About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (March 15, 2010)
THE "M'SLANDER Published by Permar Publications www.theislanderonline.com • March 15, 2010 Established 1972 ssislander@bellsouth.net Vol 38 Issue 10 Pier parking spots slated to go According to the plan for Phase 2 of the renovation of Neptune Park on the south end of St. Simons Island, this view of Jekyll Island and St. Simons Sound will be partially blocked by four shade structures that will be constructed as part of a 'plaza 1 immedi ately to the east of the pier. The plaza will take up 12 existing parking spaces and pier village merchants are concerned because parking has been an issue in the area for more than 20 years. Islander Staff Photo - Permar Pier merchants don't want to give up parking BOE 'educated' on tasers • Police say tasers effective 'tool' By Matthew J. Permar After a controversy ignited recently about whether Glynn County school resource officers (SRO) should carry tasers, the Glynn Board of Education’s Safety Committee met with various law enforcement offi cials to get the pros and cons of tasers and their use. During the Board of Educa tion's (BOE) regular meeting on Tuesday, March 9, board member John Madala, who chairs the Safety and Disci pline Committee, announced that he wanted to put the taser issue to a board vote at the March 23 meeting. Madala met Wednesday morning March 10 with BOE chairman Millard Allen, board members Ruby Robinson and Jerry Mancil, Superintendent Howard Mann and attorney Andy Lakin to discuss the tas ers with local law enforcement officials. Madala stressed that tas ers, an electronic stem device, were a safety issue, not a disci plinary issue. Madala said that the way the media has reported on pos sible taser use in the schools has caused the controversy. He said tasers would not be used on students as a form of discipline and any notion that they would be was "simply not true." Madala also said tasers would not be used for crowd control. "You're not going to tase one person out of 500," said Madala. This issue first came up last December when Chief SRO Ron Lee requested that the SROs be allowed to carry the device. Madala said the BOE has to also consider the possibility of lawsuits in instances when tasers are used. Turn to Page 5 Tasers As work on Phase 2 of the Neptune Park renovation pro ceeds, a large number of St. Simons Island pier village mer chants are concerned over one aspect of the project that will eliminate 12 parking spaces at the end of Mallery St. While 12 parking spaces may not seem like much at a mall or large shopping center, to Bobbie Davis, the owner of Roberta’s women’s clothing store and other merchants along Mallery St., 12 is a lot. In an interview with The Islander last week, Davis said the merchants were concerned about a ‘plaza’ that is going to be built at the end of Mallery St. just to the right of the fish ing pier. According to the architec- By Matthew J. Permar tural plans, the plaza will take up 12 angle parking spaces, six on each side of Mallery, and will contain four open air, roofed structures for shade with two park benches under each. Not only will the plaza take up the parking spaces, the structures will block the view of Jekyll Island and the St. Simons Sound from vehicles and pedestrians coming down Mallery St. Davis, who was a member of the original Mallery Park renovation committee said the plaza and structures were not on the original plan that was developed by an out of town consultant. She said the Phase 2 plan did not come out of the original group. But it was approved by the commission, although she said she’s not sure how it all happened or when the vote was taken to approve the plaza. According to County Public Information Officer Candice Temple, the plaza was in the original master plan concept for the park, but was not iden tified as a 'plaza'. Temple said that accord ing to local architect Robert Ussery, who was on the park master plan committee and designed Phase 2, the plaza concept was in the original plan but was bigger. Temple said after Phase 1, the Fun Zone, was completed, Turn to Page 6 Fed judge says 'Work it out' By Matthew J. Permar Abiding by the recommen dation of U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood, both sides involved in a civil suit over the location of the Glynn Comi ty Detention Center (CDC) expansion project have agreed to third party mediation in the case. The mediation agreement was signed on Tuesday, March 9 by attorney Mary Helen Moses for the plaintiff, Cath erine Browning, and by Brad ley Watkins, attorney for the defendants, County Commis sioners Howard Lynn, Jerome Clark, Don Hogan and Tony Thaw. Timeline Browning filed a civil suit to try to stop the county from building the jail expansion at the proposed downtown loca tion next to the existing CDC Turn to Page 6 Jail suit Postal consultant: Consider 3 days of delivery by Jeff Clabaugh Aflanfa Business Chronicle The U.S. Postal Service may not try to eliminate just Saturday mail delivery, if it follows recommendations from a consulting firm. Recommendations outlined at a postal conference in Wash ington, D.C. by McKinsey & Co. included more than 50 pos sible options the Postal Service could consider to address its swelling budget shortfall. Among them was a recom mendation to scale back mail delivery to as little as three to five days a week. The report also recommends scaling back the number of post office locations across the country, noting the U.S. Postal Service currently has 36,500 Turn to Page 5 Postal consultant Pier parking Surfin’ the News Clyde Taylor Community News - Pg 2 County-Wide News - Read County-Wide Creative car financing Business News - Pg 3 Alice in Wonderland Movie Review -Pg 14 Back Talk Editorial Column -Pg 20 9A92? 29970
