Barbecue dinners and activities for children are among the enticements aimed at getting the public out for meetings about Interstate 73.

In the coming week, residents of the Pee Dee will have three chances to tell highway planners their concerns about what should be considered as the route is plotted.

The first session is tonight in Dillon. It is a meeting of invited interest group representatives.

Meetings for the public are Saturday in Mullins and Tuesday in Conway. People can drop in during the sessions; they do not have to attend the entire time.

The state never has gone so far to involve the public in road planning.

The DOT and its consultants have been on radio shows, passed out fliers at high-school football games in the region, put stuffers in grocery bags and had a community organizer visit some locations.

"I don't know of any other project where we've gone to this level to get the word out," said Mitchell Metts, I-73 project director at the DOT.

The weekend meeting, barbecue dinners and children's activities are aimed at encouraging attendance.

"We want people to come," said Patrick Tyndall, I-73 project coordinator for the Federal Highway Administration's office in Columbia.

Participation is being encouraged because the project is large and complicated. The more people who voice opinions or concerns early in the process, the sooner the issues can be dealt with.

That will make the project run smoother and faster, Metts said.

At the public meetings, people will be shown a map of the study area and asked where they think the road should be constructed.

Planners will use the information to refine proposals and bring them back to the public again, Metts said.

Some concerns that already have been raised by interest groups will be discussed Thursday at what is being called the Stakeholder Working Group.

The group of about 50 people represent organizations including local governments, chambers of commerce, the Coastal Conservation League, the S.C. Tobacco Growers Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Metts said.

The Stakeholder Working Group is expected to remain active throughout the three-year planning process, meeting as often as every other month.

Any group with concerns about the road that has not received an invitation may attend, Metts said.

"We'll be asking specific questions of the stakeholders' group," Tyndall said.

Mickey McCamish, president of Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, is an invited stakeholder.

He said he will stress that "with all the hurricane activity this year, the importance of an interstate for hurricane evacuation purposes."

The road also is important for getting people to the coast easily, he said.

"It's so important because these tourists have a choice of where they go," he said.

McCamish said he also will attend the public meeting in Conway "just to be supportive and see what the questions in the community may be."

Gary Loftus, director of Coastal Federal Center for Economic and Community Development and Clay Brittain Jr. Center for Resort Tourism at Coastal Carolina Univer-
sity, also plans to attend the stakeholder and Conway meetings.

"I just think it's important to keep the momentum going," Loftus said. "You just gotta keep the enthusiasm going and continually emphasize the importance of this so people don't forget."