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Commission to hear from public, discuss veterans memorial park renaming Thursday

Brunswick News - 12/2/2020

Dec. 2--Glynn County commissioners will hold two meetings on Thursday to address a long list of subjects, including a proposal to rename Glynn County Veterans Memorial Park.

A special-called meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m., during which the commission is scheduled to hear an address from the Golden Isles Chamber of Commerce, consider instructing employees to begin searching for a company to administer the county's new short-term rental regulations, select a company to manage its new employee pension plan and discuss the future of the Village Creek boat ramp, among other things.

During the commission's regular meeting at 6 p.m., the public will get a chance to comment on commissioner Bob Coleman's request to name the county's new veterans park after the late Robert Torras Sr.

Coleman argues the park would not exist without Torras. The St. Simons Island resident was the head of a local family-owned business that included the Brunswick Landing Marina and Kut-Kwick Corp. in Brunswick and Torco Inc. in Kennesaw. He developed West Point Plantation on St. Simons Island and owned commercial real estate in Glynn County and in the Atlanta metro.

He was a U.S. Air Force veteran, serving as a bomber pilot until discharged with a service-related disability.

Opponents, however, strongly believe the park should not be named after one veteran. That's what five of the seven county commissioners argued during a work session in November. Only Coleman and fellow Commissioner Allen Booker support a new moniker for the park.

Commission Vice Chairman Bill Brunson still opposes renaming it, especially after the feedback he has received from the public via email, he said. He's only received one message in support but said over 100 have sent requests to vote down the proposal, including the Brunswick Elks Lodge 691 and dozens of veterans.

"Mr. Torras sacrificed his time, money and energy to make Glynn County a better place to live," wrote Glynn County resident and U.S. Army veteran Gary Wade. "He deserves to be recognized for all of his accomplishments. But he did not sacrifice as much as the people whose names appear on the monuments in this memorial park."

Brunson said nearly every comment he's heard over the last two weeks echoes that sentiment.

Commissioners will also consider abandoning some right- of-way representing a stretch of Sylvan Drive in the Glynn Haven neighborhood on St. Simons Island that was never constructed.

It's not certain the county hasn't already done so, said county engineer Paul Andrews, but going through the abandonment process seems quicker than going through records from the 91 years since the right-of-way was established.

The right-of-way stretches across 14 blocks in Glynn Haven and the commercial area to its south, following the banks of a lake that may have dried up 70-plus years ago.

Glynn Haven Baptist Church filed for an abandonment of the Sylvan Drive right-of-way on its property, Andrews said. The county's Community Development Department expanded the request to include the three blocks north of Palm Street in Glynn Haven, all residential.

"Years ago there was a lake back in there, and the original plat for that section of Glynn Haven was revised. A road right-of-way was created around that lake," Andrews said.

It's apparent that at some point, the former lake was filled in and built on.

Andrews said he was told that when the pulp mill came in 1937, the water drawn lowered the lake level.

"When that thing came on, the draw dropped the water level to the point a lot of artesian wells stopped flowing," he said. "It dropped the water table below the ground surface, which happened all around."

The right-of-way wasn't on the county's radar, he said, and hasn't been for some time.

"I suspect what was done is we already assumed it was dealt with because people were selling and building on these lots," Andrews said.

Attorneys for Glynn Haven Baptist Church, which is trying to sell land in the neighborhood, brought the matter to the county's attention.

"This one, it was so far back I suspect it got lost," Andrews said. "It wasn't on the county's radar that Sylvan Drive was still around and never dealt with. This was platting that was done in '29. I expect title research wouldn't reach this."

Other items on the agenda include:

A request to rezone three parcels on Sixth Street in Brunswick from general residential zoning to highway commercial.

A proposal to amend the county's future land use map to match a recent rezoning on Oak Grove Island.

A request to plant native flora in the beach and dune protection district at the end of 13th Street on St. Simons Island.

Both meetings will be broadcast live to the county's YouTube and Facebook pages.

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(c)2020 The Brunswick News (Brunswick, Ga.)

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