Haunted Historic Tours to Begin Soon

For the past few weeks Joe Rosati has been downtown letting merchants know about his new venture, Rivertown History and Haunts.  The 90 minute guided walking tours will take visitors all over the historic district.  At this point it looks like the tours will begin at the Bodega on 3rd and Main.  They will run Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; with start times at 6pm and 9pm.

It will be a nice tourism boost as Joe will be marketing to locals and visitors of the Grand Strand.  Restaurants and bars should consider getting coupons to Joe to distribute to the ticket buyers.  It would add value to the tour and bring new people in to your business.  For more information visit their website at : http://rivertownhistoryandhaunts.com/index.html

No More Free Rides at the Indy.

Last week the Horry Independent announced that it would be constructing a pay-wall on its website.  Visitors will be required to pay for a subscription in-order to view the online version of their paper.  This is not a new tactic for newspapers that have not been able to effectively monetize their transition to the Internet.  The stated goal of the Indy's pay-wall is to protect its paid subscriptions.  The big concern is that it has not been a particularly successful remedy for other newspapers who have implemented it.  Typically, it has produced a slight increase in subscription revenues and a huge drop in a company's website traffic.  However, it must be noted that the Independent is not your typical newspaper.  Relatively speaking, Conway is a very small market and the Independent is a weekly publication with a loyal following.  Most of the unsuccessful attempts at pay-walls have been made by newspapers with daily distribution in medium to large markets.  The Indy shares a lot of similarities with magazines, who for the most part operate behind some type of pay-wall.

This morning at 7:20am a mother taking her children to school hit a utility pole on E. Cox Ferry Road.  The woman's vehicle crossed the oncoming traffic lane, left the road, and struck the pole.  A bright arc was seen at impact as electric wires were severed and fell across the road.  The two children passengers were buckled into car seats and appeared unharmed.  The mother appeared to have only minor injuries to her hand.

Local Pizza Joint Finds Creative Way to Skirt Food Stamp Laws.

The Sun House on Hwy 90 is now serving hot pizza to SNAP/EBT recipients.  In case you are unaware, SNAP is the modern equivalent to the  traditional food stamp.  Basically, it is illegal to except SNAP on hot or prepared foods, such as those sold in restaurants.  But as you can see on the sign below, this Hunt Brothers location thinks that they have found a work-around.

Now this makes me wonder about other related benefits of the work-around.  Consider the sales/hospitality taxes that are associated with prepared foods.  Theoretically, if the Hunt Brothers creativity is legal, wouldn't it change the world of carry-out and drive-thrus?  So you pull into Chick- McWendys-Bell and order dinner for the family.  At the first window you pay for, and receive a bag full of frozen french fries and sandwiches.  Then pull forward to the second window and hand the bag back to the people to cook it for you.  Wait a couple minutes and bam! No tax, and it's food stamp approved!  OK, I hear whatcha sayin'.  I also doubt that this is morally or legally acceptable.   I also assume the IRS would not share my amusement, but it is flying for the moment.

Shooting at Total Experience - Just Keepin' it Real

This week the Sun News reported that two people were shot in the parking lot of Total Experience, a local night club in Conway (Sun News Story).  I know, I know;  people getting shot at T.E. is not exactly "news".   If you pack a bar night after night with self proclaimed violent criminals and crack dealers, and then fill them with liquor until 2 A.M.; someone is gonna get "dealt wit".   Understand that I'm not trying to stereotype everyone that goes to T.E.  I'm sure not everyone there is gangsta status, but if you checkout the youtube and myspace videos and pics of what is going on in T.E., it definately fosters a ghetto fabulous atmosphere.  In every video I watched, they talked about selling, smoking, or shooting something.  Local rap artists like CoTeezy and Wildfire are featured entertainment at T.E.  In one of their songs, Carolina Crime, they claim that they'll keep selling "crack 'till their lungs turn black".  They refer to Conway as a "city of crime" and generally represent view of Conway that is less than charming and more consistent with the area in question.  I would love to share some of these videos, but I could not find one that was mild enough to post, they don't have a radio edited version yet.  ConwayJournal.com joined myspace months ago to get a better look into the less glamorous side of Conway.  The number of kids (12-20) from Conway, posting pictures of themselves with guns, drugs, and money was definitely eye opening.

John Zilinsky Charged with DUI

Just a couple of weeks ago, we told you that the Conway Police Department is straight ninja status when it comes to DUI enforcement (read the article).  Well the Sun News is reporting that the "Atlantic Beach Town Attorney" was charged with DUI in Conway early Saturday morning.  What? Did we not warn everyone?

Just some observations:

• What's up with the Atlantic Beach reference?  That poor town is snake-bit, and they had nothing to do with the DUI.  Just piling on I guess.
• If you're a 52 year old father and driving home at 2:30am.... Just sayin', there's probably better places to be.
• If you drink two beers and read Car & Driver magazine, the Conway PD will catch you. They are that good.

How's Business?

Mixed.  March sales were well up over last year for most businesses 10% to 50% depending on who you speak to.   April was up too, just not as high as March.  The festivities of May 1st provided a nice boost to start this month.  The Music and Art Festival attendance was up from the previous two years, not great, but better.  The location was good, Laurel and 3rd makes sense to me.  Only complaint....

What do you get when a nonprofit organization operates on tax payers' dollars while refusing to allow the tax payers to attend its meetings?

You get a SC Freedom of Information Act violation.  The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is designed to protect tax paying citizens from groups who may want to take their money and meet secretly to spend it on wasteful projects like... well... I'll let you insert your favorite wasteful project here.  You see, we the people work hard to earn our $$$.  Then our elected officials take some of that $$$ and spend it on us.  They buy us roads to drive on, police to protect us, and in Conway they buy us a Main Street USA program(CMUSA).  The FOIA basically says that since we the people pay for these services we have a right to know how these groups are using our $$$.  The FOIA applies to any groups which use your tax dollars to operate.

Just last week Barbara Streeter (local citizen, small business owner, non-profit leader, Conway Main Street member) brought a law suit against CMSUSA citing a FOIA violation.  The complaint alleges that the violation occurred when CMSUSA board member Larry Biddle refused to allow Mrs. Streeter to attend a committee meeting because she did not receive his personal invitation.  Click here to see the full article on this incident. It does not appear that Mrs. Streeter is seeking any personal financial gain from this suit.  The complaint is requesting payment for actual attorney fees, and a declaration that a FOIA violation occurred.  State and Federal Laws protect her right to attend the meeting as a citizen.  National Main Street USA encourages her attendance as a local member.  And because of her recent success with CREATE!Conway, even the City of Conway had encouraged her to return to CMUSA to see how the groups could work together.

While there are many violent crimes that strike fear in our hearts, it's the drunk driver who's most likely to seriously injure or kill someone close to us.  44% of all SC traffic fatalities in 2008 involved a drunk driver.  That's up 1% from 2007 and 4% from 2006,...errhh, the trend is going the wrong way.