Life on St Simons

Yes, St. Simons, we do have growing pains. It's not the first time, but it is the first time in my 40 years here that we have an opportunity to make intelligent decisions benefiting future residents and visitors. And, to my limited vision, we're at a bit of a tilting point for this community.

This very week we've observed activity relating to two of my pet peeves: What are we going to do about a tree ordinance? Beach Renourishment; yes or no? And, the third, my personal pet 'mess': how about it, Commissioners, will you do what's necessary to fix infrastructure, most notably water & sewer and traffic congestion? 
We’ll speak to this in depth in a wrapper in the near future.

Today I'm vent...

BEACH RENOURISHMENT IS A TRICKY SUBJECT here on St. Simons Island. Tuesday's county commission called work session is where it officially came up, since Governor Deal has offered 10 Million to Tybee and St. Simons to be used to put sand on beaches. That's it in a nutshell.

BUT THAT'S NOT IT in a nutshell. It might be 'here we go again', as we did in 1992 when this issue was so polarized I thought our leadership, as well as our citizenry, might have taken lessons from Congress! There was no middle ground where a reasonable person could stand. My view was that it was the beach condo complexes and hotels catering to visitors, versus permanent residents -- homeowners in non-beach front areas...

Remember the fantasy flick Never Ending Story from the mid 1980's? A bullied boy retreats into the fantasy of a magical book telling the story of a magical land in need of a hero to save it. Just maybe we're that magical land of Fantasia, in need of heroes to save us -- mostly from ourselves.

If you venture down the sand trail leading to the ocean at Eighth Street on East Beach you'll encounter our very own 'Swamp of Sadness'. It seems as though a fierce monster ripped through the accreted lands eastward of the beachfront most lots, and snarled its way towards the primary dune slashing both giant pine and sturdy live oak and all under story indiscriminately. These things tend to happen o...

SAFER THAN SAFE / A SECOND CAUSEWAY?

Through the years there has been a discussion about a 'second causeway' for St. Simons Island. There was a time when such talk was more than whimsical; I think there may have even been some preliminary investigation into the idea.