About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (July 29, 2019)
THE ^ISLANDER Published by Permar Publications www.theislanderonline.com ssislander@bellsouth.net July 29, 2019 Established in 1972 Vol 47 Issue 30 South end speaks out It was a standing room only crowd last week at Brunswick’s First Presbyterian Church as residents of the city’s south end expressed their concerns about a proposed shelter for the homeless in their neighborhood. Islander Staff Photo - Shierling Residents up in arms over Hand in Hand Golf cart law in effect in 90 days By Matthew J. Permar In just under 90 days golf cart drivers around Glynn County will have a new set of rules to follow. During their regular meet ing last week (Thursday, July 18) the Glynn County Board of Commissioners unanimous ly (BOC) approved a new set of regulations governing golf carts on the county’s public roads. Spearheaded by Islands Commissioner Peter Murphy (Dist. 2), the new regulations follow and are in line with Georgia state regulations. The ordinance addresses two types of vehicles PTVs and LSVs. • PTV - Personal Transpor tation Vehicle: a four-wheeled motor vehicle with a maxi mum speed of less than 20 mph capable of transporting Turn to Page 11 Golf cart laws Oglethorpe Center still 'on go' with URA • URA seeks office space and an employee By Matthew J. Permar After going into closed ses sion for personnel and real es tate reasons last week (Thurs day, July 25) Brunswick’s Urban Redevelopment Agency returned to open session and voted to ‘proceed with the Oglethorpe Convention Cen ter as planned.’ Since it was discussed in closed session there is no pub lic record of the conversation. While the Oglethorpe cen ter project has suffered a num ber of setbacks, particularly relating to the high cost of the building and the Brunswick City Commission’s refusal to borrow the additional money Turn to Page 6 Brunswick URA Last Tuesday evening a crowd of angry property own ers from Brunswick’s south end filled the First Presbyte rian Church’s meeting room to overflowing and let the repre sentatives from Hand in Hand know that they did not want “supportive” permanent hous ing for 24 homeless people lo cated in the south end of town. According to their material, Hand in Hand of Glynn, Inc. is a 501c3 established in 2018 to eradicate chronic homeless ness in Glynn County. Anne Stembler, Jeffery Clark, Linda Heagy, and Katherine Thurber were the board members who presented the information to the public. According to their hand out, Hand in Hand is about to purchase Harper’s Joy, the former Brunswick Hospital at 519 Norwich St., to house 24 chronically homeless per sons. Harper’s Joy is located By Pamela Permar Shierling at the corner of Norwich St. and First Avenue in the resi dential neighborhood south of Glouceter St. Harper’s Joy, which cur rently houses handicapped adults, is owned by Distinctive Housing Solutions, Inc., a do mestic non-profit corporation. The CFO is David Crews as listed on the Georgia Secre tary of State’s website. It was purchased from Harper’s Joy Inc. in 2007 for $1 million per Glynn County tax records. Crews is also listed as CFO of Gateway Community Ser vice Board. Anne Stembler spoke first and talked about the area’s homeless programs and how each program was different. “We are raising private money to purchase the building.” Then she said, “We want what’s best for the area.” At this point the crowd laughed. Board member Jeffery Clark interrupted and told the crowd, “There are 400 home less within a 10 block radius in the city. They are in the parks and abandoned build ings. They are already in your neighborhoods.” “The Georgia Dept, of Com munity Affairs has recognized that this area has a homeless problem and money is avail able,” he continued. “There are no services available to the most vulnera ble who live on the street or in abandoned houses,” he said. “Some of these people we can not change, but we can create a program to try to support them by giving them a perma nent place to live.” Clark also told the crowd that he was amazed that they were concerned about what Turn to Page 5 Hand in Hand EPD terminates JWSC consent order By Pamela Permar Shierling The Georgia Dept, of Natu ral Resources Environmen tal Protection Division (EPD) has terminated the consent order issued November 2014 requiring the Brunswick Glynn Joint Water and Sewer (JWSC) improve the condition of the sewer systems. Andrew Burroughs, In terim Executive Director, re ceived the termination notice on July 22. A consent order is an en forcement action put forth by EPD to require a system to come back into compliance with applicable regulations. The order was issued by EPD following a significant sanitary sewer overflow on St. Simons Island. Turn to Page 8 JWSC consent order JIA approves new condo design plan By Pamela Permar Shierling Last week (July 16) the Jekyll Island Authority ap proved the revised design de velopment plan for the Moor ings at Jekyll Harbor. The approval was subject to further discussion and review of Building A’s courtyard de sign; to final Environmental Assessment Procedure (EAP); and to legal review. The plan was updated to preserve wild life corridors and to condense the construction footprint. The Moorings, developed by Carolina Holdings Group, will include 48 residences and include 39 condominiums in two buildings and nine town- homes in the third building. The buildings are four Turn to Page 12 Jekyll condos County-Wide News - Read County-Wide Page 2 - Scott leaves Glynn for Vidalia Page 3 - Sea Palms coming alive under new management Page 4 - Letters Page 12 - Roadwork to continue on SSI Page 13 - Sports with Dave Jordan Page 14 - Pew News Page 16- Back Talks 0 94922 29970 3
