The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current, May 06, 2024, Image 1

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The Islander., May 06, 2024, Image 1

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Newspaper Page Texttheislanderonline.com Published by Permar Publications ssislander@bellsouth.net May 6, 2024 Established in 1972 Pavilion at Demere Park The new pavilion and restroom building at Demere Park on St. Simons Island is a SPLOST 2022 project. It is 90 percent finished and it came in under budget. Photo Courtesy Glynn County Recreation and Parks Dept. County holds quarterly review focused on SPLOST projects Powell, Scott vindicated By Pamela Permar- Shierling Last Tuesday, April 30, in a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court of Georgia reversed the Glynn Coun ty grand jury indictments against former Glynn County Police Chief John Powell and his former Chief of Staff Brian Scott. The ruling stated, “For the reasons that follow, we con clude that the indictment at issue is not sufficient to with stand the general demurrers and violates federal constitu tional due process, and thus, the trial court’s order deny ing the general demurrers to the indictment should be reversed.” A demurrer is when the defense claims that the alle gations in an accusation are not sufficient enough to make a case against an individual, even though the allegations may be factually accurate. On August 20, 2021, a Glynn County grand jury re turned the indictment against Powell and Scott, charging Powell with four counts of vio lation of oath by a public offi cer and Scott with one count of violation of oath by a public officer. Similar allegations against Powell and Scott were dropped by Judge Anthony Harrison in September 2020. The August 2021 charges were brought by District At torney Pro Tempore Joseph Mulholland who was assigned to this case after former Dis trict Attorney Jackie John son, who brought the original charges, recused herself in June 2020. Noted in the Supreme Court decision: “The State re indicted Powell and Scott after the trial court granted special demurrers on the first indict ment for a lack of sufficient underlying facts, resulting in Turn to Page 10 Powell, Scott Last Wednesday (May 1) Glynn County Manager Bill Fallon, Glynn County Assis tant Manager John Gentry and all county department heads held a public review for all current SPLOST and capi tal projects. The county has set up a website, glynncounty.org (click on SPLOST / Capital projects) that shows the prog ress of each project including the original SPLOST budget, the revised budget, actuals, and any remaining budget. Also shown are how far along the project is, if the timeline is not being met, if the project has not started and if the project has been finished. There is also an interactive map that you can click on an By Pamela Permar-Shierling individual project, see a pic ture and get an update on the project’s progress. • The fiber network to county facilities on St. Simons Island is 56% complete. Dur ing Phase I, which is finished, Live Oak Fiber installed cable across the causeway at no cost to the county. In return Glynn County provided unused space throughout the County for Live Oak Fiber to install their hubs. Phase II, budgeted at $1 million, will connect to the Phase 1 Hub on Saint Simons Island at Fire Station 2. In addition, Fire Station 7, Fire Station 4, East Beach, Massengale Beach, and the Casino will be connected to the hub. Potential sites in clude the Skate Park on Demere Road and Gascoigne Bluff. The estimated timeline for connectivity is August 15, 2024. • The Community Develop ment Department’s software upgrades are 90% complete. Phase one of Opengov is com plete and gives the develop ment community and public more access and transparen cy, improves efficiencies and citizen experience, stream lines permitting history. Once Phase Two is complet ed users will be able to inter face with the program through See-Click-Fix technology. If a citizen “SEE”s a problem they will “CLICK” their phones to snap a picture to upload to the Turn to Page 2 Quarterly update County-Wide News - Read County-Wide Page 4 - D.A. King - Looking for a Better Life Page 6 - Volunteers needed for Causeway Cleanup -SGHS launches podcast Page 10 - Pew News Page 12 - Back Talk Vol 52 Issue 19 City’s proposed FY 2025 budget up 12.3% from 2024 By Pamela Permar- Shierling Brunswick City Manager Regina McDuffie presented the proposed fiscal year 2025 budget to the City Commis sion last week (May 1). The city’s general fund rev enue budget totaling $22,773 million includes property tax es budgeted at $7,884 million based on an 8% increase in the digest. Sales tax revenues are budgeted at $10 million which is a $1 million increase over FY 2024 approved budget. Property tax and sales tax revenues make up 79% of the budget. Municipal Court Fines are budgeted at $350,000 which is $100,000 over the FY 2024 ap proved budget. McDuffie said court activities are expected Turn to Page 11 Proposed budget BOC confirms zoning denial By Matthew J. Permar In what turned into a some what confusing litany of the history of previous owners, unpermitted house renova tions and a medical hardship, the Glynn County Board of Commissioners (BOC) upheld the denial of a variance re quest during last week’s meet ing (Thursday, May 2). The County’s Board of Ap peals’ (BOA) denied the vari ance during their meeting on March 14. The original variance heard by the BOA was for the resi dence at 327 Butler Ave. on St. Simons Island. At 5,227 sq. ft. the lot is a substandard lot of record in the R6 zoning district (6,000 sq. ft. minimum lot size). The attorney for the prop erty owners, Kori McGraw, told the BOC last week that Turn to Page 5 BOC zoning denial 0 9492229970 3