The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current, May 18, 2009, Image 1

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The Islander., May 18, 2009, Image 1

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Newspaper Page TextV Thg 500 JSLflND€R_ Published by Permar Publications • P.O. Box 20539 • St. Simons Island, Ga. 31522 • 912-265-9654 • ssislander@bellsouth.net May 18, 2009 Established 1972 Vol 37 Issue 20 • Dave Barry -10 • Editorial Back Talk -16 • Health - 7 • Movie Review Star Trek - 9 • Pew News -14 Surfin’ the News Group seeks communication with County E^i iS? y gp Glynn County Commissioners Tom Sublet! (Dist. 2) and Bob Coleman (At Large #2) (seated front, left to right) were the only commissioners who attended a town hall meeting on Saturday, May 16 to hear presentations about why Glynn County should not build their detention center expansion at the proposed downtown site. The two empty chairs were set aside for Commissioners Jerome Clark (Dist. 5) and Howard Lynn (Dist. 4), who were specifically invited to attend by the meeting's sponsors and had agreed but changed their minds and declined on Wednesday, May 13. The meeting was sponsored by Citizens and Businesses of the City of Brunswick (CBCB). Speakers and presenters on stage in the Jane Macon Middle School auditorium were: (left to right) Allison Van der Veer, David Brumbach, Jeff Kilgore of Defend Downtown Bruns wick and James Vivenzio of the Downtown Development Authority. Islander Staff Photo Recently formed grass roots group sponsors town hall meeting on downtown jail • County commission's city representatives decline to attend at last minute By Matthew J. Permar Gateway project hits 25% mark • How the Gateway will improve island traffic flow By Matthew J. Permar Despite some recent rainy weather delays, construction on the St. Simons Island Gate way project is continuing and at 73 days into the 270-day project, about 25% of the allot ted project time, County Engi neer Jim Bruner feels the proj ect is still on track for its early December completion. Last week Bruner said, “The weather slowed us a bit while we were clearing land along in front of the health club (St. Simons Health and Fitness). It caught us at a bad time in the clearing process, but the crews did a yeoman’s job and con tained the soil and rain runoff from getting off the site.” One of the questions most frequently asked about the Gateway project is: ‘How will this road project speed up traf fic flow on and off the island, particularly if the traffic light is going to remain at the Demere Rd. - Sea Island Rd. intersection?’ According to Bruner, traffic flow will be improved by two different aspects of the project. The biggest impact on traf fic flow will be from the reduc tion in phases of the traffic light from eight to three. Currently the traffic light cycles through eight phases - two phases, a left turn phase and a straight phase for each approach to the four way inter section. When the Gateway project is complete there will be three phases as follows: • Sea Island Rd. north bound through traffic; • Demere Rd. west bound through traffic to Brunswick; and • Sea Island Rd. south bound turning left onto Deme re Rd. east bound. The following five traffic sig nal phases will be eliminated: • Demere Rd. east bound onto St. Simons tinning left onto Sea Island Rd. north bound. (This traffic will be Turn to Page 6 Gateway project According to Mabry Brum bach, one of the founding mem bers of the Citizens and Busi nesses of the City of Brunswick (CBCB), Glynn County Com missioners Jerome Clark (Dist. 5) and Howard Lynn (Dist. 4) were specifically invited to attend a town hall meeting last Saturday to discuss the county's proposed jail expan sion. Brumbach said, "We target ed only Commissioners Clark and Lynn with invitations because both of their districts, or a portion of their districts, are within the Brunswick city limits. They represent us on the Glynn County commission. And we (city residents) are not getting fair representation from our county officials." Continuing, Brumbach explained that as of May 5, CBCB had received written confirmation in the form of e- mails from the Glynn County clerk's office that Commission ers Lynn and Clark would attend the town hall meeting. "We found out last Wednes day (May 13) that they changed their minds and were not going to attend," said Brumbach. Asked what explanation the two gave for changing their minds, Brumbach said, "Com missioner Clark said he did not know when the meeting was and Commissioner Lynn said he did not know the topic was the downtown jail." Brumbach disputes both these reasons saying, "We con tacted both of them, in writing about the time, place and the topic of this meeting. Original ly we did not think they would come, so we started a letter writing campaign thinking if enough city residents asked them to come, they would respond. We ended up sending over 100 letters with the meet- Turn to Page 5 Jail meeting GICA staff preps for classes • Enrollment numbers higher than expected By Matthew J. Permar Things are happening quick ly these days at the Golden Isles Career Academy (GICA) as everyone involved prepares to welcome students this sum mer. The Facility Group's con struction superintendent left the job site last week, after bringing the project in on time and close to $1 million under budget, according to GICA CEO Andy Lundell. The property title transfer process is in the works, the fire marshal only has a few more things to inspect in order for the school receive its Certifi cate of Occupancy and the next phase of activity is underway at the new school - getting it ready for Altamaha Technical College (ATC) adult classes to begin this summer. Lundell told the GICA board of directors during their regular meeting on Thursday, May 14 that the Glynn County Board of Education approved all the personnel contracts at their meeting on Tuesday, April 12. "We're excited to be mov ing forward as a team," said Lundell. During the same GICA board meeting, Dr. June McClain, ATC's Vice president of Academic Affairs, told the directors that the Technical College System of Georgia has approved the list of courses ATC will be offering at GICA. Dr. McClain said ATC is ready to start their adult class es at the school on July 2. Adult classes offered by ATC will include: air condition ing tech, auto tech, marketing management, business admin istration tech, industrial sys tems, welding and joining tech, cosmetology, criminal justice, computer information system support specialist, computer information system network ing specialist and drafting. ATC's dual enrollment classes for high school certifi cates will begin August 6. Dual Turn to Page 6 GICA preps for students