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.
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