Folly a mess no more

Holli Hartman // The Post and Courier

Folly Beach was mostly clean following the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

FOLLY BEACH -- Something good came from a nasty July Fourth weekend two years ago, when beach-goers left tons of garbage on the beach, access paths, streets and yards.

It served as a wake-up call that more had to be done to prevent similar incidents, Public Safety Chief Dennis Brown said. This year, law enforcement officials, residents and the business community worked together to create a clean mid-summer holiday weekend. And those efforts are paying off, he said.

Tuesday morning, the beach was clean.

It wasn't a perfect weekend, Brown said. Thousands of people descended on the beach, many of them drinking alcohol. Law enforcement officers issued citations for domestic violence, fights, open-container violations and glass containers on the beach, he said. The number of violations won't be tallied until later this week, he said. But there was a marked improvement over previous years.

The Public Safety Department took every opportunity to educate beach-goers about the rules, including posting them at rental units and handing out fliers that explained the ordinances at major beach-access points.

And beach patrol officers handed out more than 800 plastic trash bags to help beach-goers remove garbage from the beach. The city collected and removed trash from public garbage cans every day of the three-day weekend.

"Everybody comes to the beach to have a good time. Nobody wants a ticket or an arrest," Brown said. Law enforcement and the community were present and proactive, and everything improved, he said.

Curtis Joyner, coastal projects manager for the state's Department of Health and Environmental Control, called the results encouraging. "I hope we can continue the momentum," he said.

Joyner coordinates teams that adopt portions of the state's beaches for cleanup. He encourages teams to organize beach cleanups immediately after big holiday weekends.

A team from the South Carolina Aquarium went out Tuesday afternoon to clean a portion of Folly Beach, said Kate Dittloff, the aquarium's public relations manager.

James Nicklaus, a Folly Beach resident, said he was pleased about how the trash situation had improved. "I thought they did a real good job as far as the litter was concerned. The improvement was dramatic."

Traffic is still a big problem on holiday weekends with one way in and out of the beach town, he said. But residents have learned to purchase supplies ahead of time and stay put for the weekend, he said.

Brown said traffic was a problem at times, with a few accidents backing up the flow. But, he said, officers kept it moving, even if it was slow at times. "The locals said it was the best Fourth they've ever seen."