Mayor's Message - October 17, 2022
Mayor's Message
October 17, 2022
It’s hard to believe the time is here to buy our Halloween candy – which means the remainder of the year will fly by even faster with the holidays approaching.
There will be some great upcoming, seasonal events, you will want to make sure and attend. You can use the city’s website, iop.net, to stay updated on upcoming events and meetings. I hope you have had the opportunity to participate in some of our recent community events – the Police Department’s National Night Out was a huge success with great attendance, the community favorites such as the Farmer’s Market, the Community Wellness Fair and Ghostly Tide Tales. The resident listening sessions for short term rental regulations held at the Rec Center were well attended - it’s always nice to see and hear residents that have never met each other come together to discuss and listen to each other about such an important issue to our island. These meetings and events provide a great opportunity to meet our new residents, city staff or reconnect with long time neighbors and help us all stay focused on building and maintaining a sense of community of caring neighbors.
Regarding the recent short term rental meetings, thank you all again that took the time to participate in one of the three sessions. We had approximately 150 attend and provide great feedback for Council to consider as they continue to review and study next steps. We are targeting the October 25th Council meeting to have our moderator present the overall meeting results and recap. One of the items that continuously came up during the listening sessions that Council and staff are currently working on is a revised noise ordinance. We are hoping to have a first draft of a new noise ordinance for the October 25th meeting. We welcome your feedback as we look to make enhancements to this ordinance to improve the enforcement of this important resident livability issue.
Your City Council recently participated in a half day retreat – or “advance” as our facilitator labeled it to signify moving forward – as a follow up to our January meeting. We felt it was important to have a check in to monitor our progress on agreed upon Council objectives and outcomes. There was open dialogue on our progress or lack thereof in some cases. I believe all thought it was a good use of our time as we continue to focus on what is important to our residents.
Don’t forget to vote on November 8th. As a reminder for the upcoming election, there will be an IOP specific referendum on the ballot for residents to consider the size of City Council.
Project Updates
Please visit iop.net to get the latest update on the many capital projects going on around the island.
Upcoming Events:
October 20 – Farmer’s Market – 4:00 – 7:00 p.m. at Rec Center
October 28 – Coffee with the Mayor – 9:00 a.m. Marina Store back deck
October 29 – Halloween Golf Cart Parade and Carnival 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. at the Rec Center
November 1 – additional public hearing for the new zoning ordinances – 5:00 at the Rec Center
November 11 – IOP virtual run after party. The IOP run on Saturday October 1 had to be cancelled due to winds and safety on the bridge due to Hurricane Ian. The event was changed to virtual, where you can upload your times any date in October through the websites IOPrun.com and Active.com. We will still have a party on November 11th, from 4pm – 8pm at The Isle of Palms Exchange Club to receive medals, shirts and honor the beneficiaries in person.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve! See you around the island.
Phillip Pounds, Mayor IOP
843-252-5359
ppounds@iop.net