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By Annie Rigby Amanda Causey was offered the position of clerk for the city of Loris after the Loris City Council met in executive session on Monday, July 20. Causey said, “It is an honor to work alongside the talented employees at the city of Loris.” She stated it is more than just a job, more than just a city; it is her home and hometown. She said there is much work to accomplish and as a team it will be done. Mayor Todd Harrelson said, “I think the city of Loris is blessed to have Amanda as the new …

By Ruben Lowman During a virtual board meeting held on Monday, June 13, Horry County Schools (HCS) officials announced they would be delaying the beginning of the upcoming school year by three weeks as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The 2020-21 school year will officially begin on Tuesday, Sept. 8. There will be 180 days on the calendar and the last day of school is scheduled to be June 16. HCS Chairman Ken Richardson had previously stated that he intended to push back the start date to give him and his reopening task force more time to evaluate and …

By Ruben Lowman North Myrtle Beach City Council extended the city’s state of emergency ordinance for two months during an emergency council meeting held last Wednesday, July 8. The ordinance, which the city had initially declared back in March when the earliest measures were set in place to counteract the spread of the coronavirus, is now set to expire on September 6, unless city officials deem it necessary to rescind it or extend it further. They previously passed an extension to the ordinance when it was due to expire in May. The state of emergency grants City Manager Mike Mahaney …

By Annie Rigby Janna-Reese is a bright young fourth grader who likes to keep busy, especially now when people are staying home. She has found a way to be creative and share her talent with others by painting rocks and hiding them throughout Loris. She said, “Because of the COVID it’s really boring cause you can’t go anywhere.” While cleaning she came upon a ladybug rock that she painted two years ago inspiring her to start painting and hiding rocks again. When someone finds a lion, tiger or bear, oh my, along with many other characters she creates and re-hide …

By Annie Rigby In response to the many areas surrounding Loris, including Horry County, that have mandated wearing face masks Mayor Todd Harrelson provided a proclamation for the residents and visitors of Loris. The proclamation for the City of Loris reads as follows. “Whereas, the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a respiratory disease that can result in serious illness or death by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is a new strain of the coronavirus previously unidentified in humans and which can spread from person to person. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned of the high public health …

By Ruben Lowman Hospitalizations have been climbing in the area due to a sharp increase in patients being admitted who are infected with COVID-19, local medical systems have confirmed recently. There have also been some issues with staffing at hospitals along the Grand Strand as positive cases continue to increase. As of press time the zip codes of North Myrtle Beach, Little River and Loris each have a little over 340 confirmed positive cases and around 2,100 estimated cases. This is a significant jump from last week, when the numbers were roughly 280 confirmed and 1,700 estimated for each jurisdiction. …

By Ruben Lowman The Town of Atlantic Beach made the decision on Monday, June 6, to cancel its annual motorcycle rally and pass an ordinance requiring the use of face masks in public places. The event, officially named “The Black Pearl Cultural Heritage and Bike Festival” but commonly referred to as “Black Bike Week”, attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Grand Strand every Memorial Day, when it has been held since 1980. Town officials previously rescheduled the bike festival for Labor Day, as a result of the effects the coronavirus pandemic has had on the area. Mayor Jake …

By Ruben Lowman During an emergency meeting last Tuesday North Myrtle Beach City Council approved an ordinance mandating the wearing of face masks in public places to prevent the spread of COVID-19. North Myrtle Beach was the first municipality in the county to pass facial covering legislation, which took effect last Thursday, July 2, at noon, followed closely by the councils of Myrtle Beach, Horry and Georgetown Counties and Atlantic Beach. This comes amid an alarming acceleration in positive confirmed coronavirus cases along the Grand Strand since the Memorial Day weekend. Previously, the numbers for new positive tests in Horry …

By RUBEN LOWMAN North Myrtle Beach City Council unanimously approved second and final reading on this fiscal year’s $89 million amended budget, as well as a 7.9 mils property tax increase within city limits, during a council meeting held last week. City officials have been left reeling financially by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic since March and as a result, have been forced to cut around $30 million from the projected budget that emerged from their annual retreat in Pinopolis in February. When passing the ordinances last Monday, June 29, Mayor Marilyn Hatley acknowledged the challenging choices those officials, …

By Annie Rigby Early morning on Tuesday, June 30, a task force of more than 200 federal, state and local law enforcement officers participated in the investigation and the arrests of 24 individuals for their roles in a drug trafficking organization operated out of the Cedar Branch area; four additional defendants remain at large. The United States Attorney District of South Carolina, Peter M. McCoy, Jr, said the 24 subjects have been taken into custody and are charged in federal court for their roles in trafficking heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, fentanyl and other drugs. Authorities seized more than a dozen …