Facebook - response 2

Below are my replies to comments that have been made

Being a Transplant

I get why people don’t want someone from somewhere else telling them what to do.  I come from a small town outside of Boston that really had it going on; people moved there to be part of it and when they arrived, they started telling us what we had to change.

I’m not looking to change Georgetown; this is a working-class community with families that have lived and worked here for generations.  I can’t in good conscience, sit back and watch these families displaced for tourism and retirees.  Tourism and retirees can and should be part of the mix but we need some type of large-scale industry to provide good jobs while protecting our air and water.

I would like to see new jobs come to the city and I am actively working on making that happen.  There is nothing I can talk about yet but I’m working three different angles.  It is challenging but, luckily, I like a challenge, stay tuned.

Crime

What am I going to do about crime?  Excellent question.  Let’s look at the problem first.  Who are the criminals and where did they come from?  I don’t think they are foreign gang members but locals who grew up here.  Georgetown High School has close to a 10% drop out rate and those that do graduate, only about 1/3 can read and do math at grade level.  On top of that, there are few job opportunities for people who fall in those categories.  Don’t get me wrong. I’m not soft on criminals, I believe any one convicted of resisting arrest or hitting a police officer should get automatic jail time. 

People that fall through the cracks more often than not, end up in a life of crime. 

Solutions-

Short term, go see the chief of police and ask him what he needs.  I wish I had a better answer but, sticking my nose in and trying to micromanage the police would only make things worse.

Second, bring a charter school to Georgetown.  The best long-term solution is giving our children a fighting chance with a good education.  For those that don’t do well in a class room environment, put them in a trade school where they can learn a skill that will allow them to make a decent living.  Everyone I talk to about education in Georgetown blames the poor performance on the county.  If the county isn’t getting it done then we’ll need to do it ourselves.

Last, but not least; Jobs.  I won’t go into too much detail here, look under the jobs headings on these pages for details. 

Let me point out that a drug dealer is also an entrepreneur.  He is working in the only business he can.  In a vibrant economy there are many small businesses that can supplement the main industries of the city.  Tow trucks, uber driver, small remodeling company, fishing charters, installing driveways and so on.   If we have one or two main industries fueling the local economy, small businesses can fill in around them and flourish. 

In conclusion, a poor community with poor education is going to have crime, even in China or Russia.  In order to address crime, you have to prevent children from becoming criminals.

One other thought, a strictly tourism economy will attract criminals in droves just like it is happening in Myrtle Beach.  Tourism should supplement our economy not be our economy.

Jobs

In response to my paper Why not Georgetown, someone pointed out all the benefits Hardeeville had to spur their economy.  I’m glad this person did a little research and knows what the facts are.  Mayor Williams saw what he had and ran with it.

So, let’s look at what we have;

A large pool of skilled workers than can step into to a new industry with retraining at Horry-Georgetown Tech.

We have great ocean access, unfortunately it is shallow and the county is going a different direction with the old port.  But there is 6 million dollars the federal government has set aside to dredge the harbor for barges.  So, we won’t be able to ship from the port but we could ship from a business that sets up along the Sampit river.

Timber, we have 12 million acres of timber.  This is our ace in the hole.  Many other countries would love to have this resource.  Canada has far more acreage of timber than we do but it takes 100 years for a tree to grow.  With the loss of the Georgetown and Charleston paper mills most of our timber is going unused.  We need to find a way to make use of all this timber to create jobs here in Georgetown.  Biomass is one option but from my research a large biomass plant would only employee about 100 people.  It’s a start but it’s not the answer.

 I am currently engaged with some of the most knowledgeable people in the timber industries and we are working on bring industry to Georgetown to take advantage of the huge advantage we have.

Another great natural resource we have is our rivers and Winyah Bay.  There is technology that will use tidal flow to create electricity.  We need to explore how to use this technology to help reduce our electrical costs, give us an abundant supply of our own electricity and benefit from all the jobs that come along with it.  The federal government has money set aside for projects like these so we’ll need to have our elected officials to assist in securing the funding.  We can encourage them to do this by having a 100% turn out on election day.  Like they say, the squeaky wheel gets the oil.  I am currently working on putting the piece in place to make this happen.

Last but not least, I am working with a manufacturer that is looking to expand its operation to the United States and I have convinced him to give Georgetown a look.  It would start small but they have a product with huge growth potential. 

There is an old saying, “the reasonable man conforms to the world the way it is, the unreasonable man makes the world conform to him, therefore, progress depends on the unreasonable man.”