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Surfin’
the News
Published by Permar Publications • P.O. Box 20539 • St. Simons Island, Ga. 31522 • 912-265-9654 • ssislander@bellsouth.net
September 8, 2008 Established 1972 Vol 36 Issue 36
Downtown upgrade
The architectural rendering of the proposed renovation of 1404 and 1406 Newcastle Street
in downtown Brunswick, which was approved by the City Commission last month. The com
mission approved a height variance allowing the owner to increase the building height by 9
feet over the 60 ft. maximum. Rendering by W.G. Pitts Architecture
New owner puts new face on old downtown building
By Matthew J. Permar
Part 1
St. Simons Tree
Ordinance
By Don Gardner Glynn
UGA Extension Agent
Editor's Note: The Glynn
County Tree Advisory Board
has developed a draft copy of a
proposed tree ordinance for St.
Simons Island.
The draft ordinance is cur
rently being reviewed by Glynn
County's St. Simons Island
and Mainland Planning Com
missions. Both groups will
hold public hearings on the
ordinance before forwarding it
to the County Commission for
final review.
The county commission will
also hold a public hearing on
the document before taking
action.
Glynn County University of
Georgia Extension Agent Dr.
Don Gardner, who worked
with the Tree Board on the
ordinance, has written a series
of articles explaining various
aspects of the ordinance.
This week is Part One and
covers trees on county ease
ments versus those on private
property.
Trees - Private vs. Public
When a hue and cry arises
in Glynn Comity over trees, it
usually starts on Saint Simons
and wafts westerly over the
Frederica River.
This time it was a little dif
ferent because the complaints
came from west of 1-95. I
thought those highlanders did
not care about trees?
Recently a developer caused
a bit of a ruckus when he cut
down a number of oak trees on
the old Turkey Farm property
off of Hwy. 341.
I got the usual calls: folks
who cannot believe the County
would let someone cut down
those beautiful oak trees.
This might be a good time to
look at some history and facts
before the aspersions get cast
much farther.
Now, I am not an attor
ney, and none of what follows
should be construed in any
way to be legal advice, but
there is misunderstanding
about who has the right and
responsibility to do what. So
Turn to Page 6
SSI Tree Ordinance
School system
Out-of-Zone rule
changes considered
The Islander Newspaper
"Out of Zone is out of con
trol," said Glynn County School
Superintendent Dr. Michael
Bull.
Dr. Bull presented a propos
al for changes to the system's
out-of-zone rules at the Board
of Education Facilities meet
ing on Tuesday, September 2.
The reasons he presented
the proposal at the facilities
committee meeting is because
in some cases out of zone stu
dents have caused the system
to need additional classrooms,
which are facilities related,
and to hire additional teach
ers. The system will hire 4.5
additional teachers which is
caused in part by out of zone
students.
Dr. Bull stressed that the
changes are only in the pro
posal stage; that he welcomes
further input from BOE mem
bers.
Turn to Page 5
Out-of-Zone proposal
GPTV to air
Permar film on
Vince Dooley
By Matthew J. Permar
Pam's and my brother, Andy
Permar, was a cinematogra
pher and taught film at the
University of Georgia's Grady
College of Journalism.
Andy was also an indepen
dent film maker having pro
duced and directed documen
taries on former Georgia gov
ernors Carl Sanders and Zell
Miller, along with an award
winning film about 'Hills and
Dales,' the home of Fuller E.
Callaway in La Grange, Geor
gia, all of which aired on Geor
gia Public Television.
When he lost his battle with
cancer on November 6 of last
year, he was working on and
almost finished with perhaps
his crowning achievement,
a documentary on the life of
legendary University of Geor
gia football coach and athletic
director Vince Dooley.
After 11 months of hard
Turn to Page 2
Dooley documentary
Both the Brunswick City
Commission and the Downtown
Development Authority (DDA)
have high hopes for the contin
ued revitalization of downtown
Brunswick with a proposed
major building renovation at
1404 and 1406 Newcastle St.
The building, which was
most recently the Level 3 night
club, was purchased from the
previous owner by the DDA
and then resold to Moshe ‘Mike’
Waanounou, a local business
man who owns several busi
nesses on St. Simons Island.
Originally a two-story build
ing, J.C. Penny Co. bought
the building in the 1940’s and
turned it into a three-story
building without increasing the
overall height.
J.C. Penny operated their
department store there for a
number of years before moving
to a new and larger building at
the other end of Newcastle St.
on the site of the old Oglethorpe
Hotel.
Since sometime in the 1980’s
the building has been home to
a number of night clubs includ
ing The Hop, The Deep, Turtle
River Beach Club, Level 3 and
others.
Waanounou’s plan is restore
the original two floors and add
three more floors making it a
five story building.
The bottom floor will be a
restaurant, the second and
third floors will be offices and
the fourth and fifth floors will
be residential.
In order to do this, Waa
nounou needed to be able to
increase the building height to
69 ft., which is 9 ft. higher than
the city’s zoning ordinance
Turn to Page 5
City height variance
