About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 17, 2018)
THE ^ISLANDER Published by Permar Publications www.theislanderonline.com ssislander@bellsouth.net September 17,2018 Established in 1972 Vol 46 Issue 38 Second Harvest Pack-A-Thon Above: Even College of Coastal Georgia President Dr. Michelle Johnston, in the midst of the frenzied packing, enjoyed volunteering along with the jj’ students. Right: A “bucket” brigade quickly formed to get the food out of the Student Center and into waiting trucks. Islander Staff Photos - Permar Organized chaos gets it done for hunger By Pamela Permar-Shierling Impact fees, golf carts topics at town hall By Matthew J. Permar Islands’ County Commis sioner Peter Murphy held his third quarterly town hall meeting of the year last week (Thursday, Sept. 13) and a number of topics were dis cussed including an unexpect ed discussion of golf carts on island roads. Murphy started the meet ing with a presentation, but the golf cart topic was brought up during the question and answer period after the pre sentation by island resident Daryl Rabert. Rabert said he was aware that golf carts are legal on is land roads with a maximum speed limit of 35 mph, but he said they are still hazardous and he often sees young peo ple driving them. “If you’re going to stop me for not wearing a seat belt,” said Rabert, “you need to get on these people on golf carts who aren’t wearing them.” Rabert said he had seen many carts being driven with out seat belts and was afraid it would take someone get ting killed before something is done about the problem. Murphy agreed. Murphy said he had already been talking to County Police Chief John Powell about the golf cart situation. He said it may be possible to ban golf carts from major island arteries like Frederica Rd., Demere Rd. and King’s Way. Chief Powell said he agreed as well and got irritated at times with golf carts on the road. Powell, Murphy, and the county attorneys were try ing to come up with an ordi nance to ban the carts on main arteries. “Someone will get seri ously hurt or killed on one,” said Powell, “During the last Turn to Page 8 Town Hall The Anchor in the Student Activities Center at College of Coastal Georgia turned into the hub of some organized chaos last Thursday all in the name of hunger. September is Hunger Ac tion month and Thursday, Sept. 13, was Hunger Action Day and Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia along with the help of hundreds of vol unteers came together at the College to pack bags of food for local children during the Hands of Hope Pack-A-Thon. Volunteers at the event, organized by Kalista Mor ton, Community Relations Coordinator at Second Har vest of Coastal Georgia, packed over 3,000 bags of food which were delivered to area schools on Friday so those children who need food will have food for the entire week end, Morton said. “Hunger Action Day is the highlight of Hunger Action Month, which is observed an nually to bring attention to the reality of food insecurity in the United States,” Morton said. About 120 volunteers came to help including 40 young sters from St. Simons Chris tian School. “Some 76 agencies get their food from us,” Morton said. “And many of their mem bers are here helping us to day. With only three people at our warehouse, we simply could not do this without our volunteers.” Volunteers filled kits with assorted nonperishable food items, such as protein bars, peanut butter, fruit cups, crackers, and juice. The food was placed in backpacks des tined for Glynn and McIntosh schools, and also distributed Turn to Page 9 Hunger SPC grants County permit request to dredge gateway By Pamela Permar-Shierling Glynn County recently re quested a permit from the Coastal Resources Division (CRD) of the Georgia Dept, of Natural Resources (DNR) to dredge the tidally influenced stormwater drainage ditch on the west side of St. Simons Is land and upstream of existing tide gates at the area known as Gateway of St. Simons. The proposal stated the project is under 1/10 of an acre, and may be considered a minor alteration of coastal marshlands under O.C.G.A. §12-5-280. Normally a minor altera tion does not require a pub lic hearing but requests for a public hearing were made to the Shore Protection Com mittee based on information Turn to Page 5 Gateway permit State BOE superintendent addresses high stakes testing, bullying By Pamela Permar-Shierling Georgia’s current State School Superintendent Rich ard Woods spoke to the Gold en Isles Republican Women last week and discussed issues and answered questions about several topics including bully ing, high states testing, Com mon Core, fine arts, and of fering a choice for high school diplomas. He also commented on changes he would like to make if he is re-elected to the job in November. Woods said that while the national graduation rate is going down, Georgia’s rate is up over 80%. Statistics Woods shared showed 96% of Turn to Page 4 Testing, bullying County-Wide News - Read County-Wide Page 2 - 1ST Annual Character Breakfast Page 3 - United Way campaign underway Page 6 - Hometown Heros celebrated Page 10 - Pew News Page 11 - Symphony celebrates Bernstein Page 12 - Back Talk 0 94922 29970 3
