About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 4, 2019)
City plans Continued from Page 1 Chamber of Commerce, Brunswick and Glynn County Development Au thority, and the Golden Isles Conven tion and Visitors Bureau. These goals will be presented to state legislators during the next session. Justin Callaway, President of NewCity Brunswick, was also there to discuss what the NewCity group plans for Brunswick. Callaway commented on two Bay Street issues that hamper bringing people to downtown: the noise damp ening issue and speed. His group wants to see investment on Brunswick’s riverfront and said, “We just need to keep knocking on the state’s door.” Mayor Cornell Harvey said, “The port is stifling the city’s growth. It doesn’t give anything back to the city. The port needs to do something for us. We have discussed moving the Mayor’s Point Terminal to Colonel’s Island but that won’t happen any time soon.” Callaway responded, “Georgia Pacific must be involved in any port discussion.” “Connectivity to the river and the atmosphere of Bay Street is very im portant,” Callaway said. He continued to discuss bringing residents to downtown and said part of his plan is to ask the legislature to provide funds for home ownership, down payment assistance, grant programs. “All of this will entice people to purchase homes in downtown,” he said. “There will be opportunity to develop housing across the income spectrum.” “Creating the right mix is very im portant and the state will be involved especially with grants,” he continued. Commissioner Vincent Williams said, “You can’t ignore the homeless. We have problems in the city. Your group (NewCity Brunswick) doesn’t want to deal with it but it must be dealt with if you want people to move downtown.” Callaway said he didn’t want to duplicate the efforts of other groups who are working with the homeless. Commissioner Julie Martin said, “Our laws on begging are vague and The Well has created problems.” The Well is located on Glouces ter St. and is open daily during the day to homeless people and operated by FaithWorks Ministry which Rev. Wright Culpepper directs. Many city residents, businesses, as well as commissioners have had a problem with the location of a homeless shel ter on Gloucester St. in the business district. Martin continued and said, “I spoke with Wright Culpepper about where he wanted his homeless min istry to be located (as opposed to Gloucester St.). He said next to the Glynn County Detention Center so he could help those newly released from prison.” Brunswick City Police Chief Kevin Jones was asked to comment on the homeless problem. “The number of homeless in Brunswick has increased three fold in the past seven years. I too asked Rev. Culpepper where he wanted to move the homeless minis try and he would not say.” Commissioner Felicia Harris said, “We (the city commission) had no say so in the purchase of something so detrimental to the city (referring to the Well).” The Well is located in the former Greyhound bus station at the inter section of Gloucester and Norwich Streets. “We need to have a voice before such things happen. The Well has been very detrimental to the City’s growth.” City Attorney Brian Corry said he thought the city could enact an or dinance that would prevent another Well from happening. Com. Williams asked, “After so many complaints / violations could we shut a facility down, could we make them move, levy fines, can we include this in the ordinance?” Commissioner Johnny Cason would like to see the city allowed to maintain the marsh vistas along Highway 17 south. “People come here to see the marsh,” Cason said. “Be cause of the Dept, of Natural Resourc es (DNR) the ditches along Lanier Blvd. are out of our jurisdiction and everything is grown up blocking the view. We need to appeal to the leg islature to let us maintain the views along the edge of the marsh.” City Manager Jim Drumm said the DNR refused to mark the marsh jurisdiction line for the city. “The DNR said we would have to hire a private firm to determine the jurisdiction line. Also the DNR won’t let us clear into the marsh. After the hurricanes the DNR said we could clean out what we wanted then they threatened to fine us,” Drumm said. The city’s main priorities for the legislature are bringing residents to downtown and money for grants for downtown housing, moving the Port to Colonel’s Island, help with improv ing the marsh views. Veteran's Memorial Continued from Page 1 $1.5 million, was earmarked in the current Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax 2016. A portion of that was spent on park design, leaving $1,373,950 in SPLOST funds for construction. The balance of the contract cost was made up from three sources: • $17,311 in remaining LMIG 2017 funds, (LMIG is the Georgia Dept, of Transportation’s Local Maintenance & Improvement Grant); • $276,551 in remaining LMIG 2018 funds; and • $274,693 from the county’s Capi tal Project Fund balance. In his report to the Finance Com mittee, Austin said, the lighting plan was omitted from the contract, but was listed in the contract documents. No reason was given for why the November 4, 2019, The Islander, Page 5 lighting was not in the contract. The lighting services Agreement’ is with Georgia Power Co. and calls for 23 light poles with 70-watt post top lights and two, 210-watt area lights for a total installation cost of $89,700 which includes the wiring, the lights, the poles, and complete installation. The lighting services agreement was done as a project ‘change order.’ In addition there will be a monthly cost of $555 for the electric bill. Austin also said his department had identified items in the contract that could be omitted or ‘value engi neered’ at a reduced cost. This reduc tion in the original contract price was $96,300 and could be used for the lighting. This would leave a net savings of $6,600 after paying the $89,700 cost of the lighting. So there was no increase in the original contract price to pay for the lights. K7 DO. 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