Wedding & Event Venue Near Conway, SC.

CONWAY, S.C. (WBTW) — The college football bowl season will kick off Saturday morning with Georgia Southern taking on Ohio University in the Myrtle Beach Bowl at Brooks Stadium in Conway.

It will be the first meeting between Georgia Southern from the Sun Belt Conference and Ohio University from the Mid-American Conference. Georgia South brings a 6-6 record into the game, while Ohio is 9-3.

The game, the first of 44 during this year’s bowl season, will kick off at 11 a.m., but both teams have been on the Grand Strand since Tuesday, practicing and taking part in a variety of pre-game activities.

Pep rallies for both teams are scheduled for Friday afternoon at The Hangout at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach; they will be at 3 p.m. for Ohio and 4:30 p.m. for Georgia Southern.

“The Myrtle Beach Bowl has become a signature event for our area and we are thrilled to host the fourth edition of the bowl as we welcome new fan bases to experience the Grand Strand,” Rachel Quigley, executive director of Myrtle Beach Bowl, said in a news release.

The Myrtle Beach Bowl will be the second consecutive bowl appearance for both teams. Ohio defeated Wyoming 3027 in last year’s Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl. The Bobcats have a 6-8 record in 14 bowl games. Georgia Southern defeated Buffalo 23-21 in last year’s Camellia Bowl and has a 3-2 record in bowl games.

“Coastal Carolina University is privileged to serve as the host of the Myrtle Beach Bowl,” said Matt Hogue, vice president of Intercollegiate Athletics and University Recreation. “This event has become a tradition for our region and is a key component to our strategic partnership with the MB Chamber of Commerce and the entire sports tourism effort. Even better this year, the Bowl Season starts here! We look forward to welcoming the passionate fan bases and showcasing our community to the nation!”

Karen Riordan, president and CEO of Visit Myrtle Beach, said she thinks the teams and their fans will enjoy their visit to the Grand Strand.

“No matter who wins, we’re confident both teams and their fans attending will enjoy all that our destination has to offer, especially the holiday events, festive light displays and cheerful theatrical performances.”

The Myrtle Beach Bowl debuted in 2020 with Appalachian State defeating North Texas 58-28. Tulsa beat Old Dominion 30-17, in 2021, and a year ago, Marshall downed Connecticut 28-14 in the most-attended matchup so far.

This year’s game will be televised on ESPN and ESPN+.

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Dennis Bright is a Digital Producer at News13. He joined the team in May 2021. Dennis is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Follow Dennis on, Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here.

CONWAY — Tony Zack did a quick doubletake as he rounded the corner of Laurel Street and Second Avenue during his Monday evening walk.

Why was a 10-foot skeleton standing beside the city planning office? By the time he noticed the plastic pumpkin-laden trees and the 12-foot grim reaper scarecrow, it clicked: Conway was again dressing up as Halloween.

“They named the city Halloween,” said Zack, who has lived in Conway for about 17 years. “I know it was just (a stunt, but) it’s a lot of fun. It’s just different.”

Rebranding Conway as the city of Halloween is also lucrative. What started as a gimmick by local officials last year to generate some seasonal buzz morphed into a monthlong celebration that provided a boost in fall tourism to the city of 27,000-plus.

Conway officials reported an 18 percent average increase in retail and restaurant sales, and a nearly 6 percent increase in hospitality revenue. The city’s downtown saw more than 20 times the number of visitors that it did the previous October.

“This little thing that we did that really didn’t cost us anything was huge for the city,” said City Administrator Adam Emrick, who is scheduled to speak next month at the International City/County Management Association conference in Austin, Texas. His session is titled “Halloween, South Carolina: How we won October.”

Unlike South Carolina’s tourism engine on the coast, Conway, which sits about 15 miles outside Myrtle Beach, doesn’t see big summer crowds. For many beachbound tourists, the city is essentially a gas stop on the way to the ocean.

Recognizing Conway’s peak tourism season runs from September through May, city officials in recent years refocused their marketing, promoting events in the fall, winter and spring.

“When we made that change, it changed everything for us as a downtown and we have seen so many returns on those investments, and we want to continue to do that,” said Hillary Howard, executive director of Conway Downtown Alive, which promotes city tourism. “We want people to be proud of where they live. We want people to come visit them because they live in Conway, not because they’re close to the beach.”

The idea for a seasonal rebranding emerged in January 2022 when Emrick was planning the city’s fall events.

Conway had already enhanced its decorating by placing hundreds of plastic jack-o-lanterns in trees in 2019 and later hanging black hats over the fountain beside City Hall to create a “witches’ garden.”

“We were trying to figure out how we were going to up the ante,” Emrick said. “We just couldn’t figure out what we were going to do. What are we going to do to make it more?”

