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Thursday鈥檚 Surfside Beach planning commission meeting began with confusion and frustration as members learned that the chairman and vice-chairman had suddenly resigned shortly before the meeting.

Planning and zoning director Heather Davis told the commission that chairman Sammy Truett and vice-chairman Michael Pesce had submitted their resignations just hours before Thursday night鈥檚 meeting.

Truett said he had bought property near Conway and planned to move there and would not have enough time to devote to the chairmanship. He added that frustration with how some things were going between the commission and the town council added to the decision.

鈥淎fter 26 years of devoting your life to the town and you feel you鈥檙e not appreciated, it鈥檚 time to walk away,鈥� he said. 鈥淏uilding a new home in Conway just made it more definite.鈥�

Thursday night, Jan. 9, the commission picked Scott Von Buseck to be the temporary chairman for the night in order to move forward with the meeting.

Election of new officers was already on the agenda and that was moved to the beginning of the proceedings. Dusty McCracken was chosen to be the new permanent chairman and Von Buseck the vice-chairman. McCracken is also chairman of the town鈥檚 pier committee.

At the last Surfside Beach town council meeting, Pesce gave an update on what the planning commission had recently accomplished. He was berated by some of the council members for being there instead of the chairman and was questioned why some items were slow to come out of the commission.

Truett said he had given the talking points to Pesce and didn鈥檛 think it mattered who presented them.

Interestingly, three council members and the mayor attended Thursday night鈥檚 planning commission meeting.

One of the items the town council had wanted more information on was the commission鈥檚 plans for controlling vape shops in the town. The council had enacted a six-month moratorium on any new vape shops until the planning commission could come up with an ordinance on the issue.

黑料社入口

Surfside Beach bans cannabis-related shops for 6 months

• By Tom O'Dare tom.odare@myhorrynews.com

Thursday night, commission members said the problem they were having was not being able to get legal information from town attorney Jarrett Bouchette.

鈥淗ere we are in the third month of the moratorium and we are without the attorney鈥檚 presence again,鈥� said commissioner Alex Stamsel. 鈥淲e want to move this forward as much as the council does.鈥�

Truett concurred and said that had been a point of frustration for him as well.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want to move ahead with the vape shop issue without some legal guidance,鈥� he said.

The commission asked Director Davis to once again reach out to Bouchette about answering a litany of legal questions they had with the vape shop issue.

Davis said she had sent numerous emails to the attorney but had received no response.

Mayor Robert Krouse said Thursday night that he鈥檇 like to get the vape shop ordinance on the books but was willing to extend the moratorium if that was needed to get it done the right way.