CCU Scholars partner with county to assess recreational needs

Coastal Carolina University’s Swain Scholars are working with Horry County Government to conduct a recreational needs assessment through an online survey and focus groups in four communities.

How and where area residents spend their recreation time is what the county wants to know. That's why they recently teamed up with CCU for the research, which also looks at the kinds of recreation facilities and programs locals would like to see added.

Does the county need more ballfields? How about wider walking trails? Parks? Programs for seniors or the disabled? Additional indoor or outdoor facilities? Where should the money come from to pay for new amenities?

Researchers hope some of those answers will come from a wide-ranging survey which has been added to the county's website, horrycounty.org. The survey asks about everything from nature parks to boat landings.

Though the survey will only continue through April 10, the entire project could take up to a year to complete and will include input from a variety of stakeholders, according to Leigh Wood Kane, a senior planner with Horry County government, who is working with the Swain Scholars -- Briana Nicole Laws, DeVariay Levon White and Christina Auth. Health promotion professor Sharon Thompson advises the student scholars.

Kane said the last recreational needs assessment was in 1999, and since then, more than 100,000 people have moved into Horry County.

Focus groups will come from the South Strand, Conway or Loris, Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach.

The students will make presentations to various government boards after the survey results are studied.

The survey can be accessed at: http:// http://snap.coastal.edu/snapwebhost/s.asp?k=141763750261