Horry County Council plans to discuss doing away with vendor permits for the month of May which will impact the spring bike rallies.
This comes after Myrtle Beach Harley Davidson decided to change the date of its spring Cruisin' the Coast rally to May 18-28.
The approved festival permit dates listed on the Horry County web site are for May 14-20 for the Harley rally and May 24-27 for the Memorial Day Bike Fest.
Council member Gary Loftus brought up the issue after a man who lives near the Harley dealership spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting.
That man said the bike rallies create too much traffic and are disruptive. Loftus agreed and said council should discuss getting rid of the permits at the next Committee of the Whole meeting.
Council Chair Tom Rice agreed. Rice helped organize the group "Take Back May" which supported cracking down on the rallies in Myrtle Beach.
Doug Swearingen is the assistant manager at the SBB bar in MurrellsInlet. He is surprised that Myrtle Beach Harley Davidson is pushing their rally later in the month.
"The problem is a lot of people - they book their bike week vacation a year ahead," Swearingen said.
He said SBB will go by the traditional dates from May 14 to May 20. He is expecting the best crowd he's had since 2008.
Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes thinks overlapping the Harley rally with the Atlantic Beach Bike Fest could create problems.
"Our guys go 24-hours a day and it's time to give them time to breathe a little bit and if you extend it out, you're not going to have that time and I don't think that's good," Rhodes said.
"Especially with Harley and the loud pipes, we're looking at kids in school, when they start going down 38th Avenue - school is disrupted for those kids," Rhodes said.
Management at Harley Davidson said it will be better for the community to combine the mayhem into two weeks. In the past the rally events have spread over three weeks.
Though Harley management admits it will take two or three years for people to adjust to the schedule change.
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