Cool Spring and Aynor residents are upset about the possible routes for Interstate 73, about 40 of them told highway planners Thursday at a public meeting.

"It'll take my father's farm that was left to us, plus my business and my farm," said Greg Hardwick, who lives in Cool Spring.

He was one of a handful who stayed the entire three hours of the session to talk with the planners.

The meeting was the second public-information session to show preliminary proposed routes for I-73 and take comments on the plans.

Hardwick said the highway should run along S.C. 9, which already has four lanes part of the way.

"Why go upset all these old communities that make this area a good place to live?" he asked.

His cousin, Edward Hardwick, said his great-grandfather walked home from the Civil War to the land the family still occupies.

He agrees the area needs new roads but said heritage is important, too.

Both Hardwicks are related to state Rep. Nelson Hardwick, R-Surfside Beach, who also opposes the Aynor-area location for the road.

Everyone's comments will be taken seriously and could affect how the lines are adjusted, said Skip Johnson, a planner with LPA Group. The group is the Department of Transportation's consultant for the project.

"I'm going to be looking at stuff based on what I'm hearing," Johnson said.

Mitchell Metts, the DOT's I-73 project manager, also said the lines are not set in stone.

"I think they'll shift just through the natural attrition of developing the project," he said.

The lines on the maps are half a mile wide, and the road will be 400 feet wide. That gives wiggle room, planners told people who were afraid the road would take their houses.

The concerns from the Aynor and Cool Spring area were so deep that Horry County Council Chairwoman Liz Gilland and council member John Boyd asked the DOT for a special meeting in Aynor because many people who were interested could not come Thursday.

The consultant group and the DOT agreed to meet with Aynor residents from 4 to 6 p.m. March 22 at Town Hall.

"They need to have an opportunity in their own area where they can express their opinions," Gilland said.

That part of the county will be profoundly effected by I-73, she said.

"Nobody in Myrtle Beach is going to be affected by that road, nor Conway," she said.

Greg Hardwick said his community already has been affected by S.C. 22, also known as the Conway Bypass and Veterans Highway.

Cool Spring is near where S.C. 22 could connect with I-73.

"Somebody's got to give," but his community already has given enough, he said.

Hardwick asked County Councilman Mark Lazarus to help.

"At this point, we need to take everything into consideration," Lazarus said. He doesn't want to see anybody displaced, and the beach's bedroom community is moving out to the area where the road is planned.

Alan Jones of Loris also said I-73 should follow S.C. 9.

The road is not needed along its proposed path near U.S. 501, but it is needed up north, Jones said.

"The main objective is not really to build an interstate; the main objective is to get people here," he said, and that can be done by using S.C. 9 and other roads.

The northern part of the county is where the growth is headed, Jones said.

Others came to say the road should be moved south, along the U.S. 378 corridor.

Linwood Altman, chairman of the Georgetown County Highway Task Force and a former state House member and highway commissioner, told the planners the U.S. 378 path is better.

"It would be closer to what we need," which is to ease traffic problems in Georgetown County, Altman said.

He said his comments probably won't change anything. The planners are trying to avoid the U.S. 378 corridor because of its environmental problems, including crossing the Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge.

"Wherever it goes, we support it," Altman said.

Aynor meeting

The DOT will meet with Aynor residents from 4 to 6 p.m. March 22 at Town Hall.