About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 9, 2024)
Page 12, December 9, 2024, The Islander Sidewalks and parting shots Now before I get to the ‘parting shots’ portion of the show, let me give the Brunswick City Commission an ‘Attaboy’ and an ‘Oh Man.’ The ‘Attaboy’ is for taking a stand with the city of Milton, Georgia in an Amicus Brief to light a $30 million lawsuit. Pam covers the details in her article on Page 3, but the long and short of it is Milton lost a negligence lawsuit filed by the parents of a student who left the roadway in a single car acci dent and hit a masonry planter locat ed on the City of Milton’s owned right of way. Yes, the court ruled against Milton to the tune of more than $30 million. Growing up I hit all kinds of crap in my car and never once did Ed and Elise say, “Oh goodness, let’s file a lawsuit.” They were more the you’re- paying-for-that-yourself-mister kind of parents. As this case, for some ridiculous rea son, now goes to the Georgia Supreme Court, Milton is looking for support from other municipalities. So good for Brunswick for joining the fight. Now for the ‘Oh Man,’ the opposite of an ‘Attaboy.’ During their meeting last week the city discussed the sidewalk on 4th St. between Altama Ave. and Hwy. 17 that the county currently has un der construction. The discussion was about the city reimbursing the county for the half of the sidewalk that is in the city limits. At some point - this is also in Pam’s article - one of the city commission ers asked city staff about a sidewalk that was proposed last year along the northbound lane of Hwy. 17 between the city’s Overlook Park and the end of the F.J. Torras Causeway. This proj ect was put on the back burner due to the extremely high cost just to design it. It never even got to the price-of-con- struction phase. It sounded like the city commis sion, or at least some of them, want to see this stretch of sidewalk built along Hwy. 17, which to me, would be a mammoth waste of money. Why? Because no one would use it, not to mention it wouldn’t really con nect anything useful. I don’t know how much we paid for the bike path across the Torras Causeway, but as someone who drives back and forth across it at least once a day six days a week, I can attest that days and weeks go by that I don’t see even one single bike rider crossing the Torras. It makes more sense to first put sidewalks in areas where they will get use instead of pipe-dream locations like along Hwy. 17. The new one on 4th St. makes The Islander ed,toeial sense because it’s across 4th St. from a large residential neighborhood, plus it goes right past the College of Coastal Georgia. I think it makes much more sense for the city to focus on repaving their existing pothole filled streets than put ting sidewalks where no one will ride. Parting shots Well, it appears President Joe Biden is definitely going to try to get in his fair share as he packs up the White House, starting with pardoning his son Hunter for his felony tax offenses. I don’t think any of us conservatives were surprised about this - I know I wasn’t. Did Biden lie about it or just change his mind? I think it was the former. I was amused by Biden’s Press Sec retary Karine Jean-Pierre’s comments to the media about the pardon. She said, “Two things could be true. The president does believe in the jus tice system and in the Department of Justice, and he also believes his son was singled out politically... And one of the reasons the president did the pardon is because it didn’t seem like his political opponents would let go of it. It didn’t seem like they’d move on. And so this is why this president took this action.” Maybe Biden believes in the justice system, but if he does, then he obvi ously believes he and his family are above it. Second, “singled out politically?” Does she mean like Donald Trump was by New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg? Third, “it didn’t seem like his po litical opponents would let go of it.” To my knowledge Trump, nor any Republicans, mentioned Hunter or his legal woes during the campaign. More spin. Finally, as an 82 year old lame duck who will not hold an elected office af ter January 19, Joe Biden no longer has any political opponents and hasn’t since his party was soundly defeated in the November election. I wonder if KJP wakes up in the middle of the night screaming into her pillow? There’s more... according to the New York Times®, “White House offi cials believe President-elect Donald J. Trump’s selection of partisan warriors for top law enforcement jobs indicates that he will pursue revenge against his perceived enemies.” The newspaper says, “Biden’s team is considering blanket pardons before Trump’s promised ‘retribution.’” Transform your space with the colors of 2025 Find inspiration in calm, confident colors that are as adaptable as they are distinct. The Benjamin Moore Color Trends 2025 palette invites you to think of all ends of the color spectrum, reminding us of what makes color capti vating. Rosepine 461. Hints of gray bring versatility and depth to this forest green. ^ Benjamin Moore 8 101 Palmetto St, St Simons Island, GA 31522 Phone: (912)634-1406
