Randal Wallace

This visit to Washington D.C. I felt was one of the most fruitful I have been able to attend despite the hard times. I was able to have extended meetings with our Congressman Henry Brown and with Senator Lindsay Graham’ s staff. Senator Graham did come in and talk briefly.

The meeting with Congressman Brown was very good. Though all the news was not good. Due to a moritorium on earmarks on the enitre Republican caucus many of the projects that Congressman Brown has worked so tirelessly for may not get funded this year. I could tell he was very frustrated by the situation. Luckily the U.S Senate is not hamstrung by this at the moment and I feel like Senator Graham will try very hard to keep these things in the pipeline.

We did talk at length about the pool enclosure situation that FEMA is pushing on us. Congressman Brown was trying to push through language that would allow them in the winter but it has been an uphill fight. I got the same kind of reaction from Senator Graham. So it has become a basic wait and see kind of  thing. I do not think the FEMA people realize what  handcuffs this can be to us in the winter time.

I thanked Congressman Brown for all he has done for our area. I have heard some people talking about the congressman now that it is campaign time. Well I can attest that no one has worked as hard for us as Congressman Brown. It was sad to think this would be our last meeting in D.C. However he let me know that Horry County has not heard the last of Henry Brown and I am glad to hear  he intends to stay involved with us in Horry County.

I had the opportunity to talk to some FEMA representatives at a disaster workshop.  We had a long talk that was joined by the Mayor of Folly Beach, I do not know whether it will bear fruit but we shall see. That is one of the benefits of the National League of Cities events you get help from people in other cities who are in the same boat so to speak. The help from other leaders has happened to me before. When I was working to get the NLC to lobby for Beach Re-nourishment as part of its policy I received a great deal of help from Mayor Bobby Horton of West Columbia S.C. and Walter Parker of Tybee Island GA. We were able to get that language through the NLC Energy , Environment and Natural Resources Committee.

That is the committee that I now serve on the steering committee. That has been a real eye opening experience. I have learned more on a wide array of issues than I ever thought I would know. We have worked with some of the leading experts in a number of fields in the world.  A number of the issues pertaining to sustainability are a part of the comprehensive plan we are now working with locally in Myrtle Beach. I’ve learned to appreciate our planning department better after serving on this committee because Jack Walker is such a leader in this area.

Finally, I learned a very valuable personal lesson on this trip. It is the kindness of strangers that is still very prevalent in this country. While walking down the street in the middle of my last afternoon, after checking out of my hotel, I tripped and fell on the sidewalk. I cracked my head good on the sidewalk, ripped up my sports coat and blackened up my eye. I really looked pretty bad when I stumbled into the Newseum.

They called EMS.

The staff could not have done more to take care of me. Caprecia Alston took me down to a first aid room and called EMS. Nate Turner stood over me and got me some water while we waited on EMS to get there and Kim Clarke sat with me and kept me laughing through the entire experience. I hung around there for a while because I decided not to go to the hospital, which was not wise I might add, and they really looked after me at the Newseum and I want to say a very special thank you to them.

The same is true of the EMS workers in Washington and the people at the hotel and airline. The Taxi driver even toted my bags to the door at the airport (they usually just pull them out the trunk) I truly was treated very kindly and it surely renewed my belief in the basic goodness of people. I would add this is also true of our own Myrtle Beach EMS workers who in an unrelated medical issue rushed to take care of me a week before this happened.  So let me just say thank you to all of the people involved.

While all the news was not good in these tough times I think we have two great champions in Henry Brown and Lindsay Graham working on our behalf and I certainly did every thing I could to let them know what our problems were.  I also think a thank you needs to be said to Representative Jim Clyburn who has also worked hard for us even though we are not in his district. His staff has bent over backwards to listen to our needs when I met with them.  That covers my two trips representing the city.

Tags: Myrtle Beach, Myrtle Beach City Council, Randal Wallace

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