Emrick had previously tweaked the design of the city logo, adding ghosts and bats to make it look like a haunted house for October promotions. He started the same task again, this time looking for something more powerful, something iconic. On a whim, he substituted the city’s name with Halloween.

“That looks awesome,” he remembers thinking. “What if we did that?”

He asked other city staff and they liked the idea. Then he called the mayor. She was in, too.

For the month of October, Conway would be called Halloween.

With everyone on board, Emrick began planning what he dubbed Project October. The idea wasn’t just to temporarily change the city’s name, but to build a calendar of community events focused on the season. The goal was to encourage businesses and nonprofits to join in the fun, so it wasn’t just a bunch of city-sponsored festivities.

City officials asked the organizer of the Christmas boat parade to offer a Halloween boat parade. They went to First United Methodist Church and asked them to plan an event around the church’s pumpkin patch. The chamber of commerce’s annual meeting even took on a Halloween theme.

City officials also looked for gaps in the schedule. Where there were voids, they scheduled movie showings and created a haunted trail called the Forest of Fear.

“I do think downtown Conway does lend itself to the spooky season with our live oak trees and our dripping Spanish moss and our spooky alleyways,” said Howard of Conway Downtown Alive. “It just lends itself to this type of décor, so why not play up on the assets you have, right?”

CONWAY, S.C. (WMBF) - The recent closure of Conway Pediatrics at 907 Bell Street is confusing for some parents on how to access their kid’s records.

A sign on the door reads, “The practice is for sale and unless someone buys it, we will begin the process of closing the business. Sorry.”

“State and federal law both have requirements for how long providers are supposed to keep medical records,” SCDHEC compliance and privacy officer Marti Phillips said.

She said while patients have a right to their records if they’re looking for specific information, they can access it without a provider.

“If you’re trying to say, I don’t know, what vaccinations they’ve had, there is a law, I think it went into effect in 2017, that immunization providers in South Carolina have to report that immunization to DHEC,” Phillips said. “So it could be something you could follow up with DHEC.”

The South Carolina Board of Medical Examiners said a practice should notify parents at least 30 days in advance of a practice closure.

However, some parents whose children went to Conway Pediatrics said they showed up for appointments to find the doors closed.

Practice owner Lynda Courtney declined to be interviewed but said her business sent letters in the mail.

She said anyone looking for records should reach out to the office and that they have someone coming in to work on transferring records.

Dr. Eugenia Cooper Merchant is registered to practice at Conway Pediatrics. She said she left the practice at some point in the last month.

She said Courtney would need to be contacted for information about patient records.

“She has to tell you all of those things because even though I’m a physician there, she’s the one who owns and controls the practice,” Dr. Cooper Merchant said.

However, DHEC said physicians are the ones responsible.

“The law is even called the South Carolina Physicians Patients Record Act, so it really puts that burden on the physician,” Phillips said.

The South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation said patients can file a complaint with their department if they still can’t access their records.

Copyright 2023 WMBF. All rights reserved.

A team behind the largest planned development in Conway’s modern history will have another month to finalize its sales pitch as grassroots opposition builds.

Over the next 25 years, Fort Mill-based BRD Land & Investment hopes to transform more than 1,700 acres bounded by S.C. Highway 701, Kinlaw Lane and Pitch Landing Road into a massive mixed-use community with 3,300 homes and nearly 1.4 million square feet of commercial space.

But rather than build the project in Horry County, developers want what’s tentatively named Warden Station to become part of Conway — a lengthier process that requires annexation and approval of a development agreement that runs some 500 pages.

Given the project’s scope, planning officials set an Aug. 3 date to consider the annexation request and make their suggestion to the city council.

But hours before that meeting was to begin, the proposal was pushed to Sept. 7.

“It could be developed in Horry County with no control on the part of the city, so you end up having to deal with all the problems that could be created while not getting any contribution, any additional open space, nothing else that benefits the city,” Robert “Shep” Guyton, an attorney representing BRD Land & Investment, told the town’s planning commission on July 13.

“There’s value in the brand of being in Conway,” Guyton said. “You all have created a name that does add value, it’s where people want to live. Horry County of itself doesn’t have an identity.”

If Conway approves the deal, the development would include the following:

Outside the city’s planning offices on Aug. 3, Elaine Kemp stood clutching a stack of petitions collected from dozens of residents who are against the venture. She’s also administrator of “Conway People for Responsible Building,” a Facebook watchdog group.

Long-time residents like Tim Wolfe, who lives off Pitch Landing Road, said despite the developer’s accommodations, such heavy use in the rural area would affect his quality of life.

“Most of the people I know that live down in this area, we don’t want another Carolina Forest, and that’s exactly what this place is going to turn into,” Wolfe said.

A traffic study included as part of the development plan shows annual daily trips of 7,800 on Pitch Landing Road and 16,600 on S.C. Highway 701 — figures expected to nearly double by 2050.

