conducted. Are there any comments?

Yeah, after four times, I guess we should have got that down. Are there any other public comments? All right, we're gonna move into council comments. I'm gonna start with Mr. Lawhorn. Okay, for me all.

All right. Thank you, sir. It's early and I got a little left, so sorry, but I'm going to go through it. And the Summer Fireworks Festival, I wanted to start there. Great show. For being only the second annual, I'm really pleased with how well it's going. So I think it's delivering, it's full promise. There's always room for improvement, I get it, but I'm really pleased. 9-11 Memorial Stair Climb, I mean, this is 25 years. Even more so we should be there captain Kelly told me today that we surpassed the number of registrants from last year Registration is still open till Thursday afternoon. Yo

All in favor? Aye. Opposed? None. Motion carries. Meeting adjourned.