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500 THE "MSLANDER www.theislanderonline.com • November 29, 2010 Established 1972 Published by Permar Publications ssislander@bellsouth.net Vol 38 Issue 48 Liberty Ship Park The City of Brunswick has had plans for a public park underneath the new Sidney Lanier Bridge on the drawing board for several years. Back in April of 2007 Assistant City Manager Bill Weeks (left) and City Engineer Dan McFee spent time at the site reviewing the park layout, which will include a public boat ramp, the only one in city limits, and parking for cars with boat trailers. The end - or beginning - is in sight for Brunswick's Libery Ship Park By Matthew J. Permar Jail group says 'No' to Newcastle site By Matthew J. Permar Meeting for the first time on Tuesday, November 23, the Glynn Comity Commission’s recently appointed Jail Advi sory Committee (JAC) told county staff they were not interested in considering the controversial downtown site the county commission origi nally proposed for the county jail expansion project. The original site, which the county owns and is located in the block of Newcastle St. between I and J Streets imme diately north of the existing County Detention Center, was met with strong public opposi tion and dropped from consid eration by the county commis sion several months ago. After fighting for the site for several years and prevailing in court on three occasions, a Special Master, Superior Court and Appeals Court, the com mission voted several months ago to cease any actions on the site and allow the new com missioners, who will be seated in January, deal with the loca tion for jail expansion. During last week's meeting, the JAC asked staff to develop site options on five alternate potential jail sites and present them at their next meeting on Thursday, December 9. According to County Admin istrator Alan Ours the four potential sites include: • the existing county Pub lic Works Department site on Hwy. 341; this site is the loca tion of the temporary jail facil ity the county built to ease overcrowding in the Detention Center in anticipation of the jail expansion; building the expansion there will require relocation of the Public Works facility; • the old drive-in theater site on Hwy. 341 just north of the Honeywell property; Turn to Page 7 Jail Committee After six years in the plan ning stages there’s finally light at the end of the tunnel for Brunswick city employees who have been working on and res idents who have been waiting for the day the city opens the first new park to be built with in the city limits in probably decades - Liberty Ship Park. During their regular meet ing on Wednesday, November 17 the Brunswick City Com mission voted unanimous ly to approve the low bid of $861,500 and award the con tract for park construction to Woodard Contracting Co. Inc. of Waycross, Georgia. City Engineer Dan McFee told the commission, “If you approve this tonight, I’ll give Woodard their notice to pro ceed so they can get their bonding in place and hopefully break ground on construction early in January.” Located under the Sidney Lanier Bridge on the north side of the Brunswick River, the new park will feature the only public boat ramp in the city limits. While funding for the park is coming from the Georgia Dept, of Transportation’s transpora- tion grant funds, much of the hold up was due to various DOT issues including demol ishing the old bridge. Mayor Brian Thompson said, “This has been a long time coming. We’ve go to get this built.” □ Islander Staff Photo - Permar Perry Lane Rd. road closure The Glynn County Depart ment of Engineering Services has announced a road clo sure for portions of Perry Lane Road from Tuesday, November 30 until Thurs day, December 30. This work is necessary for construction of an under ground barrier wall along a portion of Perry Lane Road. Perry Lane Road will be closed to through traffic from approximately Bailey Road to Cate Road. The detour route heading east from Highway 341/SR25 will be: Bailey Road to Old Jesup Road to Cate Road (north) to Perry Lane Road. Detour signs will mark the detour route. □ GCAC considers capital projects Capital projects up for con sideration by the Glynn Comi ty Airport Commission (GCAC) through 2016 would be funded by the comity's SPLOST VI and Regional T-SPLOST (trans portation special purpose local option sales tax) funding. The T-SPLOST will be voted on by Georgians in August 2012. Voters will decide wheth er to raise local sales taxes by 1% to finance new local trans portation projects. House Bill 277 divided the state into 12 regions, each one unique in its own way. Local governments will have input on the list of regional projects that will be tied to the vote on the regional transportation special purpose local option sales tax. The state’s transportation planning director will cull a list of projects but the final vote rests with a “roundtable” group consisting of 21 mem bers including the county commission chairmen of each comity, an elected mayor from each comity and the mayor of Atlanta. Turn to Page 7 Airport Commission Football Contest Winners Week 12 By Matthew J. Permar Last weekend was the last week of The Islander’s Annual Football Contest and we want to say thank you to everyone who participated in this year's contest and to our fine spon sors, Brewburgers restaurant in downtown Brunswick and Mullet Bay Seafood Restau rant on St. Simons Island. Week 12 winners were: First Place - Grant White of St. Simons Island and Second Place - Dave Toth of Inkster, Michigan. The football contest will be back again next year and we look forward to everyone’s par ticipation. □ County-Wide News - Read County-Wide Christmas Tour Community News - Pg 2 Business News Pg 3 The Next Three Days Movie Review -Pg 13 Back Talk Editorial Column -Pg 16 9492229970 3