About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 16, 2019)
THE ^ISLANDER Published by Permar Publications www.theislanderonline.com ssislander@bellsouth.net September 16, 2019 Established in 1972 Vol 47 Issue 37 Few happy with golf cart rules By Matthew J. Permar The Glynn County Police Department held a public meeting last week to discuss the county’s new Golf Cart Ordinance. Approved by the Glynn County Board of Commission ers (BOC) on July 18, the new golf cart ordinance goes into effect on October 18. Leaving last week’s meet ing, this tongue in cheek com ment was overheard, “Well, they did their job, no one’s happy about the ordinance.” That fairly summed up the meeting which seemed to be attended mostly by golf cart owners. The main bone of conten tion was that under the new ordinance, Personal Transpor tation Vehicles (PVT) are not allowed on streets where the speed limit is more than 25 mph. This prohibits the slow moving vehicles on portions of Demere Rd., Frederica Rd. and King’s Way and the entire East Beach Causeway. One audience member even accused the county of trying to ban golf carts from St. Simons altogether. There were two kinds of ve hicles mentioned during the meeting, but only one covered in the ordinance - the PVT. The PVT, which is the most common and has a top speed of 20 mph. The other, Low Speed Vehicles (LST), can travel at 25 mph. The meeting was at 6:30 Wednesday night September 11 in the Demere Annex Fire Station meeting room. The only notification for the meet ing was on the County Police Facebook® page. It was not on the Glynn County web site, nor was the media given notification. The program was put on by the police department’s new Manager of Professional Turn to Page 5 Golf cart ordinance 18 years... Never Forget... The Glynn County Fire Department and the Woodmen Life non-profit fraternal benefit society hosted a Sept. 11 Remembrance ceremony last week to honor the 412 first responders who died on September 11, 2001 in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Above: The American flag was raised and lowered to half mast. Right: Firefighter R.B. Benjamin tolled the bell 'Striking the Four Fives.’ Captain Flugh Brown explained the meaning of the ‘Four Fives’ saying, the sound of a bell holds special significance to firefighters. Since 1865 when a firefighter dies in the line of duty, department headquarters would transmit five bell strikes repeated four times with a brief pause in between. Left: Taking part in Wednesday’s ceremony were (left to right): Rep. Don Hogan, Rep. Jeff Jones, Capt. Hugh Brown, Governor Brian Kemp, Fire Chief Randy Jordan and County Commissioner Bill Brunson. Islander Staff Photos - Permar 11 | L *1 all j 1 1 j r , '*» j * m is, ^ j m - jjLWji DNR head reveals SSLT’s proposed path through German Village to Guale Preserve By Pamela Permar Shierling Last Monday Georgia De partment of Natural Resourc es (DNR) Commissioner Mark Williams answered questions regarding the St. Simons Land Trust’s (SSLT) use of Village Drive as a way into Guale Pre serve saying the DNR had ap proved a SSLT proposal using part of Village Drive instead of the entire length of the road. Williams, the featured speaker at the Golden Isles Republican Women’s Club luncheon, said the DNR has sent a letter to the Glynn County Board of Commission ers (BOC) which stated the Turn to Page 8 DNR & SSLT ZBA defers odd variance request By Pamela Permar Shierling The Glynn County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) was scheduled to hear a variance last Thursday (Sept. 12) but after a bit of confused discus sion and questions, the ZBA voted to defer the variance request until the November meeting. The confusion lay in the fact that the property owner was requesting a variance from the ZBA prior to any decision being made by any county elected or appointed board, such as the planning commission. The property, 1.83 acres on Altama Avenue - the old Bowlarena site - is zoned Highway Commercial. The property owner wants to re zone the property to Planned Turn to Page 5 ZBA defers County-Wide News - Read County-Wide Page 2 - JWSC announces Executive Director finalists Page 4 - College hosts panel discussion on revitalization of downtown Page 6 - SGHS hosts RN hiring event Page 11 - Football with Dave Jordan Page 14 - COS sends relief to Bahamas Page 16- Back Talk 0 94922 29970 3
