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North Myrtle Beach is planning to spend big to expand the capabilities of its fire department in the 2026 fiscal year.

Twelve million dollars is budgeted for the construction of Fire Station 7, $4 million will go toward the buildout of Fire Station 2 and $2.7 million will be spent on new fire trucks. The fire apparatus investment is part of a replacement schedule that will include five engines, a ladder truck and a tiller over the next four years.

鈥淲e got the engine for Barefoot last year. We鈥檝e got the rescue getting final preparations to go into service. Engine 2 will be here in June,鈥� fire chief Billy Floyd said. 鈥淲e鈥檒l have that ready to go to Cherry Grove by mid-June to late June. Once that comes in we鈥檒l see one engine come in next year. Then we move to January, February 2027, that鈥檚 when those two rigs for the new station 7 are expected to come in.鈥�

Fire Station 2 is being moved in a land swap because the new location is not flood prone and would not need to be evacuated during tidal events, fire chief Billy Floyd said. Station 7 is expected to open in late 2026 or early 2027, Floyd said at the city鈥檚 budget retreat. Fire Station 7 will serve the fast-growing Water Tower Road area of the city.

鈥淥nce that station opens, that requires us to hire 27 new positions. Instead of trying to bring on all 27 that fiscal year we tried to split that up. So we鈥檙e looking at bringing in 13 new positions this budget year,鈥� Floyd said.

With 13 more positions added, the force will be at 78 firefighters.

North Myrtle Beach Police Chief Dana Crowell said drones, cameras and software will become even more important tools for the department in the coming years. In the proposed 2026 fiscal year budget, $1.5 million is earmarked for purchasing surveillance cameras in the city.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been a gamechanger,鈥� Crowell said. 鈥淭rying to find a vehicle during a Silver alert, being able to look at the cameras and looking for a black Tahoe or whatever, being able to narrow that down is huge. And showing up on scene as an officer where one person says they pulled out in front of me, and the other person is saying the same thing, we can watch the cameras now and see what happened. It鈥檚 taken a lot of the guesswork out for us.鈥�

Public safety makes up about 50% of general fund expenditures ($33 million) in the city of North Myrtle Beach鈥檚 proposed 2025-2026 fiscal year budget, which begins July 1.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of things we need in our fire and police departments that will make them even better than what they are. They鈥檙e wonderful. They鈥檙e top in their line as far as we are concerned and as far as many others are concerned,鈥� North Myrtle Beach Mayor Marilyn Hatley said. 鈥淏ut there鈥檚 new technology and new things like the drones and new software that will help our departments be more efficient and also will allow the public to check in on the websites and see through our new software see what鈥檚 going on being able to keep up with the different departments.鈥�

Crowell said there are 106 uniformed officers in the city, with 10 open positions. The city as a whole is increasing salaries at an estimated 5%, but by using a pay-for-performance structure instead of standard raises. That change will also be in effect in the police department.

鈥淯nlike a standard across-the-board cost of living adjustment, this year鈥檚 raises will be determined based on employee performance,鈥� a news release from the city describes. 鈥淭his performance-based approach is designed to recognize and reward individual contributions while remaining within the overall budgeted allocation.鈥�

The city has $881,500 earmarked for 10 new patrol vehicles, a beach patrol vehicle, a detective vehicle and community services vehicle. Crowell said it鈥檚 part of the department鈥檚 plans to continually replace its aging fleet to ensure the department has reliable vehicles. She said they鈥檙e trying to replace the Chevy Caprices that are being used as patrol vehicles.

鈥淭hey were terrible. The engines started blowing with only like 60,000 miles, so we are trying to get rid of all of those. We鈥檝e had to sink a bunch of money to keep them on the road,鈥� Crowell said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going with the Durangos and Explorers now.鈥�

And F-150s that were being used for beach patrol are being shifted to street use. After a woman died from being run over by an Horry County Police Department truck on a beach last year, NMBPD began evaluating how to make its beach patrol more safe. Crowell said they are in the process of replacing F-150s on beach patrol with the smaller Chevy Colorado which has increased visibility and sensors to detect pedestrians.

鈥淲e wanted to be as safe as possible,鈥� Crowell said. 鈥淲e looked at all the different trucks that size and by far they have the best safety features.鈥