Results

Someone once quipped, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”

In these times, it can be hard to know what the truth is. Misinformation is rampant at every level of government, even here in Hartsville, unfortunately.

I am committed to telling you the truth. Here are some facts and figures to clarify some specific bits of misinformation circulating in our town:

Public Safety

The Hartsville Police Department’s commitment toward proactive community policing and crime prevention is yielding positive results, with fewer arrests needed while maintaining public safety.

I told you in my State of the City address in February that we are prosecuting more serious drug and firearm cases and taking more firearms off the street. We seized 141 guns last year, an increase of 32% from 2023, and we’re keeping the same pace with seizures this year. Violent crime was down 11% and property crime was down 30% year over year. Halfway through the year, we updated some stats:

Violent crimes against people are down about 34% from last year. These include murder, assault, kidnapping, intimidation, and related offenses. Property crimes are trending downward in most categories, with things like auto break-ins, theft, and vandalism reduced by double-digit percentages.

Now that we are three-quarters of the way through 2025, we can see that trend has continued:

Average Arrests Per Month YTD

2024: 140

2025: 105

That’s a 25% decrease year over year!

It goes without saying, through, that there’s too much crime in Hartsville. Crime will always be a problem, and we will always fight it. We are in one of the five highest-crime counties in the state, and we are the most populous city in our county. So we still have crime in Hartsville, but it’s less than we did a few years ago, because we are actively preventing crime and enforcing our laws.

Traffic and DUI arrests have increased, too. The Hartsville Police Department increased speed checks in direct response to citizen requests. Traffic citations continue to increase, and we are 127% over last year at 3367 citations.

And, no, traffic tickets have nothing to do with generating revenue.

We write citations for your safety: to slow people down, to not run stop signs, and to pay attention while driving so we don’t lose lives on the roads of Hartsville. The little bit of money the City receives in the state appropriation from a citation does not cover the cost of the officer’s time to issue that citation, the clerk of courts’ time to process that citation, or the judge’s time to hear that case. 

When you step up enforcement to crack down on crime, the incident and arrest rates will go up at first. But when criminals figure out that we’re not going to tolerate that activity and decide it’s not worth doing business in Hartsville, the numbers start to come down quickly. That’s the phase we’re in now.

While turnover is high in the public safety industry, we have been able to recruit officers and maintain full forces at both the Hartsville Police Department and Hartsville Fire Department.

The best law enforcement officer in the state is your Chief of Police.

To do that, we’ve invested in our public safety efforts, including increasing our police salaries and benefits to compete with Myrtle Beach, Florence, and Lake City, using a state grant to upgrade our police radios to make them compatible with the latest standards, and ordering new breathing apparatuses for our firefighters worth $370,000.

Here’s more data for those who are interested:

Growth

Hartsville is growing steadily but surely.

We have seen an 80% increase in housing starts in the last five years compared to the five years before that. Those permits vary a lot year to year, but the trend is undeniable. And guess what? There are dozens more new homes planned to start soon, right here in the city limits.

Business license revenues have grown from 1.9 million in 2018 to 2.5 million last year. A 32% increase. That isn’t because of an increase in fees, it’s because we have more businesses choosing to come into the city.

And people, you and the 35,000-40,000 people who come through town every day, are shopping with those businesses! Looking at food and beverage specifically, H-Tax revenue was $946,000 in 2018 and almost $1.4 million last year!

That’s a 47% increase in Hospitality revenue, which translates to a 47% increase in business at our restaurants.

When analyzing the number of utility accounts we have, which is a good estimate of the number of homes and businesses, we see that the number of accounts has grown consistently from 4,108 in FY2021 to 4,219 in FY2026 YTD, or nearly 3% growth, which is the slow and steady increase we like. And, excitedly, it is speeding up this fiscal year.

Our building permit data shows a similar story. After a post-COVID “boom” in 2021 and a slight dip last year, there is an overall positive trajectory: we are up last fiscal year and this one is already looking really promising. Despite fewer permits in FY2024, valuation reached $29 million in FY2024 and $33 million in FY2025, indicating larger, more valuable projects: mostly those new home starts I was talking about before.

This is literally the definition of growth.

The last census was wrong. Response rates were low and our population was undercounted. We know that. Most small cities in the state know that, and there have even been efforts to redo the census because of it.

The things I just said are real, factual numbers from what we see happening with our own eyes and the reports that go out to council and the public with every City Council Meeting

What’s the point of lying about that and claiming Hartsville is shrinking? It makes you wonder.

Permits & Fees

Speaking of fees and taxes, some also claim that Hartsville is too expensive to do business with. Well, let me tell you the truth about that, too.

We recenlty calculated the cost of a permit for a $175,000 construction project in cities and towns around the state. We are within $20 of the City of Florence and $200 less than Lake City, Rock Hill, and Cheraw; $250 less than the City of Darlington, and over $800 less than Darlington County.

Across 40 cities and counties in the Pee Dee and nearby, Hartsville is among the ten least expensive.

That’s just one part of a complicated picture, but it shows, clearly, that Hartsville is a good value and that we are competitive with our peers.

Neptune Island

Neptune Island had another great season in 2025, breaking daily attendance records and welcoming almost 90,000 guests to Hartsville, despite a shorter season.

For yet another year, Neptune Island paid for itself.

Ever since the pandemic hit the park in 2021, by design, revenue from the park’s admissions, concessions, and hospitality taxes has paid for the costs of running Neptune Island. In 2021, when the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic cut our attendance in half, we made up for the difference with a transfer from our water and sewer enterprise fund.

That’s exactly how it was designed to work, and it didn’t cost taxpayers anything extra.

Neptune Island, while it brings in guests from as far away as Charlotte, Columbia, and Myrtle Beach every year, is designed to run more like a Parks & Recreation program than a commercial water park. The park is designed to keep ticket prices low so that people from right here in Hartsville can afford them. The ticket sales are supplemented by concessions to meet costs. Year after year, that system has worked just as designed.

But Neptune Island is more than a recreation program. The 90,000 guests who visit the park often eat, shop, or get gas while they are here. Many families, like those in town for baseball tournaments, will stay in one of our hotels for an extra night just to go to Neptune Island after the games. That’s extra hospitality and accommodations revenue for the City and extra retail sales for our businesses, all without costing the people of Hartsville anything extra.

In addition to being an amazing way for kids to spend the summer, it also offers a place for children in Hartsville to learn to swim safely. Neptune Island is also the largest employer of young adults in the region: we train over 200 first-time employees with the skills they need to be successful in their careers. In fact, Neptune Island has won awards for its success in developing young adults.

Neptune Island is a big asset for Hartsville. As a water park, it’s a uniquely exciting quality of life asset, as an employer, it readies young Hartsvilleians for successful high-responsibility careers. It does all of that while paying for itself and not costing taxpayers anything extra.

As if that isn’t good enough, we’re already in the process of planning expansions to the park that will lengthen the season, offer new forms of entertainment, and generate more revenue for the City without raising taxes.

In Closing

Hartsville is in good shape. That’s the summary. We have a long way to go to meet our true potential, and there will be ups and downs along the way. It won’t be easy.

I am committed to continuing the work of improving the City of Hartsville and the quality of life of everyone who lives here.

I know the rest of your City Council and the City’s staff of 150 is, too.

And let me assure you, our outlook is good, despite what anybody else wants to say.

Sources

The information discussed above is taken from the City of Hartsville’s Annual Financial Reports and the departmental reports that are included with every City Council Regular Meeting agenda, all of which are public.