About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 2013)
50<t THE ^SLANDER Published by Permar Publications www.theislanderonline.com ssislander@bellsouth.net July 1, 2013 Established in 1972 Vol 41 Issue 26 Chamber of Commerce CHAMBER OF COMMERCE The Brunswick Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce (COC) recently relocated from their long time home on Glynn Avenue to Richmond St. in Brunswick. Taking part last Friday’s Grand Opening and Ribbon Cuttion at the new downtown location, which also houses the Brunswick-Glynn Development Authority (BGDA) and the Brunswick-Golden Isles Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), were: (front left) Mary Ellen Woodside, Mary Gould Woodside Morehead, Woody Woodside, President COC, and his two grandchildren (Woods and Bremmer.) Behind the railing were: Millie Wilcox; Kathy Stratton (COC); Catina Tindall, Chairman COC; Mel Baxter, Chairman, BGDA; Scott McQuade, Director, CVB; Dave Smith, Interim Director, BGDA; Wayne Johnson, Past Chairman COC; Mayor Bryan Thompson; Rees Sumerford, Attorney for BGDA; County Commissioner Dale Provenzano; and Carlton DeVooght, Past Chairman COC. Photo by and courtesy of John Scott, BGDA Project Manager Three Rivers Library System moves offices to Jesup BOE votes no on local charter school request By Pamela Permar Shierling With few comments the Glynn County Board of Edu cation voted unanimously to reject the request of a local group to form a charter school in Glynn County. According to the proposed school’s charter petition, the Glynn County School Sys tem would be responsible for all the expenses of the school with no control over the gov ernance of the school. Four board members com mented: Ingrid Metz, Millard Allen, John Madala and Ve nus Holmes. Ms. Metz pointed out the weaknesses in the charter petition. “The application needs more planning,” she said. “They want the BOE to Turn to Page 5 Charter school County looks at beach fees By Matthew J. Permar Meeting in a called ses sion on Tuesday, June 18, the Glynn County Commission discussed the possibility of imposing parking fees at the two main beach parking areas on St. Simons Island - Mas- sengale Park and the Coast Guard Station. The final decision was to al low the primary proponent of the parking fees, Island Com missioner Dale Provenzano (Dist. 2) to continue to work with staff on the issue and come back to the full commis sion with recommendations. At the commission’s direc tion, Community Develop ment Director David Hainley had been asked to review the issue and he offered a presen tation about beach parking Turn to Page 6 Beach parking fee After a long six months notice was given to the Three Rivers Regional Library Sys tem (TRRLS), both the Bruns wick-Glynn County and St. Si mons Island libraries are now out of the regional system. Effective Monday, July 1 the two libraries are members of the newly formed Marshes of Glynn Libraries, which is a single county library system. Formerly housed in the Brunwick-Glynn Library By Pamela Permar Shierling building, TRRLS moved its of fices to a former school facility in Wayne County last Friday and Saturday. The separation from the TRRLS has been contentious. And Friday was no exception. Linda Kean, the TRRLS director, had barricaded the Brunswick-Glynn County Li brary’s parking lot to accom modate two moving vans. Glynn County Police were called in to make sure the public parking lot remained open for library patrons. Brunswick and St. Simons library patrons will notice no difference in service at either facility. One library staffer said, “Despite the difficulties we are still open for business.” The library was closed for two and half hours Monday morning to get the new com puter system up and running. □ County-Wide News - Read County-Wide South Coast Bank Pew News CRCT Test Scoresl celebrates new location Church News - Pg 8 Community News -Pg 14 - Pg 2 Back Talk Editorial Column -Pg 16 Dean concerned about USGS monitoring cost • Votes 'nay' on budget By Matthew J. Permar The budget process for lo cal government entities is a lengthy one. Most start the process sometime in January with a June 30 deadline for approval. By the time the budget is ready for adoption, elected of ficials have all given input and are, usually, all on board with the proposed financial docu ment that will govern their spending for the next year. That didn’t happen for the Joint Water and Sewer Com mission (JWSC) this year. In a recent 3-2-1 vote, two members, chairman Ronnie Perry and member Sandy Dean both voted against the budget. Members Tony Sam mons, Don Elliott and Dale Turn to Page 4 JWSC Concern over BHS gym size • Night high school in place for , 13- , 14 By Pamela Permar Shierling There has been a lot of speculation, discussion and downright anger from the public over the perceived size of the new Brunswick High School gym. Hopefully all questions and concerns were answered at the Tuesday, June 25 Board of Education facilities commit tee and regular school board meetings. The main concern over the gym size from parents, teach ers, former students, and two board members is that the new gym is not large enough to hold graduation exercises which have been a BHS tradi tion since it’s existence. A1 Boudreau, school system Turn to Page 5 BHS 0 9492229970 3
