Newspaper Page Text
THE ISLANDER, NOVEMBER 22, 2010, PAGE 7
Unpaid bed tax
Continued from Page 5
playing at two locations. That’s why
it’s so important we have this gym on
the island.”
Davis said, “This island gym will not
only give us more flexibility, it will be a
much more professional site location.”
Davis also said the gym would be
able to be used for a wide range of other
community activities ranging from life
guard training to indoor festivals and
other public events.
“It will be available for anyone to
practice basketball,” said Davis.
Commissioner Sublett had a number
of questions about the facility including
adequacy of the site, parking and if
Neal could do the project within his
$43,000 budget.
Neal answered all questions in the
affirmative.
Regarding the site and parking,
Christian said, “This is the best of all
we looked at in that respect. It’s just
not centrally located.”
Sublett asked if senior citizens would
be able to use the facility.
Christian said, “Yes. That’s why I
suggested you commissioners tell us
what you want to put in the building.
The canvas is wide open, Mr. Neal has
not started yet. And we will be able to
put up to 300 people in this gym. Right
now we don’t have anything like that
on the island.”
Much has been made of the proposal
for the gym’s architectural design in
the local media.
It was stated that “some commis
sioners” were critical that the bidding
process was rushed.
That concern was not voiced at last
week’s meeting and the vote to approve
Neal’s bid was unanimous.
It was pointed out that Thaw had
staff seek architects to submit propos
als instead of advertising a formal
request for proposals.
It was also stated that the county
chose not to follow the formal bid pro-
School system to
reduce furlough days
Glynn County School System Super
intendent Howard Mann has announced
that Glynn County School System
employees will only have three furlough
days during the 2010-11 school year.
The Glynn County Board of Educa
tion’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget, adopted
in June, included three furlough days
for all school system employees. How
ever, anticipating further reductions in
state funding during the fiscal year, the
superintendent issued 2010-11 work
calendars for employees that included
six furlough days.
Recently, the federal government
provided states with additional educa
tion funding through the Education
Jobs Fund. The Georgia Department
of Education then distributed the addi
tional funds to local school systems
cess, which, had it been followed, would
have likely attracted more proposals
making the process more competitive.
While this may be the case, it also
needs to be noted that the process
the county used is completely legal
and nothing unethical was done by
Commissioner Thaw or anyone on the
comity staff.
Either county ordinance or state law
requires architectural designs services
over $50,000 to be put out through
the formal RFP (Request for Propos
al) process, but since Neal’s bid was
under that amount, the process was
not required and the county handled
the issue appropriately.
The county has been using this same
process for many years and Thaw and
the current commission are certainly
not the first to use it.
The reason the abbreviated process
is allowed is to be able to expedite
minor projects. Otherwise it would
take four to six months to go through
the bid process for a $43,000 architec
tural design. □
utilizing its established funding mech
anism. This resulted in Glynn County
receiving an additional $2.4 million
over the past two months.
“Because of the concerted effort of
our board and staff to be fiscally respon
sible and conservative with spending,
we are able to utilize the additional
federal funds to reduce the number of
furlough days for our employees from
six to three this year,” Mann said. “It’s
a real testament to the hard work that
our board and staff have done in man
aging our budget.”
Most Glynn County School System
employees were furloughed on Aug.
16 and Nov. 11 and will be furloughed
again on Monday, Feb. 21, 2011.
Wednesday, Nov. 24, which was origi
nally scheduled as a furlough day, will
now be a holiday for all school system
employees. □
GICA broadcasting goes mobile
Golden Isles Career Academy now has a broadcast news truck
which will allow them to broadcast live from any location.
Recently the Glynn County Fire Department donated a retired
ambulance to the school. It will be repainted by GICA's auto body
shop and ready to roll after that.
Glynn County Fire Chief Al Thomas, fourth from left, hands over the
keys to the "broadcast van" to broadcast video instructor Kevin Pul
len, second from left.
On hand for the ceremony are Glynn Tony Thaw, Glynn County
Commissioner and GICA Board Member, June McClain, GICA Board
Member, and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Altamaha Tech,
Pullen, Millard Allen, Chairman of the Glynn County Board of Educa
tion and GICA Board Member, Thomas, Dr. Patrick Ebri, GICA Board
Member, Rick Townsend, CEO GICA, and Dr. Ralph Gornto, Ralph,
Director FHigh School Programs.
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