Horry County Council holds third and final reading of the FY2027 budget tomorrow night — Tuesday, May 19, 2026, at 6:00 PM — and one roll call stands between Little River boardwalk and a $3.5 million waterfront boardwalk allocation. Second reading passed 11-1 on May 6 with the Little River line untouched. If third reading holds, the money locks in July 1.
The Little River Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Center is appreciative and excited for Horry County’s commitment to investing in the future of the Historic Little River Waterfront. This meaningful financial partnership represents a landmark moment for our community and signals a shared vision for what Little River can become.
“We are incredibly grateful for the county’s support and confidence in Little River,” said Jennifer Walters, IOM, CCEC, President & CEO of the Little River Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Center. This investment will make a real and lasting difference, not just for our businesses and visitors, but for every resident who calls this community home.“
As a first and critical step, the Chamber and county are collaborating to engage a professional planner to develop a comprehensive master plan and a bold vision for the Historic Little River Waterfront. This planning process will lay the foundation for thoughtful, sustainable improvements that honor the area’s rich history while positioning Little River as a premier destination for visitors and a vibrant hub for our community.
The Historic Little River Waterfront is one of the most distinctive and beloved assets in the Grand Strand region. With the county’s partnership, the Chamber is committed to ensuring its future is as remarkable as its past.
__________________________________
This is the same council body that voted 7-5 in November 2022 to strip nearly $8 million from this exact project and send it to an equestrian center in western Horry County. The boardwalk has been proposed, funded, defunded, and partially refunded across five budget cycles. Tomorrow night decides whether it ends with a built boardwalk or another file drawer.
The community looks forward to the potential of the Little River boardwalk enhancing local tourism and providing a scenic waterfront experience.
The Impact of the Little River Boardwalk on Local Tourism
## 1. What Murrells Inlet’s MarshWalk Actually Is
The MarshWalk’s first section opened in 1998 — a public-private partnership between Georgetown County and the salt-marsh restaurants [Post and Courier, 2024]. A task force called Murrells Inlet 2007, now Murrells Inlet 2020, drove the expansion. Georgetown County owns the boardwalk; the nonprofit runs events and promotion [SC Picture Project, 2024].
The MarshWalk runs a half-mile, fronting eight restaurants — Dead Dog Saloon, Drunken Jack’s, Creek Ratz, The Claw House, Inlet Shipwreck Bar & Grill, Bovine’s, Wicked Tuna, and Wahoo’s [MarshWalk, 2026]. A Coastal Carolina University study pegged the broader salt-marsh ecosystem at $720 million in economic value, with seafood restaurants pulling $40 million-plus in good years [CCU, 2013].
The funding story matters more than the planks. Since 1997, Georgetown County has dedicated Sunday alcohol-sales permit fees to Murrells Inlet revitalization [Coastal Observer, 2024]. Restaurants chipped in. State accommodations tax and county hospitality tax filled the rest. The MarshWalk rode a quarter-century of predictable funding that did not compete with roads or stormwater each budget cycle.
**So what does this mean for you?** Murrells Inlet built its boardwalk because Georgetown County walled the money off from the political tide. Little River has no wall.
## 2. Little River’s Waterfront Today
Little River is an unincorporated Census Designated Place of 11,711 residents with no town council, no mayor, and no taxing authority [U.S. Census Bureau, 2020]. Anything built here is built by Horry County or by private owners.
The geography beats Murrells Inlet’s. Little River sits on deep-water Intracoastal Waterway frontage rather than tidal salt marsh — easier transient dockage, and a public dock the MarshWalk does not have [WMBF, 2021].
The commercial bones are there. Crab Catchers, Captain Juel’s Hurricane, Seabrisa’s Waterfront Seafood, and the Big M Casino dock cluster along Waterfront Avenue and Mineola Avenue. The Big M runs South Carolina’s only legal casino-gambling cruises — federal-waters trips that have run continuously since 2014, after Big M acquired the former SunCruz property [WMBF, 2014]. The annual Blue Crab Festival each May backs traffic up to Highway 17 [Little River Chamber, 2026].
What is missing is a public spine — a tourist has to drive to each restaurant.
