About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (July 22, 2013)
THE 50<t ^SLANDER Published by Permar Publications Bridge Closure The South Brunswick River Bridge on Blythe Island (Hwy 303) will be closed for three weeks for repairs - 5 a.m. August 5 through 5 a.m. August 26. www.theislanderonline.com ssislander@bellsouth.net July 22, 2013 Established in 1972 Vol 41 Issue 29 Brunswick runway rehab gets FAA funds The Glynn County Airport Commission (GCAC) received notification last Friday that it will receive a federal grant to rehabilitate the main runway at the Brunswick Golden Isles Airport. The federal grant of $11,724,854 will be coupled with the required state and local matching share to equal a total project amount of $13,027,615. This does not include the taxiway portion of the project. The grant will allow Run way 7-25, measuring 8,001 feet long by 150 feet wide, to be completely rehabilitated beginning this fall. The GCAC is hoping for a second grant by the end of the federal fiscal year to complete the funding (approximately Turn to Page 4 Airport Public speaks on BOE budget By Pamela Permar Shierling The Board of Education meeting room held a capac ity crowd for the second of the three public hearings sched uled on the 2013-2014 school system millage rate increase. Public speakers were cor dial but frank with their opin ions and ideas about how to fix the 2013-14 budget, which has been adopted and shows a deficit of $6.8 million. Jeff Jones, current chair man of the Glynn County Republican Party, asked the board not to approve the pro posed one mil property tax in crease. “Go back to the draw ing board and cut the budget,” Jones said. Jones, a small business owner, said, “In a small busi ness if we don’t have the mon ey to spend, we don’t spend Turn to Page 7 School Board Knowing that the two Glynn County Libraries were withdrawing from the Three Rivers Regional Library Sys tem (TRRLS) on July 1, the TRRLS executive board filed a lawsuit in late May against the Brunswick Glynn Library Board of Trustees and Glynn County. The suit seeks damages for the investment TRRLS claims they made in the office space they occupied in the Bruns wick Library building. The county was named in the suit because they own the library building and provide operational funding for the library. By Pamela Permar Shierling The two Glynn libraries are now a single-county system called Marshes of Glynn Li braries (MOGL). Part of the suit is the dis- postion of $546,000 in funds that were once managed by the former Brunswick Li brary Board of Trustees (now MOGL). TRRLS believes they are entitled to a portion of the money. Several months ago TRRLS executive board contracted for a forensic audit of the funds held by the Brunswick Library. A hearing in Glynn County Superior Court scheduled for Friday, July 19, relating to the audit was cancelled ac cording to Glynn County At torney Aaron Mumford who represents the MOGL Board of Trustrees along with the County Commission. The hearing, in Judge Rog er Lane’s court, was requested by Glynn County and MOGL to determine the status of a forensic audit. The hearing was cancelled when TRRLS agreed to turn the $546,000 over to the court to hold in trust until the audit is finished,. The deadline for the audit is July 29. □ 2nd Anniversary St. Mark’s Episcopal Church thrift store, helloGood Buy held it’s 2nd Anniversary celebration last Saturday afternoon and for the second year handed out grant checks totalling $5,300 to three local charities. Kay Curry (far right) Chairman of the helloGood Buy Board of Directors, presented checks to: (left to right) Mardi Johnston with Very Special Arts; Kristen McDougal with CASA Glynn, Inc; and Cecelia Eisentraeger and Rev. Wright Culpepper with FaithWorks. Photo by and courtesy of Barbara Farias, Manager helloGood Buy MOGL Superior court hearing cancelled • $540,000 in disputed funds turned over to Court trust Surfin’ the County-Wide News - Read County-Wide National Dance Day Pew News MOAA Community News Church News Scholarship - Pg 2 -Pg 14 - Pg 7 Back Talk Editorial Column -Pg 16 Morgan on JWSC hotseat • Job on chopping block Matthew J. Permar In what seemed to be an unexpected turn last week, Joint Water and Sewer Com mission (JWSC) Executive Director Keith Morgan came within one vote of losing his job. During the JWSC meeting on Thursday, July 18, Chair man Ronnie Perry had placed an item on the agenda to ‘Re view (the) Director’s contract’. Perry made a motion to send a letter to Morgan in forming him that his current contract would not be renewed at the end of the year. It was not specified if the contract was based on the fiscal year, calender year or on the date of Morgan’s employment. The motion was a 3-3-1 stalemate with Perry voting Turn to Page 6 Morgan City works on ordinance to fill vacancies By Pamela Permar Shierling The Brunswick City Com mission continues to refine a draft ordinance that outlines a procedure for filling commis sion vacancies. The new ordinance defines how the commission will se lect a mayor or commissioner if the office becomes tempo rarily vacant. The City Charter only ad dresses a permanent vacancy. The proposed new ordi nance states that the unex pired term shall be filled by the remaining members on a majority vote. Last Wednesday night’s discussion centered around the details of how a new com missioner/mayor would be selected. When the proposed Turn to Page 6 City 0 9492229970 3
