About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 30, 2019)
September 30, 2019, The Islander, Page 5 City SPLOST Continued from Page 1 on this week’s October 2 agenda which will begin at 4 p.m. • Discuss whether to Authorize Elkins Construction to begin Phase One of the Conference Center with the current design and size (20,000 square feet); or to authorize Gunn Meyerhof and Shay to amend the ar chitectural design to reduce size of non-revenue generating square foot age (approximately reduce the confer ence to 12,000-13,000 square feet); or authorize Gunn Meyerhof and Shay to amend the architectural design to build the current design, but in two phases (approximately 12,000 square feet). • Discuss requesting formally to the Glynn County Commission that they honor the pledge they made in open session (Winter 2018) to extend the construction time of the Confer ence Center by three years within the City-County Memorandum of Understanding. • Determine a plan of action in moving forward with the Oglethorpe Conference Center project. On April 7, 2016 the County deed ed the Oglethorpe property to the city for the construction of the conference center. The Memorandum of Under standing (MOU) between the City and County as well as the deed language required substantial completion of the center by April 7, 2019. The Glynn County Board of Com missioners (BOC) discussed amending the MOU with the City of Brunswick at their joint meeting with the City Commission on Mar. 20, 2018, and agreed to give the city two more years to substantially complete the project which would have placed the substan tial completion date at April 7, 2021. However the county never voted on the MOU or deed amendment. The consequences to the city ac cording to the original MOU are: • reimburse and pay into the SPLOST IV and SPLOST V accounts any SPLOST IV or V funds expended on the Oglethorpe Center located on the former Winchester Building site, including the $442,380 already spent to demolish the Winchester building; • pay the County the fair market value of the former Winchester Build ing site. However, the county never formal ly voted on the change so the city is in default but the county has never col lected on the default. In his comments at the end of the meeting Mayor Cornell Harvey said the city and county would be meet ing on Oct. 1. “We will give them (the county commission) our list in general with no pricing. They will have a fit about the conference center, and we might as well use it as a negotiating tool.” Commissioner Felicia Harris com mented, “We need to discuss our method of negotiation. We can’t ne gotiate by the seat of our pants. We go and ask for the maximum amount that we want.” “The 2020 census is important to us. We want to boost our population with transients coming in and out of our city,” she said. Note: SPLOST proceeds can be split by way of an intergovernmental agree ment or based on the city’s pro rata percentage of the total population. According to the Association of County Commissions of Georgia’s (ACCG) 2016 SPLOST Guide, the only accepted population figures offi cially recognized by the state are the decennial census figures compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau. City Manager Jim Drumm pointed out the 2020 census will not be done in time to be used for the 2020 SPLOST calculations. “We are not assuming we will use a percentage calculation for the SPLOST negotiations,” Drumm said. “This has not been mentioned.” Drumm also pointed out that Level One projects, such as a courthouse, would come off the top and reduce any share to the city. Mayor Harvey suggested the city go with three scenarios. “We will go with one and have two fall back positions.” “We have received 27% to 30% from past LOST negotiations. May be we should start there (with those percentages).” Harris said, “We don’t want to re peat the last LOST negotiation.” The City gave up management of Howard Coffin Park to the County in the last LOST negotiation and have criticized the county concerning the Park’s management and lack of use. Other SPLOST 2020 items include: • $16 million for a Howard Coffin Sports Complex. Mayor Harvey said maybe only a portion of the sports complex cost could be included on the 2020 SPLOST list and mentioned $4 or $5 million. • $18 million storm drainage. May or Harvey commented, “I thought we had a storm water utility user fee for this.” Public Work Director Garrow Al- berson said, “There are expenses as sociated with the storm water utility fee. The fee covers maintenance of the storm water system as well as person nel, equipment, and compliance.” Mayor Harvey said, “This is too high of a number (the $18 million). Alberson said he was working on a storm water master plan which would help the commission prioritize the projects. Storm drainage SPLOST 2020 proj ects include College Park ($2.5 mil lion); Albany St - F to I Street ($1.3 million); Macon / Talmadge ($1 mil lion); Wildwood Ditch ($1.5 million); Parkwood ($1.1 million); Altama / Sec ond and G Street ($1 million each); N St. ($3 million); Mo nek St. - Union to Bay ($1.5 million); South Brunswick ($4 million). Commissioner Johnny Cason said, “Lanier Blvd. and Riverside need to be raised up. These roads are subject to the high tides.” Alberson suggested the possibility of a grant to study these roads and use Turn to Page 12 City SPLOST
