About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (May 20, 2019)
May 20, 2019, The Islander, Page 5 City names park after Abe Brown • Mayor questioned about JWSC director resignation By Pamela Permar Shierling Last week (May 15) the Bruns wick City Commission approved a resolution naming the G St. Park af ter former Glynn County Coroner Abe Brown. The park will be formally named the Abram F. Brown Sr. Park in honor of his life and service to the City and to Glynn County. A ceremony has been planned for June 30. Brown’s family was at the meet ing and received a warm round of ap plause when introduced by Mayor Cor nell Harvey. Com. Johnny Cason added an item to the agenda asking for a Brunswick Glynn Joint Water and Sewer Com mission (JWSC) update from Mayor Harvey who is the City’s representa tive on the JWSC. Mayor Harvey said he had received an email from a city commissioner ask ing about recent news items referring to the resignation of Executive Direc tor Jimmy Junkin. Harvey said it (the resignation) was a personnel issue that happened in ex ecutive session and he was not at lib erty to discuss it. Harvey said the commissioner asked how the personnel change would affect the city’s position of not honor ing the JWSC’s request to convey land and assets from the city to the JWSC. The mayor’s response: “It doesn’t af fect it whatsoever.” Then Harvey discussed the pending change in water cut-off policy, invento ry, smoke testing on St. Simons Island, and customer refunds of deposits. Com. Cason stated that during his time serving on the JWSC it went through executive director changes. “I don’t think this is what we needed at this time,” Cason said referring to the change. “I don’t like hearing about it on the street and I just don’t under stand why a move of this magnitude was made and this commission (refer ring to the City Commission) hears about it on the street.” ‘What happens in executive session has to stay there,” the Mayor respond ed. “I apologize that you had to hear it that way (on the street).” Cason said, “You also have an obli gation to this commission to keep us informed and in this case it just wasn’t done.” “I don’t take these kind of things lightly and I don’t understand how we get what is probably our first well qualified JWSC executive director and all of a sudden he’s gone and no body knows about it. I expect better.” Com. Cason then asked Harvey what projects currently are being done jointly by the JWSC and the City. The mayor mentioned the L St. project which is a joint city / JWSC project and he told Cason he would have a JWSC member come to a city commission and give them all the proj ect updates. Cason asked what was going on with Academy Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant. “There are capital improvements there that need to be made. They were discussed when I sat on the JWSC. Are they going to be Exchange Club Student of the Month The Exchange club of Brunswick recently held their third installment of the student of the month program honoring the high school seniors for the months of February, March and April. One senior from Glynn Academy and Brunswick High school are chosen each month by their teachers and counselors for academic and extra curricular achievement. Each student is awarded a plaque and a check for $100 from the Exchange Club. Paul McKenzie Chairman of the student of the month program was the master of ceremonies. From left back row Pres. Elect George Barnhill, Past Pres. Marcus Edgy, Chairman SOM Paul McKenzie and Pres. Kevin Higgins. From left font row: BHS senior Sidney Hall, Mauricio Padilla, Nahid Khalil and GA senior Brianna Milks, Hanay Waye, and Jon Michael McKinnon. Provided photo made?” Harvey said he would have the in terim JWSC director, Andrew Bur roughs, give the city commission an update. Cason said he wanted the record to show that “I think we had a mighty capable person running the JWSC and for some reason we seem to be mov ing away from the good tilings that I thought took place while I was down there.” “That is a matter of record for me and I stand behind who we chose to run the operation. I have given you in formation (in the past) and you have not reciprocated It’s going to cost the community a lot of money to make this change again,” Cason said. Harvey said the JWSC would be fine and would move forward and that there would be no hiccups during the transition to a new executive director. The Georgia Department of Revenue is installing a new vehicle tag and title registration system called DRIVES, which is designed to integrate Georgia driver records and enhance data integrity. What Glynn County Customers can expect: • May 23 and 24 - Walk-in tag and title services will be UNAVAILABLE. • May 21 through May 27 - Online tag and title services will be UNAVAILABLE. • All property tax services will continue to be AVAILABLE during normal business hours, Monday - Friday, 8:30 am - 5:00 pm. How will this new system impact tag and title customers? • Beginning with implementation, tag and title customers may experience longer than normal wait times. • To avoid such delays, Glynn County residents with May and June tag renewal dates who normally renew in person are encouraged to renew prior to Monday, May 20. • Customers and dealers seeking to conduct any title transactions should complete their business prior to Thursday, May 23. We are excited to partner with the Georgia Department of Revenue on the DRIVES project. Our staff wants to continue offering excellent customer service, so please share this information with your family and friends. We appreciate your patience as Georgia makes this important transition. For more information, please visit www.georgiadrives.com. Respectfully, J.L. 'Jeff' Chapman Tax Commissioner, Glynn County, GA
