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FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCBD) – Toby’s Spooktacular Sweep, a Halloween celebration, returns for its third year at Folly Beach this year.

The annual beach sweep events kicks off Halloween early on Oct. 27. Participants are encouraged to wear Halloween costumes while they pick up litter along one of the six stations. The family-friendly event will provide Halloween temporary tattoos, slap wristbands, and stickers.

Vanessa Oltmann, founder of Toby’s Spooktacular Sweep, said why she organizes this event around the holiday.

“I decided we need to have fun, so what wouldn’t be better than to do a costume sweep, a spectacular – spooktacular for everyone,” Oltmann said.

The turnout for the event has been impactful to the coastal community by keeping areas within the beach clean.

“We’ve had over 300 volunteers over the past two years and we’ve collected close to 2300 pieces of debris,” Oltmann said.

Toby the Turtle and the City of Folly Beach host the sweep, while they continue to have a partnership with the South Carolina Aquarium.

“The aquarium provides all the supplies and the necessary equipment for us to be able to collect data” Oltmann said. “Which is very important in this world for us to know what kind of debris is in the ocean or on the earth, because everything that’s out there on the ground ends up in the ocean. And we want to protect wildlife, domestic life, marine life, and human life so that all affects us.”

Surrounding the beach sweep, one of the major concerns is plastics. Oltmann said anything that ends up in the ocean or in our waterways, eventually ends up in our bodily systems.

“This data actually helps us to be able to go to the city or any politicians to say look, we have an issue. What can we do to resolve the problem, the founder said. “This is why the sweeps are so important, they make the public aware of what’s here.”

The beach sweep is from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. with the costume contest to follow at 4 p.m. along with treats at the participating restaurants. For those who wish to participate, must sign up to receive a wristband and free parking.

FOLLY BEACH, S.C. (WCSC) - Folly Beach residents came out to an informational drop-in session Thursday night to review the city’s Safety Action Plan and had the opportunity to provide feedback on the study.

The goal is to come up with a plan of potential opportunities to enhance safety on Folly Beach roads for pedestrians and drivers.

The city started developing the Safety Action Plan earlier this year and since then they have been collecting and analyzing data based on crashes that happened in the city between 2017 and 2023. The study goes into more detail about where the crashes occurred, how severe they were, what kind of crash it was whether it be vehicular, pedestrian or bicyclist, as well as when it happened.

The transportation planner for Kimley-Horn who is helping conduct this study, Laura Kelly, said that they have looked at various areas to help improve roadway conditions.

“SCDOT has a traffic-calming program that we would consider partnering with and doing speed cushions along the island in low speed and low volume areas,” Kelly said. “Indian Avenue and Center Street as kind of like a mobility project, so we did sketch a roundabout here as a potential opportunity, but we definitely wanted to engage the public at this point and hear from them what they’d like to see.”

Along with improving mobility, additional bicyclist and pedestrian safety measures are a key part of this plan. Some potential ideas include a multi-use path, pedestrian refuge spaces, which are safe designated areas for pedestrians to cross the street, as well as additional lighting.

“Looking at pedestrian and bicyclist crashes things are pretty spread out throughout, so we’re of course taking a focus on Center Street where there are the highest traffic volumes, but we’re also looking at both ends of the island and then also the causeway,” Kelly said.

Residents and community members who went to the meeting mentioned concerns of bicyclist and pedestrian safety along various parts of the city, especially Ashley Avenue and Center Street.

“Coming to Folly is such a fantastic place to walk around and bike around, but we do have a history of crashes and being able to mitigate those and reduce them and hopefully get rid of all injuries and fatalities over time would be great,” Folly Beach resident Kyle James said.

He said that he heard similar comments from other residents who came out to the meeting as well.

“Talking with residents who have been here even longer than me. Getting kind of the history and what they want their city to feel like over time and how it’s shifted and that the need for more biking and pedestrian infrastructure has grown and it’s kind of come to the forefront,” James said.

After Thursday’s meeting, Kelly said that they will take the feedback that they got, put together a final list of potential projects and submit a grant application for them in the spring to the United States Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All Program.

If that grant is awarded Kelly said the city could then begin putting some of those projects under contract.

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