Councilman John Boyd is arguing the case for running Interstate 73 through southern Horry County to one group of residents at a time.

On Thursday, Boyd spoke to a mostly friendly crowd of South Strand Republicans. He said a route south could pump up the economy there and provide a needed hurricane evacuation route.

The event outside Surfside Beach was meant to be a debate between Boyd and opponent Rep. Tracy Edge, R-North Myrtle Beach, but Edge said he was spending the evening with his children instead.

The group questioned Boyd on whether rethinking the interstate could cause delays or kill the project, as Edge and the state Department of Transportation have said.

"So what if it takes a couple years if you do it right?" Boyd asked. "This is the time that is set aside for this debate. To say we don't have the right to voice our concerns on this is not right."

Horry County Council unanimously agreed April 5 to ask the state to include a southern route in the list of possible paths for I-73. The state removed southern Horry County from the interstate study area last summer, nine months before taking resident input on proposed routes.

Boyd denied that the council is endangering the project by asking for the public debate on the southern route.

"If I am able as a county councilman to stop an interstate, then I have a lot more power than I ever thought," he said.

The group also heard from Brad Dean, president of the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce, and Rep. Nelson Hardwick, R-Surfside Beach.

Dean said I-73 is the "single most important infrastructure project" in the area and 96 percent of chamber members chose a southern road connecting the South Strand with highways in the west as a top priority in Horry County.

Boyd and County Council want to merge the two projects into one. They say the county cannot raise the money for a southern connector and the state will never pay for one.

The chamber's 2,400 members like that idea, Dean said. "If they become one and the same [project], we would sure enough support them," he said.

Hardwick stopped short of supporting the merger of I-73 and a southern route. "I know in the end we need to work with everyone here in Horry County to get a commitment for an evacuation route in the south end," he said.

Boyd is right to be passionate about I-73 because it will damage areas of western Horry County, Hardwick said.

Small communities such as Aynor would be split and damaged by the the highway, Hardwick said.

"We need to protect good communities that know how to raise kids to get a good education and stay off welfare and stay out of prison," he said.