About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 14, 2019)
THE ^ISLANDER Published by Permar Publications www.theislanderonline.com • ssislander@bellsouth.net October 14, 2019 Established in 1972 Vol 47 Issue 41 Unified Command DNR Coastal Resources Division Director Doug Haymans (center in light blue shirt) and Coast Guard Commander Norman Witt (to the left of Haymans) listen to concerns and answer questions from local shrimpers and charter boat captains about the capsized Golden Ray during last week’s Unified Command meeting on St. Simons Island. Islander Staff Photo - Permar Unified Command meets with shrimpers and charter captains • Also: Oct. 12 update on Golden Ray By Matthew J. Permar BOC still working on SPLOST list By Matthew J. Permar The Glynn County Board of Commissioners (BOC) will meet in a special called work session on Tuesday (Oct. 15) this week with one goal - con tinue working on the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) 2020 project list. This will be their third SPLOST work session since last month. They met last week (Tues., Oct. 8) to continue the SPLOST 2020 discussion from their September work session. County Attorney Aaron Mumford has advised the BOC that they should get the final SPLOST list to the County Board of Elections by the end of the year in order to ensure it is ready for the May 19 General Primary, so they are working to get the original list whittled down to some thing they believe the public will support. The list that was presented to the BOC in September had over 80 projects that had been submitted by county depart ment heads and staff. Last week’s list had been culled down to just over 60 projects. One major reduction was in the number of recre ation projects. The September list includ ed 14 recreation projects rang ing from the replacement of the Village Creek boat ramp to new playground equipment at about 10 county parks. It also included repairs to the St. Simons pier, upgrades at Blythe Island Regional Park and funds for the St. Simons Coast Guard Beach parking lot master plan. All the recreation projects had been removed from last week’s list with the excep tion of the Coast Guard Beach parking lot master plan, which Turn to Page 3 SPLOST list Members of the Unified Command who are dealing with the capsized cargo ship in the St. Simons Sound, the Golden Ray, met last Thurs day (Oct. 10) in the A.W. Jones Heritage Center on St. Simons with local charter cap tains, shrimpers, eco-tourism businesses and others in the seafood industry to discuss the situation with the ship and answer questions. The Unified Command is made up of the Coast Guard; the Georgia Dept, of Natural Resources’ Coastal Resources and Environmental Protec tion Divisions; Gallagher Ma rine Systems, who represent the ship’s owners; the Georgia Dept, of Public Health and the National Oceanic and At mospheric Administration (NOAA). Representatives from all the groups were at the two hour event with presentations and to answer questions. Coastal Resources Division (CRD) Director Doug Hay mans ran the show introduc ing the different agencies and then making himself available to talk to anyone with ques tions and concerns. One wholesale seafood seller spoke to The Islander and was asked if and how the Golden Ray situation was ef fecting his business. He said, “I won’t really know until next spring when the bed tax collection numbers come out.” Asked to explain he said, “I sell to restaurants, who de pend a lot on tourists. If the hotel business is down, the restaurant business will be down, so my business will be down.” He said the primary seafood business here is the shrimping industry and crabbing. “Other than shrimp and crabs, there’s not a lot of commercial fisher ies in Georgia. Most of my fish comes from North Carolina and south Florida.” The businessman’s main concern was the ocean floor in the sound and rivers. “Crabs and shrimp are bottom feeders,” he said, “I hope they are monitoring the bottom to ensure contamina tion doesn’t get into the food chain.” Turn to Page 12 Unified Command Courthouse committee recommends expansion By Matthew J. Permar A Blue Ribbon commit tee appointed recently by the chairman of the Glynn Coun ty Board of Commissioners, Mike Browning (Dist. 1), rec ommended to the BOC dur ing last week’s work session that they move forward with a project to upgrade the County Courthouse. It started several months ago when two Glynn County Superior Court judges, Chief Judge Stephen Scarlett and Judge Stephen Kelley, came to a BOC work session with con cerns about the Courthouse. Their concerns included a lack of space and inadequate security. They said the issues were a concern but not at the Turn to Page 9 Courthouse committee Sports memorabilia and fun equal Marty Lyons Foundation fund raiser By Pamela Permar- Shierling A Y.A. Tittle autographed New York Giants jersey (this is for you older folks and knowledgeable football per sons) will be one of the many football memorabilia auction items at the Georgia Chap ter’s 7 th Annual High Tide Classic golf tournament and Annual Marty Lyons Founda tion Bash at the Beach sched uled for Saturday, October 26. The Marty Lyons Founda tion was the good that came out of two severe losses and an incredible high experienced by Marty Lyons in 1982. Marty lost his father as Turn to Page 6 Marty Lyons County-Wide News - Read County-Wide Page 2 - Board of Elections check out Page 11 - Penguin Project schedules new Dominion voting system meeting Page 10 - Pew News Union Street Ghost Tour School recycling challenge Page 12 - Back Talk returns next week 0 94922 29970 3
