Posted by
Jack Cruger on Sunday, August 24, 2008 1:13:39 PM
Posted on Thu, Aug. 21, 2008
County joins airport authority study group
Representatives from Horry County will join municipal and state officials on a state-sponsored panel that will investigate creating an airport authority to run the county's four airports, a county committee decided today.
Supporters of the authority say it would run the airports, which are currently managed as a county department, more efficiently. Opponents say an authority, whose board members would be appointed and not elected, would not be subject to taxpayer oversight.
Councilmen Howard Barnard, Harold Worley, Marion Foxworth and Carl Schwartzkopf have been appointed to represent the county on the committee, said John Weaver, the county attorney.
In a straw poll earlier this year, Horry County Council voted unanimously against the authority idea. County Council Chairwoman Liz Gilland said Thursday the county should participate in the committee to provide input even though the council is against the idea.
'We need to be a part of it, to at least see what they're discussing,' she said.
The 14-member committee is being led by state Rep. Alan Clemmons and state Sen. Luke Rankin, who supported failed bills in the state legislature earlier this year aimed at creating an authority. The county's cities and business groups were also invited to appoint members.
The committee, charged with investigating methods to improve the management of the airports, will report back to the legislature no later than January. Some council members said the committee would find that the airport, which turns a profit, is managed well.
'We run it in the black, it pays for itself, and we've done that tremendously well,' Barnard said. 'And we need to tell everybody that.'