A copy of this document was provided to those in attendance at the September 12, 2011, 5:00 p.m. Barefoot Bridge Repainting Project Information Meeting held at City Hall. It mirrors the statements made by City representatives during the information meeting. It is intended to provide additional information about the project and to clarify some inaccurate statements and assumptions that have been circulating within the Barefoot Resort & Golf community. A Brief Review of the City’s Financial Relationship with the Barefoot Resort & Golf Community Over the past two weeks, there has been verbal and e-mail discussion within the Barefoot Resort & Golf community suggesting that the community has contributed and continues to contribute far more to the financial well-being of the City of North Myrtle Beach than the City does to Barefoot’s financial well-being. This has led some to conclude that the City should pay whatever it takes to accomplish the bridge repainting project without at any time closing the bridge to all vehicular traffic. What follows is a factual assessment of the City’s general fiscal relationship with the Barefoot community. • Barefoot Resort was developed as a PDD • It is incorrect to say that the developer of Barefoot Resort & Golf “gave” the City roads, a bridge and other infrastructure for “free.” The fact is that any new development within the City of North Myrtle Beach is required to provide the infrastructure necessary to service that development, including roads, drainage, water, sewer, etc. This prevents the burden of growth from being disproportional to existing residents citywide. The developer of Barefoot Resort & Golf freely chose to dedicate the infrastructure as public facilities and subsequently dedicated those facilities for City maintenance. This funding liability is now equally shared by all North Myrtle Beach taxpayers. • When the development was transferred from the original developer to the successor in interest, two items of infrastructure, the fire station and a new water tower, had not been completed. The City negotiated an agreement to provide the money to construct the fire station (total cost: $1.5 million, City’s portion: $600,000) and the water tower (total cost to City: $2.07 million). The City will receive some but not all of this money back via supplemental impact fees over time. • The City also completed and paid for road improvements to enhance access to Barefoot Resort as follows:
o Water Tower Road Paving - $1.9 million o Highway 31 Interchange - $3.1 million o Long Bay Road Paving - $700,000 • A significant part of the City’s original interest in supporting and annexing the Barefoot Resort & Golf development hinged on the developer’s stated plan to build a significant commercial district within the development. However, over time, this commercial aspect has failed to materialize, and this has significantly reduced the fiscal benefits of the Barefoot development to the City. o Barefoot Resort & Golf accounts for about 11% of the total assessed value of the City of North Myrtle Beach, which means that the Barefoot community, including its golf interests, pays about $1.325 million in property taxes annually to the City of North Myrtle Beach. However, the City of North Myrtle Beach provides general services directly to the Barefoot community at a cost to the City in excess of $3 million annually. This includes police, fire/rescue, bridge operators and other basic services paid for out of the general fund. This imbalanced fiscal relationship is typical of most residential developments that do not include a substantial commercial component. (Barefoot Landing is a separate PDD and unrelated to Barefoot Resort & Golf.) Additional Clarifications • A number of very pointed emails have been circulating within the Barefoot community stating that Barefoot Resort & Golf deserves extra project money because the community has “put North Myrtle Beach on the map.” We all agree that Barefoot is a nice development, however, the City would point out that in all of its marketing efforts Barefoot Resort & Golf takes great pains to NOT mention the development’s actual location within the City of North Myrtle Beach. Indeed, all marketing seeks to identify Barefoot as a Myrtle Beach development. Over the years, North Myrtle Beach city leaders, some no longer with us, have spoken with Barefoot leaders about this marketing focus to no avail. It would be nice if those who market Barefoot as a resort destination and as place to call home did begin to recognize the city that supported the development in its earliest days, and which provides it with services today…the City of North Myrtle Beach, the community of which Barefoot Resort & Golf is a part. • Our Public Works Director will later get into some of the project specifics but it is important that we identify upfront what people are really talking about when they call for the repainting project to occur with one lane open at all times. Not only would this approach move the cost of the project from its current $907,000 price tag to a $2.1 million price tag – IF the contractor agrees to hold to his 2010 bid price – but it would also require moving the project from its current November- January time frame to an April-September time frame. That would be required
because, if the contractor cannot shroud the bridge to provide for an enclosed environment where temperature can be controlled so that paint will adhere to the bridge structure, then the contractor must paint during the warm months and during the day. • When people talk about how easy it would be to shroud just one side of the bridge and allow for one lane of traffic to occur throughout the project, they may not understand that the Coast Guard requires that the Barefoot Swing Bridge open on demand to boat traffic, as well as on schedule for tugboats. There is no leeway in that Coast Guard requirement. Before the bridge could be opened to on-demand and scheduled boat traffic, all shrouding would have be removed from the bridge, otherwise, as the bridge opens, the shrouding will act as a sail and create a destructive imbalance for the bridge. This means that, under the one-lane-open scenario, a significant part of the contractor’s day will be spent setting up and taking down shrouding and other equipment, not actually scraping and painting. That is why there is such a large cost differential between the two project approaches. • Everyone recognizes and appreciates that complete or partial closure of the Barefoot bridge to vehicular traffic will cause some Barefoot residents and visitors to be inconvenienced. They will have to utilize the Water Tower Road/Highway 31 entrance/exit to Barefoot. If their destination is somewhere within North Myrtle Beach, this may add 10-11 miles to a trip that would be shorter were the bridge to remain open. If they are headed to points some distance south or north of North Myrtle Beach, odds are they are already using the Water Tower Road/Highway 31 connection for ease of access and faster travel. The City’s focus has been on to how minimize this inconvenience. We can all agree that there is far less vehicular traffic utilizing the bridge during the December-January time frame (when the bridge would be closed to all vehicular traffic) than there is at any other time of the year. Again, Barefoot’s golf and other business interests agreed with us on this fact, and that is why they asked us to move the project to the November-January time frame this year. • Incorrect information has been circulated within the Barefoot community regarding how the City sought bids on the bridge repainting project. The City did not simply select a contractor at whim. The City solicited public bids for the bridge painting project on two separate occasions, the first time in April/May 2010 and the second time in December 2010. On both occasions, public bid notices were placed in the local paper and the appropriate construction plan rooms were notified, such as Dodge, AGC, etc. (A construction plan room is an office where contractors can look at project plans without having to pay to obtain them from the owners bidding the work. Contractors pay a subscription or dues to participate in the service.) Also, project notices were sent to South Carolina Business Opportunities , a state publication for public bids. The City received bids from contractors located in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia.
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