**So what does this mean for you?** The raw ingredients are stronger than Murrells Inlet had in 1998. The reason a boardwalk has not been built is not geography. It is governance.
## 3. The Five-Year Political Saga
In 2021, Council funded a roughly $8 million Little River waterfront park — boardwalk, public dock, event space, playground, kayak launches, and parking — through the hospitality-fee capital program, with about 15 acres of fragmented waterfront to be acquired [WMBF, 2021].
In November 2022, Council voted 7-5 to move nearly all of that money to an equestrian center in western Horry County. The seated District 1 councilman, former councilman **Harold Worley**, supported the redirect — calling the equestrian center “shovel-ready” after a nearly 500-acre land buy [MyHorryNews, 2022]. Councilwoman-elect Jenna Dukes, who had just defeated Worley in the District 1 Republican primary, opposed it. Chamber CEO Jennifer Walters said publicly, “We’re disappointed” [MyHorryNews, 2022].
The councilman whose district lost the boardwalk voted to move the money to another district. That is the political fact at the center of this story — and it is historical. Worley left office at the end of 2022. Dukes was sworn in early 2023 and has held District 1 since; her term expires December 31, 2026 [MyHorryNews, 2023].
From 2023 through 2025, the project went quiet — no restored allocation, no Army Corps filing, no critical-area permit from what is now DES’s Bureau of Coastal Management [DES, 2024].
On April 1, 2026, the project came back at less than half its original size. Council passed first reading of the $1.04 billion FY2027 budget with $3.5 million for the Little River waterfront in the capital improvement plan [MyHorryNews, 2026]. On May 6, second reading passed 11-1, no millage increase, Councilman Tyler Servant the lone no-vote — and **the Little River allocation survived untouched** [MyHorryNews, 2026]. Third reading is tomorrow night.
**So what does this mean for you?** The same council body that took the money in 2022 can take it again. The 7-5 vote is public record. Tomorrow night’s vote will be too.
## 4. Where the $3.5 Million Would Come From — and What It Would Buy
The funding source is Horry County’s 1.5% hospitality fee — the same stream paying for RIDE roads, public safety, and stormwater. Every dollar allocated to a boardwalk is a dollar not allocated to those line items, which is why this project keeps getting traded against priorities outside the North Strand [Horry County, 2026].
The original $8 million covered the full Parks and Open Space Plan vision [Horry County, 2024]. At $3.5 million — 44 percent of the original — something is getting cut, and the county has not published a revised scope. Which features survived the haircut?
Other funding mechanisms exist on paper. SCPRT’s Recreational Trails Program reimburses 80 percent of eligible boardwalk costs, plus matching grants up to $300,000 through the Land and Water Conservation Fund; Cheraw State Park and the Walterboro Wildlife Sanctuary each landed $500,000 SCPRT grants for boardwalk work [SCPRT, 2026]. A federal Boating Infrastructure Grant could underwrite the public dock. None of these appears in any application on file. The 2021 plan also floated cost-sharing with adjacent businesses — the Murrells Inlet model — but no formal agreement exists [WMBF, 2021].
**So what does this mean for you?** Half a boardwalk built with half a plan is how public projects become embarrassments. The grant money exists. The cost-share model exists. The county has used neither.
## 5. The Obstacles Murrells Inlet Did Not Face
The MarshWalk runs behind a compact strip of restaurants, each controlling its own marsh frontage — cooperation, not condemnation. Little River’s waterfront is fragmented. WMBF reported in 2021 the county would need to coordinate with multiple waterfront landowners and acquire about 15 acres before construction [WMBF, 2021].
Permitting is heavier. Any work in the Little River critical area requires a Critical Area Permit, a U.S. Army Corps Construction in Navigable Waters Permit, and Coastal Zone Consistency Certification. A residential dock permit runs about 120 days; a commercial boardwalk over oyster habitat will run longer [DES, 2024].
Parking is its own problem. Murrells Inlet expanded its footprint over twenty-five years; Little River’s restaurant cluster is already parking-constrained, and a boardwalk without a county-built lot will worsen it.
There is also no Little River equivalent of Murrells Inlet 2020. The Little River Chamber has been pro-boardwalk since 2022, but a membership chamber is not a county-recognized revitalization task force with dedicated funding [Little River Chamber, 2026].
