THE
^ISLANDER
Published by
Permar Publications
www.theislanderonline.com
ssislander@bellsouth.net
July 27, 2020
Established in 1972
Vol 48 Issue 30
Kiosks may go to Brunswick
If the art museum that Sea Island resort owner Phillip Anschutz has proposed for this Mallery St.
site at the pier village on St. Simons Island gets approved, these kiosks could be relocated to the
Brunswick Landing Marina in downtown Brunswick. Islander Staff Photo - Permar
Mallery St. art museum gets rezoning nod from IPC;
but design review deferred to August
By Matthew J. Permar
Removal of
Golden Ray
delayed
By Pamela Permar-
Shierling
Last week the St. Simons
Sound Incident Unified Com
mand, which consists of the
U.S. Coast Guard, Georgia
Department of Natural Re
sources (DNR), and Gallagher
Marine Systems, announced a
pause in the actual cutting up
of the capsized Golden Ray.
Cmdr. Efren Lopez, U.S.
Coast Guard, John Maddox,
DNR, and Tom Wiker, Galla
gher Marine, told the media
last Friday during a virtual
press conference that once the
cutting up of the ship began, it
must continue.
Based on the COVID im
pact as well as a predicted
active hurricane season, the
group decided to delay the
ship’s dismantling until at
least early October. The cut
ting and lifting was scheduled
to start early to mid July.
All three men emphasized
that work preparing the ship
for removal has not stopped.
Wiker commented that CO
VID has already impacted the
supply chain needed for the
on-going work.
“COVID and hurricane sea
son together have posed logis
tical challenges,” Wiker said.
The plan, Wiker said, is to
continue preparing the ship
for removal. “The Golden Ray
maintains structural stabil
ity,” he said. “Also there is
no problem with the shipping
channel so commerce can
continue.”
“The environmental pro
tection barrier will remain
around the ship and 24/7
monitoring will continue,” he
said.
Maddox emphasized that
the pause pertains only to the
cutting and lifting of the Gold
en Ray; other activities will
continue.
“Any environmental
Turn to Page 10
Golden Ray
In what was one of the
most convoluted pair of ap
plications they’ve heard in a
while, Glynn County’s Islands
Planning Commission (IPC)
recommended approval last
week (Tuesday, July 21) of a
rezoning for a controversial
art museum in the St. Simons
pier village area.
In a separate agenda item
about the museum, the ap
plicant, Sandy Vacation, LLC
owner Philip Anschutz, also
requested design review ap
proval of the museum’s design
and approval of the demolition
of the existing buildings on
the half acre tract, including
15 kiosks in the Pier Village
Market, a commercial build
ing at 308 Mallery (that actu
ally front on Beachview Dr.),
and a single family dwelling
unit at 513 Beachview Dr.
Anschutz also owns the Sea
Island resort company.
While the first request will
go to the Glynn County Board
of Commissioners (BOC) with
a recommendation of approv
al, the second request was
deferred.
Rezoning request
The property is located at
the intersection of Mallery St.
and Beachview Dr. on St. Si
mons in the pier village area.
Anschutz purchased the
property where the 15 kiosks
sit and the two buildings be
hind them on Beachview and
an open space on Oglethorpe
Ave.
Anschutz owns the entire
block with the exception of the
building that houses Simons
Gallery Gifts on Mallery St.
The property is zoned Vil
lage Mixed Use (VMU) and
Anschutz requested it be re
zoned to Planned Develop
ment (PD).
In her report to the IPC,
Planning Manager Stefanie
Lief said the proposed mu
seum was 20,000 sq. ft. and
because the lot was less than
three acres, a site plan was re
quired to be in the PD text and
is valid in perpetuity.
She also said the PD text
reduced the parking require
ment from one space per 70
sq. ft. of building space that is
open to the public to one space
per 400 sq. ft. of building
space. The existing kiosks do
not have any on-site parking.
Museum parking will be on
Oglethorpe Ave. on the north
side of the museum.
The PD text also sought a
reduction in the buffer from
10 ft. wide to three ft. wide.
There are currently no buf
fers around any of the existing
buildings.
Turn to Page 6
Art museum
County-Wide News - Read County-Wide
Page 3 - SGHS completes phase of new emergency room
Page 9 - Talking Sports with Dave Jordan
Page 12 - Back Talk
Glynn school
start date
changed
By Pamela Permar-
Shierling
Glynn County Schools won’t
start this year until August
20. The original start date was
August 11. The Board of Edu
cation agreed to this calendar
change at their Special Called
Meeting last week, July 21.
School Superintendent Dr.
Scott Spence said he did not
propose extending the school
year because of the later start
date. He did say that if, closer
to the end of the year, high
school students needed the ex
tra time, he would not object
to extending the first semes
ter into the first two weeks of
2021. “We have to be flexible,”
he said.
‘We have asked for a waiv
er from state testing,” Spence
said. “The students spend
Turn to Page 4
School start date
JIA ends
financial year on
f ositive note
y Pamela Permar-
Shierling
Preliminary numbers for
the Jekyll Island Authority’s
fiscal year ending June 30 in
dicate that the Authority will
not have to tap into their bud
get reserves to make up for
the COVID losses.
Even July is tracking bet
ter than expected according
to Marjorie Johnson, Chief
Accounting Officer. A 25% de
crease was budgeted for July
due to COVID but during the
first part of the month reve
nues are higher than expected.
While Jekyll’s June traffic
is off 15%, from June of last
year, since March 2020 traf
fic has increased almost 200
percent.
Jones Hooks, JIA Execu
tive Director commented that
Turn to Page 2
JIA '
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