Newspaper Page Text
County updates
Continued from Page 5
and they are in the final stages of
getting a design firm for the project.
“This station will take the load off of
Fire Station #1 at Ballard which can
have response time issues due to the
nearby railroad tracks,” he said.
Hagen said there will be two
SPLOST open house meetings for the
public on September 11 in Brunswick
and September 12 on St. Simons.
“These will give the public a chance
to ask questions about the projects,”
he said.
Planning Manager Stefanie Leif
said the updated version of the pro
posed Zoning Ordinance, the ‘August
8 draft,’ was on the county website.
She said the public comment period
has been rescheduled to September
18 and will coincide with the special
called work session of the Island and
Mainland Planning Commissions at
5:30 p.m. in the Pate Courthouse An
nex on Norwich St.
The community will have until
August 25 to submit their comments
about the draft to the Community
Development Department. She said
depending on the comments the draft
may be updated by early September.
Director of Emergency Manage
ment (EMA) & Homeland Security
Andrew Leanza reported on Tropi
cal Storm Debby saying they take all
storms very seriously.
He said this one provided a exercise
Millage rate
Continued from Page 1
is 14.455 mils. Using the rollback
millage rate would cost the system
almost $4 million in revenues.
In other business:
• the board adopted a video sur
veillance policy which states there
is no expectation of privacy in the
public areas of all Glynn County
Schools and campuses
“Video surveillance footage is the
property of Glynn County Schools
and is not subject to an open re
cords request. Video surveillance
footage may be viewed only under
the request of a judge through a
court subpoena or for a disciplinary
due process hearing.”
• during the citizens address the
board portion of the meeting, Ed
Van Otteren spoke about the sys
tem’s truancy problem.
Van Otteren, who has just left
his position as a School Resource
Officer (SRO) at Satilla Marsh El
ementary, told the board that the
court system is not helping the
school system.
“The SROs need help,” he said.
“State law allows for five days of
unexcused absences while our sys
tem is too liberal and allows 10
days of unexcused absences before
a child becomes truant.”
In Georgia if a child is charged
with truancy, parents / guardians
can face penalties.
Van Otteren said that if a child
is written up as truant, it goes to
state court. “All the state court
in preparedness. He said coordination
and communication between the city
and county agencies was very good.
He said the ‘executive policy group’
of commissioners and administrators
worked well and were continuing to
look for better ways to communicate.
He said Public Works Director
Danny Smith did a good job dealing
with drainage issues, including over
the weekend prior to the storm.
Chief Ebner said they activated
the Emergency Operations Center at
the police department and watched
the storm hour by hour.
He said, “Everyone worked really
well. Massive flooding was predicted,
so we made sure we were prepared
for that. Police and fire departments
got involved, as did the city, and it
was a great approach.”
Fallon agreed, and said the county
police were out in force.
Ebner said we had twice as many
officers out to maintain visibility.
Danny Smith said it was a good ex
perience learning how to organize for
a storm.
“We had about 45 trees down,” he
said, “between Sunday and Friday,
many of them water oaks.”
He also noted the while the county
got 13 inches of rain over three days
of Debby, they got four inches in five
hours on Sunday, August 11, which
caused more drainage issues than
Debby. “That volume and intensity is
hard for drainage to handle,” he said.
Commissioner Walter Rafolski
judge says is ‘you’ve got to do
better.’”
“My worst case in four years as
an SRO is the case of a brother and
sister. Each of them missed 40 plus
days of school each year for four
years. That’s over a year of school,”
he said.
“The trial was held in June and I
went. The judge said ‘you’ve got to
do better’ and he let them go,” Van
Otteren said.
“For parents who let their chil
dren miss more than 40 days some
thing more than you ‘gotta do bet
ter’ needs to be enacted,” he said.
“The board (of education) needs
to talk to the state court judge,” he
continued. “If you are going to get a
handle on truancy, something has
to be done with the legalities of it,”
he said.
The BOE also approved:
• the Coastal Plains High School
(CPHS) Memorandum of Under
standing (MOU) for FY 2025. CPHS
is a state approved completion spe
cial school for at-risk students.
• the Glynn Brunswick 911
agreement which allows the Glynn
County School System to use dis
patching and call services through
the Glynn-Brunswick Joint Public
Safety Communications Dept.
• renewal of the Sunbelt Staff
ing agreement for one year. Sun
belt provides services to the school
system for the deaf and hard of
hearing.
• the second year subscription
of Google Workspace for education
which includes 15,000 licenses.
(At Large #2) noted that the county
is working to get something in the
new Zoning Ordinance regarding
drainage.
Smith estimated the debris left
from the tropical storm was about
9,000 cubic yards and did not meet
the FEMA or GEMA requirements
for the county to get reimbursed for
clean-up costs, however the county
had decided to do a one time only pass
through the neighborhoods to pick up
the debris at no cost to the taxpayers.
The pick up will begin on August
August 19, 2024, The Islander, Page 9
21 starting on St. Simons, where most
of the debris is. It will likely take 14
days to go through the entire county.
All debris should be placed at the
curb on or before Aug. 21.
Only vegetative debris from the
storm will be picked up. No landscap
ing material or household items, in
cluding trash, tires and construction
debris, will be picked up. Piles that
include any of the prohibited materi
als will not be picked up. The contrac
tor will not pick up anything that’s
bagged.
Old fashioned service, New fashioned products!
ST SIMONS DRt'G Ca
We oiler a variety of small
gilts by lcx:at artists, beauty
products, prescription anti over
the counter medications and
hope you’ll continue to make
Us jour first choice.
We appreciate your business.
Tommy Bryan - Fharmacist/Ovvner
Longview Shopping Center • Frederica Rd • St. Simons Island • 912-638-8676
Don’t let moles make a mountain out of your yard
Humane Removal of Wildlife
Wildlife
Removal
Rodent
Control
Pest
Control
AOYEAfcs x
^ICRITTERI^
ffCONTROL
1983-202^
“Get Them Out Keep Them Out ”
Forester Scarboro • Critter Control of Southeast Georgia
(912) 771-8784 *(912) 704-3670 cell
Bats
Rodents
Raccoons
Squirrels
Birds
Fully Licensed and Insured
SURRt-ltMi
• St. Simons Island's Oldest Business - serving local builders,
contractors, homeowners, DIYers and handymen since 1930
• Family owned Hardware Store for 4 generations
• Full service - 150 years combined hardware knowledge
• Complete on-site lumber yard
• Competitive prices with the mainland
• Free Delivery
• Beach Supplies, Island T-shirts, tools & household items
• Parking around back - We'll load you up!
221 Mallery St., St. Simons Island • (912) 638-8601
