was considering several payment methods. City manager Tom Leath wanted a tax district where businesses nearby would pay more because they would benefit more, while some believed the entire city should contribute since the boardwalk would be good for everyone. Opponents of the tax district wondered if small businesses could pay. Some people worried about crime and vagrants. A design with "a traditional wood-plank walkway" and "a meandering concrete sidewalk ... with wooden crosswalks to the beach, colorful shade sails and public parks" was presented to city council Aug. 14, 2007, but funding was still not set. Burroughs & Chapin, which had torn down the Pavilion building and cleared the site of the amusement park over the previous year, agreed to pay for the section across the Pavilion site, using a design matching that in the other areas. Groundbreaking took place in September 2009, despite a dispute between the city and Burroughs & Chapin, with a question over whether the company would pay for its section. Nevertheless, the company supported the boardwalk and expected its plans for the Pavilion site would benefit. The cost of the project had been cut in half, mainly due to the economic slowdown, making companies more eager to get work. A controversial sales tax for tourism promotion has made it possible, without raising property taxes in the area, to pay off bonds the city issued to finance the project. The boardwalk was finished from 14th Avenue to 4th Avenue early in April. The boardwalk opened in May 2010 with a ribbon-cutting held May 15 as part of the Beach Music Festival. It attracted people from the area and across the country who had not been downtown in years. The southernmost section, beyond 4th Avenue, was not complete until June. On December 1, 2011, the Myrtle Beach Community Appearance Board saw plans for a new restaurant and park north of 14th Avenue North, which could include an extension of the boardwalk, but it was not known who would pay to add to the boardwalk. On January 24, 2012, the city council agreed to allow alleys to be moved, creating space for the new park. Coastal Dining planned to build the Banditos Mexican restaurant where the Breakwater Inn was before its demolition, and to pay part of the $420,000 cost of the boardwalk extension as well as connecting 15th Avenue North to Ocean Boulevard. The extension was