Date Published: July 2, 2006   

County Council must decide whether to continue funding

The Associated Press

A new airport terminal could be scrapped this month as the Horry County Council takes up spending an additional $6.2 million on the troubled project.

Some worry if the plan is scrapped, it will hurt efforts to bring more air travelers to the area and may endanger future federal funding for other projects.

After five years of work, the money set aside to prepare the terminal for construction is spent and the county is left with incomplete design plans.

The project has been beset with problems since the start, including a spiraling cost estimate that started at $185 million and more recently was estimated at more than $250 million.

"I think (the project) has suffered because of mismanagement at the airport level," said Don Corinna, who was terminal project manager with Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc. from 2001 to July 2005.

Corinna was forced off the project by his company last summer, he said, because of clashes with airport director Bob Kemp, who was hired in November 1997 when the former director quit because the airport ran $1.58 million into the red.

Kemp has defended making changes in plans for the terminal saying revisions were necessary to scale back costs.

A new design team Gresham, Smith and Partners began a comprehensive redesign to try to cut terminal project costs.

"We've just started. By no means, is this a finished presentation," said David King of Gresham, Smith and Partners.

Gresham will be paid $1.2 million for the initial work. To get the finished product, County Council will have to pay another $6.2 million

Council Chairwoman Liz Gilland blames County Council for most of the delays, saying the board has been divided and often has second-guessed the effort.

If the council approves the extra spending, the county will have finished terminal designs in December and will have leverage for state and federal funding.

"It seems like going forward is very good," Gilland said. "If we are not agreeing to operate as a team . . . people are not going to give" needed money. "It falls back to council."

Council member Howard Barnard has been a supporter of the project, but said he is unsure how he'll vote July 18.

He says the county will need another terminal, but the escalating costs were troubling.

"Back they come just requesting more and more money and we are no closer to knowing what that (final) price is," Barnard said.

If the airport project dies, the county will have to turn down $43 million in funding promised by the Federal Aviation Administration in January.

U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., said he wouldn't comment on the terminal uncertainty until he visits Myrtle Beach to discusses the project, his spokesman Kevin Bishop said.

Those in the area's sizable tourism industry hope the terminal project goes forward.

"The ability to expand is critical to golf tourism and to our tourism industry in general," said Mickey McCamish, president of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday.

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Information from: The Sun News,