About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 23, 2019)
THE ^ISLANDER Published by Permar Publications www.theislanderonline.com ssislander@bellsouth.net September 23, 2019 Established in 1972 Vol 47 Issue 38 Rescuers honored Sea Island Company employees who were honored by the Red Cross last week were: (front row, left to right) Christopher Morris, Nelson Adams and Ben O’Steen. In the back row (left to right) were: Sea Island Safety & Compliance Manager Laura Ginn, Eliot VanOtteren, Jesse Johnson, and Gavin Earl. Photo provided by Sea Island Co. Red Cross honors six Sea Island team members with Lifesaving Awards Conference Center study not what City wanted By Pamela Permar- Shierling During the Brunswick City Commission work session last week (Sept. 18) Linda Wilson, president of Key Advisors Hospitality Consulting, pre sented a Conference Center Market Assessment Study to the commission only to be in terrupted by Mayor Cornell Harvey early in the presenta tion who said, “This isn’t what we wanted.” Ms. Wilson presented a study which focused on a con ference center that would sup port a 125-room hotel. The mayor said, “We are not looking at the conference center to support the hotel but for the hotel to support the conference center.” The Key study reviewed the conference center’s cur rent proposed design plan, researched conference center hotels available in the Golden Isles along with one compa rable out of county facility, identified the types of demand likely to use the conference center, and recommended a market driven sizing of the conference center facility to support the proposed private ly developed 125-room hotel which the report branded as a Marriott. Both LaRon Bennett, Chairman of the Urban Re development Agency (URA) and Jim Drumm, City Man ager, confirmed that a hotel / conference center developer was interested in building a hotel adjoining the planned Oglethorpe Conference Cen ter but declined to reveal the name of the group. Wilson stressed the impor tance of having the hotel and conference center adjoining or adjacent and appearing as Turn to Page 3 City conference center For their heroic actions on three separate occasions, Sea Island Resort employees Nel son Adams, Gavin Earl, Chris Morris, Ben O’Steen and Eliot VanOtteren were honored last week with Red Cross Lifesav ing Awards and employee, Jesse Johnson, was honored with the Certificate of Merit - the highest award given by the American Red Cross. Three children ages 6, 12, and 13 owe a debt of thanks to local photographer Eliot VanOtteren, who works for the Sea Island Co., for assist ing in their rescue Friday af ternoon August 2. The three, vacationing on East Beach from Carrollton, Georgia had been walking on the beach near Gould’s Inlet when they decided to go into the water. They soon found them selves in trouble being swept out to sea by the swift out going tides where the Black Banks River empties into the ocean at Gould’s Inlet. Hearing their screams, VanOtteren, who was there taking pictures, spotted them with his camera lens about 200 yards out and called 911. Being the only other per son on the beach, VanOtteren helped the girl closest to the shore get out of the water, but the other girl and the boy were still struggling and being pulled farther out to sea. The Glynn County Fire Department’s water rescue unit responded, as did a boat from U.S. Coast Guard Sta tion Brunswick, and county lifeguards. Jessie Johnson and Gavin Earl, employees from Rain bow Island at the nearby Sea Island Resort also responded on jet skis. By the time the rescuers got there the other two kids were reportedly about mile off shore. The two jet skiers were able to reach the kids and get them safely back to shore. County-Wide News - Read County-Wide Page 2 - Ga Power names new area manager Page 8 - Islander Football Page 9 - Business regs to ban business activity on public property Pew News Page 11 - JWSC prepares for Dorian Page 12 - Back Talk Late December deadline for proposed SPLOST list By Matthew J. Permar For several months the Glynn County Board of Com missioners (BOC) has been discussing the possibility of another Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) referendum for next year dur ing the May primary. If approved it would be Glynn’s seventh SPLOST since the mid 1980s. The first five were approved. The sixth failed the first time and was later approved on a second ballot a few years later in 2016 under the name SPLOST 2016. This was the first time the BOC stopped naming the SPLOSTs in numerical order, instead choosing to name it Turn to Page 6 SPLOST list City to repair and pay for damaged L St. water lines • AGL expected reimburse for damages By Pamela Permar- Shierling The Brunswick City Com mission voted last week (Sep tember 18) to replace and pay for water lines damaged by the Atlanta Gas Light Co. dur ing the L Street construction project as well as additional paving costs. They will try to recoup the additional costs from Atlanta Gas Light. City Engineer and Public Works Director Garrow Alber- son presented the information to the City Commission. History of the project: The City designed the L St. proj ect to reconstruct the road with improved storm drainage Turn to Page 4 L St. project 0 9492229970 3
