A group that played a key role in drafting the May River Management Plan agreed Thursday its has met its goals and it's time to disband.
The Bluffton May River Waterbody Management Plan Implementation Committee was appointed by Town Council in 2008 to educate and guide the town of Bluffton's council, engineers and community on how to go about fixing the river's problems, panel member Jimmy McIntire said.
At the time it disbanded, the committee had 10 members representing different points of view including a planner, an attorney, engineers and residents living near the May River.
Since then, the group worked with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control to implement the management plan and provided its input when storm water ordinances were enacted.
Committee chairman Wes Jones said the group achieved what it set out to do and has handed off its work for town staff to implement.
"The town has now organized and put together a staff that I feel confident can execute this plan," member Allen Ward said as he nodded to Bluffton's stormwater engineer Ron Bullman and natural resources manager Kim Jones.
McIntire said one of the group's biggest contributions was educating the public.
"We were charged with getting all the facts up on the table," he said. "It would be hard at this point for people to say 'well we don't understand what needs to be fixed.'"
The group voted unanimously to tell Town Council at its March meeting about its decision to disband. Ward said more still must be done for the river.
"I wouldn't want anyone to mistake our recommendation as a declaration of victory. It's certainly a milestone, but the most difficult stuff is yet to come," he said.
Follow reporter Anne Christnovich on Twitter at twitter.com/blufftonBlogIP.
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