Newspaper Page Text
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
