Atlantic Beach council meeting goes nowhere

Atlantic Beach town councilman, Donnell Thompson told News13 it’s time to put a stop to crime in Atlantic Beach and that starts with providing the people of Atlantic Beach with a full time police department.

Thompson planned to discuss the issue with council at Monday night's meeting, but after more than an hour of arguing over the agenda, members never agreed to approve the agenda.

Thompson said there were no Atlantic Beach officers on duty when the shooting happened around 4 a.m. Sunday, and wanted to know why the town has budgeted for nine officers, but the town only employs five, including the police chief.

According to a Horry County police report, county officers found the victim lying on the sidewalk on 31st Avenue South with a bullet wound to his leg.

Investigators think the shooting happened in an attempted armed robbery and said the suspect left the scene on a mountain bike.

The victim is expected to survive the shooting.

"This place is such that it needs someone here 24 hours a day and I think had we had someone on, it probably wouldn't have happened,” Thompson said.

Councilman Jake Evans, who lives only a few feet from councilman Thompson, said he feels the town’s part-time department provides adequate protection for Atlantic Beach, “I feel it is, yeah. I feel it’s safe. I think the local police department is doing a fine job as far as we’re concerned right now.”

Evans said the money issues in the town have prevented council from providing the town with the nine officers council members budgeted for.

"To say that this town is safe as it is; everybody on the Grand Strand knows that we have issues here,” Thompson said.

Thompson admits the town has major financial issues but said the first priority of a council is to ensure public safety and he said that must be done in Atlantic Beach, no matter what the costs.

Council did hear from citizens who spoke after members agreed to hold a town hall style meeting to hear resident's concerns.

One man who spoke, Elliot Skillern, who told News13 he paid a half-million dollars for two lots in Atlantic Beach and planned to build homes on them.

Skillern told council, "If you can't do what the concerned citizens of this community needs, your days are numbered."

Skillern said he took offense to remarks Evans made to News13 about the town's safety, "I'd just like to say to that, I think that was grossly irresponsible and totally misleading to the citizens of this community."

"We need to do it ourselves. This isn't something we need to go begging the county, or begging someone who lives next door to us. We live in this town; it's our responsibility to make people safe," Thompson told News13.

Council left Monday night with no official business taken care of and no word what members plan to work on at the next meeting.