“Traffic control all along the coast in this area, not just in Conway, is a problem,” said Conway resident Sam Viola. “Car insurance is skyrocketing in state. Homeowners’ insurance is skyrocketing in the state.”

This story was originally published August 3, 2023, 8:03 PM.

Conway leaders and developers worked Monday toward a happy medium over the proposed development off U.S. 701 South that could bring more than 3,300 residential units.

City council and the developer’s representatives discussed enhancement fees and city staff’s concerns over stormwater and traffic during a workshop session.

Officials are hoping to lock down a figure for enhancement fees, with the help of a fiscal study, so the city council can potentially take a first vote in December on the property being annexed and rezoned.

Last month, city leaders delayed the vote on the planned project that could bring the development to south Conway — what would be the largest development in the city's history.

The proposed development, also known as the Warden Station Tract, may add 1,763 acres of property for residential use into the city near Highway 701 South and Pitch Landing Road. Developers have proposed 3,318 units that include houses, townhouses and multifamily dwellings over the next 25 years.

The request for annexation and rezoning involves multiple parcels of land, with the largest being a roughly 1,637 acre parcel, Horry County land records state. The parcel was sold by International Paper Corp to Landbank XIV LLC in 2006 for $24.6 million.

On Monday, city officials said they plan to hold another workshop during a council meeting next month. From there, the annexation and rezoning request and development agreement could go to city council for a first reading as early as Dec. 4.

But city officials on Monday said they wanted clarity about the proposed neighborhood's future impacts before a vote was taken, and asked engineers and an attorney representing the developer to conduct a study.

This study would help city council determine enhancement fees — a one-time fee property owners would pay when they purchase a home in the neighborhood that would be part of the development agreement. Officials are hoping to save time by building off of a study conducted in 2007.

Discussion on Monday also included a potential municipal improvement district (MID), which would be a recurring tax property owners within the district would pay. It could be roughly a decade before a MID is put into place, officials said.

The city plans to procure an attorney to assist with the development agreement.

Funds collected from enhancement fees and a potential MID could be used toward public safety and widening U.S. 701 South, which is currently a two-lane road where the property is located.

“I’m all for [it] on the upfront,” Councilman William Goldfinch said of enhancement fees.

Shep Guyton, an attorney representing the developer, said enhancement fees depend on what services will be required from the city for a particular project.

The city does not plan to provide utilities to the proposed neighborhood, and the developer’s representatives said they plan to seek water from Bucksport Water System. City officials have said if the property is annexed into city limits, all city services with the exception of water and sewer would be provided to the neighborhood.

The developer would begin site work within 18 months of the property being rezoned and annexed, city officials said. One-fifth of the project would be completed within the first five years, and the subsequent phases would be completed over the next 20 years.

The property is not on Conway’s future land use map – a map that leaders use to guide the future of the city. The properties are, however, on the county’s future land use map as scenic and conservation, rural and rural communities.

City documents state the property includes nearly 724 acres of wetlands and 507 acres within a flood zone. Some of these overlap. A portion of the wetlands would later be deeded to the city. According to the site plans, there would be no building within the flood zone.

In recent months, residents have expressed concerns about flooding, infrastructure that may not be able to handle more traffic and a lack of public safety to handle a growing population.

But some city leaders have warned that if this development isn’t in city limits, the city will not be deeded 500 acres of protected land and there wouldn’t be a park within the neighborhood — a promise made by the developers, contingent upon the property being annexed into city limits.

Over the last few months, the city’s planning commission has discussed the proposed project and development agreement. In September, the commission gave favorable recommendations on both the rezoning and annexation requests and the development agreement, voting 6-2 in favor with changes based on staff’s and the commission’s recommendations.

Those changes include sidewalk additions in some areas, the completion of a spine road throughout the development and requiring the developer to pay 100% for road improvements.

Planning commission also voted 6-2 to approve the development agreement between the city and developer.

The city council will now refine the agreement and make decisions on any enhancement fees that would go toward public safety, sanitation, parks and recreation, and planning and development.

The request for annexation and rezoning would need two favorable votes from council. The city will also have to take separate votes on the development agreement.

Other council business

City council voted against a rezoning and annexation request Monday that would have brought a hot-mix asphalt plant into city limits near the Wild Wing community.

Wild Wing neighbors, who have expressed concerns about the operations at the plant, again shared with city leaders Monday issues they've experienced stemming from the operations at 154 Winyah Road, which include noise, large amounts of dust and concerns over air quality, and negative impacts to the area's wildlife.

But city officials said that any remedy would need to be addressed through the court system.

"This is a no-win situation here," said Councilman Justin Jordan, who asked what the city could do to assist in addressing the neighbors' concerns.