About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (July 20, 2020)
THE ^ISLANDER Published by Permar Publications www.theislanderonline.com ssislander@bellsouth.net July 20, 2020 — Revenue group to look at beach parking fees By Matthew J. Permar It was a dozen or so years ago that former Glynn County Recreation Director Wesley Davis was tasked by his boss es on the Board of Commis sioners (BOC) with exploring the idea of a parking fee for the St. Simons beach parking lots at the Coast Guard Sta tion and Massengale. The idea never got off the ground but is now being brought back for consideration. One of the justifications for the parking fee was that it would be a user fee paid for by the people using the beach. It was also found that St. Simons is one of the only beach communities on the east coast that does not charge a fee to park at the beach. Note: Back in the late 1980s for example, there was a $5 beach parking fee at the Lit tle Talbot Island State Park beach, which is just south of Amelia Island. In addition, there is cur rently no free public parking on Tybee Island near Savan nah - all parking spaces must be paid for seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., accord ing to the savannah.com web site. Island-wide, the rates are $3.50 per hour. Over the years Glynn’s BOC has considered the local parking fee on several occa sions, but the idea was gen erally met with disapproval from the public and never ful ly pursued by the county. Recently the task of inves tigating a beach parking fee was given to Glynn’s Revenue Study Committee (RSC) at the suggestion of Commissioner David O’Quinn (At Large #1). The RSC was created as part of the Glynn County Strategic Plan for 2017-2020. The RSC was created on March 2, 2017 to review all Turn to Page 5 Revenue committee Established in 1972 Vol 48 Issue 29 State school superintendent Georgia state School Superintendent Richard Woods spoke to the Golden Isles Republican Women’s meeting at Epworth by the Sea on Monday, July 13. Islander Staff Photo - Shierling State Superintendent discusses meeting challenge of returning to school under COVID concerns Richard Woods, Georgia’s State School Superintendent, told the Golden Isles Repub lican Women last week, the state is facing a big challenge with digital learning but is in better shape to move for ward than it was in March when the schools closed due to COVID-19. “We are working with pri vate industry and the state’s libraries to provide digital ac cess and we are in much bet ter shape to move forward,” he said. “We have sent a waiver to the U.S. Department of Edu cation to eliminate the high stakes testing, and we will use a formative assessment in By Pamela Permar-Shierling math and English when the students return to school in August,” he continued. Woods said his department is working with GEMA to sup ply two million masks plus sanitation stations to local school districts. ‘We are trying to take this financial burden off the dis tricts,” he said. We are providing guid ance to the school districts from the health department and the governor’s office,” he continued. “There are 180 school districts in Georgia and 2,300 schools. We need to be flexible.” The new guidance for schools no longer focuses on community spread of COVID but on the spread within a school. Right now the guidance fo cuses on symptoms, exposure and diagnosis at the school level and it, of course, will look different in each school and each district. The new guidance says that state and local public health officials may recommend that school districts adopt “more enhanced mitigation strate gies” when there are commu nity “flare ups” or “hot spots” of COVID-19. Georgia received over $400 Turn to Page 6 School Superintendent City moves on mask order By Pamela Permar- Shierling Brunswick Mayor Cornell Harvey wanted to discuss mandatory face masks in the city during last week’s com mission meeting (July 15). He said because of the CO VID virus spike in Glynn it is believed the area had be come a hot spot and suggested mandatory masks in all city buildings. City attorney Brian Corry is working on an executive or der for the mayor to sign and it should be ready this week. However, the city’s order brings into question Governor Brian Kemp’s law suit against the city of Atlanta for its man datory face mask order. While Kemp is encouraging every one to wear a mask in public, he said cities lack the author ity to make it mandatory. Turn to Page 11 City Commission County exits from federal land grant • Swaps land with Christ Church By Matthew J. Permar During their June 18 meet ing, the Glynn County Board of Commissioners (BOC) de ferred two actions regarding the realignment of Frederica Road in front of Christ Epis copal Church Frederica on St. Simons Island. According to county of ficials, the deferral was re quested by the church. Last week (Thursday, July 16) the items were back on the BOC’s ‘consent agenda,’ which was unanimously approved. The project was requested by church officials in August of 2017 when they spoke to the BOC during a work session. The idea was to relocate the Turn to Page 13 County Commission County-Wide News - Read County-Wide Page 2 - Loeffler makes Brunswick stop JWSC awards Arco engineering contract Page 4 - Letters - Oglethorpe Hotel Page 5 - Ga. Lottery sets record Page 6 - Star Foundation helping people get back to work Page 12 - Talking Sports with Dave Jordan Page 16 - Back Talk 0 94922 29970 3