**So what does this mean for you?** Even if the council restores the money tomorrow, the project is years from a ribbon cutting. The questions for District 1 are not just about funding — they are about land acquisition, permitting, parking, and whether the county will cost-share with adjacent businesses the way Georgetown County did.
## Conclusion: What to Watch Tomorrow Night
Third reading is tomorrow at 6:00 PM at the Horry County Government and Justice Center in Conway, with video on the Granicus portal [Horry County, 2026]. A simple majority puts the $3.5 million Little River line on the books July 1.
Watch the roll call. Compare the names to the 7-5 vote from November 2022 — most of those council members are still in their seats.
Then watch for what does not happen after the gavel falls. If no DES-OCRM permit pre-application, no Army Corps notice, no Planning Commission item, and no land-acquisition entry surface within twelve months, the money is sitting in the account doing nothing — exactly the window when the next council majority can move it again.
Call your District 1 representative tonight. The seated member for Little River is **Councilwoman Jenna L. Dukes** — (843) 855-6962, [email protected] [Horry County, 2026]. Ask her three questions before she walks into chambers. What is the revised scope at $3.5 million? Which grants are in flight to close the gap to $8 million? And what is the timeline for the first land acquisition? Dukes is up for re-election in November. Her vote tomorrow is the record.
Murrells Inlet has its MarshWalk because its residents — through a task force operating nearly thirty years — refused to let it fall off the priority list. The North Strand can do the same. Tomorrow night is the test.
—
## Further Reading
– WMBF News, July 2021 — Horry County plans park, boardwalk, dock at Little River waterfront: https://www.wmbfnews.com/2021/07/10/horry-county-plans-park-boardwalk-dock-little-river-waterfront/
– MyHorryNews, June 2021 — Horry County is funding a Little River boardwalk: https://www.myhorrynews.com/news/local/horry_county/horry-county-funds-little-river-waterfront-boardwalk/article_2692418a-de5a-11eb-a8fd-afa8bfe6389e.html
– MyHorryNews, November 2022 — “We’re disappointed”: Horry leaders move Little River boardwalk funding to equestrian center: https://www.myhorrynews.com/news/local/little_river/we-re-disappointed-horry-leaders-move-little-river-boardwalk-funding-to-equestrian-center/article_900086fe-64e6-11ed-a242-a37576b2329b.html
– MyHorryNews, April 2026 — Horry County FY2027 budget tops $1 billion; includes Little River waterfront funding: https://www.myhorrynews.com/news/next-horry-county-budget-will-top-billion-dollar-mark/article_0fcaa5d1-d5be-4663-849d-6835c38df5b0.html
– MyHorryNews, May 2026 — Horry County passes second reading of billion dollar budget: https://www.myhorrynews.com/news/county-council-gives-second-reading-okay-to-1-billion-budget/article_80b5575b-76c1-4d69-ba40-23115b833aab.html
– Horry County Council roster and contacts: https://www.horrycountysc.gov/county-council
– Horry County Council live and archived video (Granicus): https://horrycounty.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=3
– Horry County Parks and Open Space Plan: https://www.horrycountysc.gov/media/oamdiyp0/draft-parks-and-open-space-plan.pdf
– Horry County Hospitality Fee: https://www.horrycountysc.gov/departments/treasurer/hospitality-fee/
– SC Department of Environmental Services — Critical Area Permitting: https://des.sc.gov/programs/bureau-coastal-management/critical-area-permitting/critical-area-permitting-major-activities
– SCPRT Recreational Trails Program: https://www.scprt.com/recreation/recreation-grant-programs/recreational-trails-program
– Coastal Observer — MarshWalk maintenance and Sunday Sales fund history: https://coastalobserver.com/committee-rejects-restaurants-request-for-restrooms-on-marshwalk/
– Murrells Inlet 2020 — task force history: https://murrellsinletsc.com/about-us
– Pulitzer Center / CCU — Murrells Inlet salt marsh economic study: https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/scs-seafood-capital-thriving-things-could-change-if-villages-marshes-drown
– Little River Chamber of Commerce: https://www.littleriverchamber.org/
