At Tuesday’s hours-long Surfside Beach special meeting, the council learned that it can bring the department up to safe standards, but at the price of raising the tax millage rate for residents and businesses.
Surfside SC council members heard a presentation from Horry County officials about how they could make the town’s fire department viable and safe if the town turned the department over to the county.
Because of the town’s current budget restraints, vacant positions in the town’s fire, police and facilities departments are frozen and new staffing requests have been eliminated from the proposed 2024-25 fiscal year budget, which starts July 1.