Arc of Horry County pushes wheelchair program

Beach wheelchairs are the kind of local service people barely notice — until they disappear. In Myrtle Beach, that disappearance has dragged on for years, and now the pressure is back on city leaders to fix it before another summer starts. What changed this week is simple: disability advocates went straight to City Council and asked the city to bring the program back. The argument is that ramps alone do not solve the real problem of getting across soft sand to the water. (wbtw.com) ### What is the fight actually about? This is about specialty wheelchairs with oversized balloon tires that can move over sand. A regular wheelchair usually sinks or stalls. Myrtle Beach still has ADA-compliant walkovers and accessible beach entry points, but advocates say that only gets someone part of the way. If the last stretch is loose sand, the beach is still effectively out of reach for many people. (wbtw.com) ### What happened this week? On Tuesday, April 28, Luke Sharp of the Adaptive Surf Project appeared before Myrtle Beach City Council and asked officials to restart a city-run beach-wheelchair program. He told council the volunteer workaround is wearing out the people keeping it alive. By Wednesday and Thursday, local coverage had turned that council appearance into a broader public push on the city’s new leadership. (wbtw.com) ### Who has been filling the gap? Mostly the Adaptive Surf Project. Sharp said his group has been supplying chairs on a volunteer basis for nearly five years and has about 10 wheelchairs. Those chairs cost around $1,500 each. The group has also been handling delivery — basically doing the labor the city used to do. Sharp told council that volunteers are exhausted, which is the clearest sign the stopgap model is reaching its limit. (wbtw.com) ### Why did Myrtle Beach stop doing this? The city paused the old program during the COVID-19 period. After that, officials scrapped it rather than fully restoring it, with staffing and labor demands cited as the main reason. Earlier reporting says the city’s old service had been run through the police department and had existed since the 1990s. That matters because this is not some brand-new idea — it is a service Myrtle Beach already knew how to operate. (wbtw.com) ### Why is Myrtle Beach getting singled out? Because nearby places still offer the service. North Myrtle Beach has 15 adult and four youth beach wheelchairs. Surfside Beach has seven. Visitor information for the Grand Strand also points people to free wheelchair options in North Myrtle Beach, Surfside Beach, and unincorporated Horry County, wh(wbtw.com)he gap in the middle of a tourist region that otherwise treats this as standard beach access. (wbtw.com) ### Did council agree to anything? Not yet. No vote was taken. But the tone was more open than dismissive. Mayor Mark Kruea and council member Bill McClure both sounded supportive, with McClure saying the city should start from the premise that it will do it and then figure out how. That is not a commitment, but it is more than a brush-off. (([wbtw.com)lty-wheelchair-program/)) ### What is the practical offer on the table? Sharp said he is willing to donate the chairs and access matting to the city at no cost if officials agree to resume the service. That shifts the debate away from whether Myrtle Beach can afford the equipment and toward whether it is willing to staff, manage, store, and deliver it. Basically, the hardware problem looks solvable. The operations problem is the catch. (wbtw.com) ### Why does this matter beyond one niche program? Because “accessible beach” can sound solved on paper when it is not solved in real life. A ramp, a walkover, and an ADA label do not help much if someone still cannot reach the shoreline. Myrtle Beach sells itself as a beach for everybody. This dispute is testing whether the city means that literally. (wbtw.com) The bottom line is that Myrtle Beach is being asked to stop treating beach wheelchairs like an optional extra. Nearby towns already run the service, a nonprofit says it can hand over equipment, and council members sound interested. Now the city has to decide whether “accessible” means access all the way to the sand.