Georgetown County Council approved $449,424 in requests for accommodations tax grants at its meeting on Tuesday night.
The county had $470,253 available.
The Accommodations Tax Advisory Committee met March 1 to hear presentations on requests, and met again on March 15 to consider the applications and come up with recommendations for County Council.
The requests that were submitted Tuesday and approved were:
• Garden City Beach Community Association: $5,300 for streetlights and $16,900 for landscape maintenance on the Highway 17 bypass median.
• Litchfield Beaches Property Owners Association: $54,000 for a beach support project.
• Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office: $82,175 for a beach patrol during peak tourism months.
• Pawleys Island Highway Beautification Program: $32,000 for Highway 17 landscape plantings and maintenance. The group said $15,000 of the request would be used for hydro-seeding, but they need permission from the South Carolina Department Of Transportation before they can start.
• Georgetown County Chamber of Commerce (Tourism Marketing Commission): $202,510 for destination marketing, including increased interactive and Web-based marketing. That’s about 45 percent of the total funds Council allocated.
• Midway Fire & Rescue: $36,539 for defibrillator/AED unit. According to Midway, call volume has increased 10.5 percent every year. Approximately 17 percent of calls in 2009 were for visitors.
• Harbor Historical Association: $20,000 for assistance with buying the museum building. The advisory committee made the funding contingent on the association matching the grant for a down payment.
By Chris Sokoloski
csokoloski@gtowntimes.com