CONWAY, S.C. -- The Conway, S.C., City Council unanimously defeated a proposed ordinanceas reported in CSP Daily Newsthat would have required motorists within the city limits to prepay before pumping gasoline at local businesses, said the Myrtle Beach Sun News.
Several business owners and managers spoke to the council for and against the proposed ordinance before the first reading Monday, said the report.
Mayor Greg Martin said the city council considered the ordinance after it was brought to them to see whether residents and [image-nocss] business owners would be in favor of or against it. "The council is not pushing this," Martin said before listening to public input on the issue.
Councilman Randy Alford, who presented the idea, said he had hoped to help businesses and provide good public policy for residents, but there was not a good representation of how problematic the driveoffs can be, so he requested the ordinance be denied.
John Plasky, a representative of the Cash & Dash, said he was against such an ordinance because of the way his business is set up: The motorist drives up to a pay window before leaving the parking lot, so driveoffs are not a problem. "It would seriously jeopardize the way we do business," Plasky said.
Officials had toyed with the idea of excluding that business because its parking lot and business are structured differently from other gas stations, but other business owners were against such an exclusion, said the report.
Ted Neff, vice president of operations for Scotchman and Young's Food Stores, which operates three stores in the city, told the newspaper that driveoffs are a problem and his company supports an ordinance only if all businesses are included. To exempt one store would give that business a competitive advantage, he said.
Other owners said they still use a charge-account system for some of their customers, and it would be unfair to make those customers come into the store to sign for gasoline when now they do not do so.
George Allison, general manager of the Hugo CITGO, spoke in favor of the proposal. Driveoffs are a problem and could have been stopped if an ordinance were passed, he said. "These people that drive off, they put so many people in danger when they fly off like they do," Allison said.
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