Issue 21, November 12, 1996
Jay Sigel won the 1995 Seniors Tour Championship Golf Tournament, held this past weekend at the Dunes Club in Myrtle Beach. His four round total of -9 gave him a two stroke margin of victory. Sigel collected $280,000 in prize money. Last year's victor, Jim Colbert, tied for third, but it was enough to give him the 1996 money title, his second in a row.
On Christmas Day at Fantasy Harbour the Moscow State Ballet will perform the Nutcracker ballet at 3:00 and 7:30 p.m. Call 803-236-8500 for ticket information.
Broadway at the Beach has its Christmas lights on display. The large Center Court tree will be lighted on November 22 at 6 pm. A new film is being shown at the IMAX theater, 'Special Effects', all about movie special effects creation. Atticus Book Store at the shopping complex has closed.
The Outlet Park shopping center and its adjacent Fantasy Harbour collection of theaters will be getting new neighbors. The Plaza, a set of six to eight mid-priced family restaurants, will be constructed soon. The eateries will also be convenient to the new Carolina Forest residential development.
Changes are in the works at Celebrity Square, the nightclub section of Broadway at the Beach. Sloppy Joe's has closed down, and Easyriders Cafe, a theme restaurant and nightclub based on a motorcycle motif, will be built by early next year. The pay one price admission scheme for the nightclubs may be abandoned. Free admission is already in place for most of the week, with regular prices only on Friday and Saturday nights.
The South Carolina Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional the county-by-county approval law for video gambling machines that took effect several years ago. Twelve counties in the upstate of South Carolina had voted the machines down, but now a single uniform law must be applied throughout the state. Horry and Georgetown counties approved video gambling in 1994, so there will be no immediate effect along the strand, but this does derail efforts by video gambling opponents that were being made to hold another approval referendum in 1998.
Horry County Council has approved a 2.5 percent tax on hotel accommodations, restaurant meals, and entertainment. The money raised will primarily go towards building needed roads around the strand. The state government is expected to match the funds (if it doesn't, the tax will be repealed). In incorporated cities, the tax will only be 1.5 percent; some of the county's cities already have a 1 percent municipal tax in effect. The total tax on hotels will be 9.5 percent, which the industry agreed to, noting it is important to keep the total accommodations tax rate below 10 percent. The road projects to be constructed with the money include the Conway Bypass and north / south Carolina Bays Parkway (both shortened from the original plans), and widening of SC 544.
Myrtle Beach will be keeping its nautical-themed light displays along Ocean Boulevard, but selling off the lights that had adorned US 17 Business. The feeling was that these lights didn't fit in as well, and they will be replaced with traditional Christmas lights during the holiday season only. The remaining Treasures by the Sea light displays will be on from November 18 to March 28, 1997.
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