Buildings on Surfside Beach Pier issued “Stop Work” order by town

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David Hucks
David Huckshttps://myrtlebeachsc.com
David Hucks is a 12th generation descendant of the area we now call Myrtle Beach, S.C. David attended Coastal Carolina University and like most of his family, has never left the area. David is the lead journalist at MyrtleBeachSC.com

A stop work order was issued this past Friday by the Town of Surfside Beach for all work relating to the construction of the buildings located at the entrance of the Surfside Beach pier.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, awarded Surfside Beach more than $9 million for construction of a new, revamped pier after the former pier was destroyed by Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

The key leasee of one building (on the pier) is Horry County Councilman Bill Howard. Howard previously leased the Surf Diner, the restaurant housed on the pier. He has since renewed that lease and will continue to operate in the new building once construction is completed.

Stop work order issued Friday.

Issues began from the inception of this arrangement as the original pier contract was awarded to Orion Marine Group and FBi construction during a controversial 3-2 vote on July 1, 2020.

Town residents raised concerns about Horry County Councilman Bill Howard’s son-in-law, Kent Gunter, comprising part of FBi’s leadership.

Afterwards, another city council vote was held, awarding the contract to Consensus Construction.

 LS3P, a multidisciplinary firm offering architecture, interiors, and planning services to a wide variety of clients nationwide, was then responsible for providing a signed, Value Engineering Design Plan to the town for the three new aluminum buildings being constructed on the pier.

For the past 19 months, the Town of Surfside Beach allowed construction of the buildings to continue without those signed plans. The plans the town had, were for wood structured designs, and not, the new aluminum Value Engineered Design Plans.

In effect, the work on the buildings continued without ever receiving a legal permit, which is required to do such work.

On Sunday, October 9th, our news team canvassed the fenced in area around the pier. We could not find the stop work order, even though we were told it existed.

It was only after employing high telephoto lensed photography, that a picture of the stop work order was found.

It appears someone, on Town Council, wanted the stop work order to go unnoticed.

In a terse email sent October 11, 2022, Town Councilwoman Cindy Keating wrote to Town Manager William Shanahan, “As soon as… Doesn’t cut it! Set the meeting date and time NOW – Thursday, 10 am! We CANNOT AFFORD this delay. It’s been wrong for 19 months, there’s no reason for this stop work order, when the team provided the drawings on Friday afternoon.”

Town officials informed us the drawings were provided on Friday, Oct. 7th, however those drawings were unsigned. To be legal, the drawings are required to be signed.

In response, Town Manager Shanahan responded,

Hello Cindy,

I wish this was as easy as it’s been wrong for 19 months, but I did not know that they were building 3 buildings without accurate plans and a permit. If I had been correctly briefed they would have never started the project.

That being said, the only goal I have, at this time, is to get the plans ready, ensure the current work is correct, get a permit for this project, and put this behind us. To the best of my knowledge, no one has accused anyone of anything.

I am moving forward with this as quickly as I can; but, none of us have the authority to direct the CBO to pull the stop work order until he goes through his process. Hope this helps.

William P. Shanahan, Jr, CM/MPA Town Administrator, Town of Surfside Beach

This week’s entire email exchange can be read here.

Oct 12 1200PM Surfside Pier_ Stop Work Order Delay Notice by MyrtleBeachSC news on Scribd

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