Newspaper Page Text
THE ISLANDER, JULY 14, 2008, PAGE 7
Career Academy on time and under budget
By Matthew J. Permar
D’ltri, “75% of the steel has been erect
ed and the first large quadrant has
all its steel and the roof in place. The
interior walls are laid out and the studs
The Golden Isles Career Academy
(GICA) Board of Directors learned
last week that construction of the new
charter tech school is on target for its
expected completion date in spring of
2009 and under budget.
Facility Group Senior Program
Manager Michael D’ltri, the construc
tion supervisor, told the board that
the project is 40% complete including
design, engineering, architecture and
construction.
“The project is under budget and
we are maintaining a good reserve bal
ance,” said D’ltri, “Everything is going
well and we are not experiencing any
problems with inspections from local
jurisdictions. We also hired Ellis and
Associates, a testing agency, to help
with special inspections. They can do a
lot of inspections such as concrete and
grout for example.”
“All the slabs for areas that will
be under roof are poured,” continued
Candidacy questioned
Continued from Page 1
applies to executive branch state and
local employees who are principally
employed in connection with programs
financed in whole or in part by loans
or grants made by the United States
or a federal agency."
"Covered state and local employees
may not -
• be candidates for public office in a
partisan election
• use official authority or influence
to interfere with or affect the results of
an election or nomination
• directly or indirectly coerce con
tributions from subordinates in sup
port of a political party or candidate"
Strickland is currently a Captain
with the Glynn County Police Depart
ment and has stated he plans to retire
July 31. And on Friday, June 20
Strickland, tendered his resignation,
effective immediately, as Director of
Glynn County Emergency Manage
ment Agency.
Dean's letter states: "I believe that
Mr. Strickland should not have been
allowed to qualify as he was, and still
is, in violation of the Hatch Act which
prohibits a county employee from even
exploring the possibility of running for
a public office in a partisan election."
Continuing, Dean's letter claims,
"It is significant to note that the Glynn
County government does receive some
federal funding and that, specifically,
the Glynn County Emergency Man
agement Agency receives a significant
portion of its operating funding from
the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) of the federal govern
ment."
Strickland said he has spoken to an
attorney at the Office of Special Coun
sel and is awaiting their decision.
"The attorney I spoke to said if I
was in violation (of the Hatch Act) I
could either withdraw from the elec
tion or retire or resign from county
employment," he said.
"I have advised them (Office of Spe
cial Counsel) that our primary election
is July 15 but I do not know when
they will make a ruling," Strickland
added.
are gomg in.
DTtri said the project was at the
critical stage where any changes, par
ticularly regarding utilities, would be
difficult. Once the walls are set, said
DTtri, changes are difficult. He said no
changes were currently anticipated.
DTtri said there were about 50
workers on site now and that number
would grow to about 80 within the next
month.
"We should have the school dried
in by early fall," said the project man
ager, "At that point we can work inside.
Hopefully, we will be inside by the time
the rainy weather gets here."
• In other business:
- There was some discussion by the
board about a newspaper article stating
that the Glynn County Board of Educa-
As for the local Board of Elec
tions acting on an alleged complaint
about Strickland being in violation of
the Hatch Act, Mrs. Patricia Gibson,
Chairman of the Glynn County Board
of Elections, said, "We (the BOE) have
not received a written complaint upon
which to take action. This is an issue
with the (Republican) party since this
is a party primary and we (the BOE)
did not qualify this candidate, the
party did. And the deadline for a writ
ten challenge has passed."
There is a two week window after
the close of qualifications for a chal
lenge to be filed. The July 15 General
Primary qualifications closed May 2.
George Skarpalezos, Chairman of
the Glynn County Republican Party
did not return our phone calls nor
did Glynn County Attorney Aaron
Mumford or Assistant Attorney Will
Worley. □
tion had paid the Gude Management
Group, Inc., their ESPLOST (Edu
cation Special Purpose Local Option
Sales Tax) construction consultants,
$226,000 solely to oversee the Career
Academy project.
The board's concern was that the
$226,000 figured also included con
struction oversight activities for the
new Jane Macon and Glynn Middle
Schools, but that fact had never been
reported publicly.
Board of Education (BOE ) chairman
Mike Hulsey was at the GICA board
meeting and explained that while
he had no input with the media, the
minutes from the school board meet
ing when the Gude expenditure was
approved clearly stated that oversight
of all three school projects were includ
ed in the $226,000 amount.
Hulsey said that with everything
Assistant Superintendent Howard
Mann and Facilities Director A1 Bou
dreau had going on right now, the BOE
felt it was a good idea to have another
set of eyes watching their construction
projects.
GICA board member Tony Thaw
asked Hulsey if he would have the
school board's public information offi
cer issue a press release to the effect
that the entire $226,000 amount was
not solely for Gude to oversee the
Career Academy. □
Late digest could
impact BOE budget
By Matthew J. Permar
Reporting to the Glynn County
Board of Education (BOE) at their
finance committee meeting last week,
Chief Financial Officer Andrea Preston
warned that the school system needed
to be prepared to make some financial
adjustments if the county Tax Digest
doesn't come in soon.
Noting that the revaluation notices
did not go out on time, Preston said
they were due back to the tax apprais
ers that day, Tuesday, July 8.
"Hopefully the digest will be in
by this Friday or next Monday, but
regardless of when it comes in, we still
have to set and report our millage rate
to the state by the July 31 deadline,"
explained Preston.
Complicating matters is the fact
that the BOE must advertise and hold
three public hearings on the millage
rate before they can adopt it.
Another potential problem would be
if more than 3% of the digest is under
appeal by property owners.
If this happens the BOE, which
depends on property taxes for about
65% of their budget, will need a court
order to bill 85% of the property tax.
As of late last Friday afternoon, July
11, the digest was still not complete.
□
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