About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (March 25, 2019)
THE ^ISLANDER Published by Permar Publications www.theislanderonline.com ssislander@bellsouth.net March 25, 2019 Established in 1972 Vol 47 Issue 12 Campus security If the Glynn County Board of Education agrees to a Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Brunswick to fence off and secure the Mansfield St. portion of the Glynn Academy campus, these yellow barricades and School Resource Officer’s car will no longer be needed to close the street. If the project is approved, vehicle access would be closed off during class times, but the gates will be large enough to accommodate buses and other vehicles. Islander Staff Photo - Permar City approves two MOUs with School Board Issues with Plumbroke Rd. raised at BOC By Matthew J. Permar In last week’s edition, The Islander editor Pamela Shier- ling wrote an article about a request for a variance on nine lots in the Peterson’s subdivi sion on Plumbroke Rd. on St. Simons Island. Plumbroke Rd. is off the north side Demere Rd. in the Jewtown area west of the Waf fle House restaurant. The variance request was heard by the county’s Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) on Thursday, March 14. The variance request was to exempt the lots from Sec tion 507 of the Zoning Ordi nance relating to the “Use of Substandard Lots of Record.” A number of concerns were raised at the ZBA meeting by several lawyers who attended Turn to Page 5 Plumbroke Suicide safety devices sought for Lanier bridge By Matthew J. Permar During their regular meet ing last week (Thurs. March 21) the Glynn County Board of Commissioners (BOC) vot ed unanimously to approve a resolution asking the state to install safety devices on the Sidney Lanier Bridge to help with suicide prevention. Specifically, the resolution asks the local legislative del egation to support the suicide prevention measures and ask the Georgia Department of Transportation to implement and install the devices on the Lanier Bridge. The request for the resolu tion was brought to the board by three local residents, former County Commissioner Cap Fendig, local businessman Turn to Page 11 Sidney Lanier Bridge Last week during their reg ular meeting (March 20) the Brunswick City Commission approved two memoranda of understanding (MOU) with the Glynn County Board of Education (BOE). One agreement will allow the board to close the block of Mansfield St., which runs through the Glynn Academy (GA) campus from Egmont St. to Albany Street, to traf fic during normal school hours including summer school and during special events held on the GA campus. Currently barricades are all that are available to keep cars and pedestrians off campus. According to BOE Facilities Director A1 Boudreau, three monitors currently patrol the very accessible GA campus to try to keep students and fac ulty safe. By Pamela Permar Shierling The BOE is in the process of fencing the entire campus for security, and Mansfield needs to be fenced during school hours for more com plete security. Boudreau said that the gates have been designed and would be put out for bid as soon as the BOE approves the MOU. Matthew Blackstone, GA Principal, told the City Com mission, “We are trying to be more proactive as far as secu rity is concerned.” “We have 100 cameras on the campus but cameras are reactive. We have kids cross ing Mansfield wearing ear buds; we have tourists wan dering onto the campus. We need a definitive line between the campus area and non cam pus area,” Blackstone said. “The gates will swinginward and not impede traffic along Albany or Egmont,” Black stone said. “They will also be fitted with push bars so they can be opened from inside in case of an emergency.” Per the MOU the City re tains ownership of the re stricted portion of Mansfield and it is not considered closed as a public right of way. The MOU has not been ap proved by the Board of Edu cation but could be on the agenda for the next meeting scheduled April 9. The second MOU between the BOE and City concerns transferring a portion of the now closed portion of Car penter Street north of George Street and a portion of Wright Square, also owned by the BOE, to the City. Currently George St. Turn to Page 2 City / BOE How Sea Island amended the SPA By Pamela Permar Shierling According to documents acquired under the Georgia Open Records Act (GORA) it is possible to see how the Sea Island Company got what they wanted into the Shore Protection bill, HB 445, that was dropped by Rep. Don Ho gan (R-179) on Feb. 22 and passed by the Georgia House on March 5. Early in the GORA emails (Jan. 27, 2019) Jennifer Kline, DNRs Coastal Hazards and Disaster Resiliency person, emailed Doug Haymans, Coastal Resources Division (CRD) Director, asking if there was anything she should be aware of concerning the Shore Protection Act (SPA) during her Leadership Glynn class trip to Atlanta. Turn to Page 5 Sea Island Jekyll Creek dredging to start in April The long awaited dredging of Jekyll Creek by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is scheduled to begin April 10. Cottrell Contracting, of Chesapeake, Va., will remove about 200,000 cubic yards of sediment from the eastern 75 feet of the channel, which is part of the Atlantic Intra coastal Waterway. The Jekyll Creek portion of the Intracoastal Waterway is the shallowest point in more than 160 miles of Georgia’s portion of the waterway. A tug was grounded and overturned in Jekyll Creek last December. Jekyll Creek has not been dredged since 1998. The aim of this pilot project is to devel op economically efficient and environmentally acceptable methods of managing dredge Turn to Page 11 Jekyll Creek County-Wide News - Read County-Wide Page 2 - Jekyll revetment Page 8 - Edgar the Squirrel IPC elects officers Page 13 - Sports with Dave Jordan Page 4 - Capitol Update Week 10 Page 14 - Pew News Page 6 -Jane Macon celebrates 60 years Page 16- Back Talk 0 94922 29970 3
