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Jacquie Wheeler
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Belinda Thomas Realty, Inc.

20 years of law enforcement experience and now specializing in residential real estate.

Jacquie Wheeler
912-230-1294

JWheeler@JWheelerHomes.com

www.JWheelerHomes.com

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Coastal Viewpoint has added a great new game in the Puzzles section. Jim's map of the U.S.A. is fun for adults and children. Just put the states where they belong. Challenge others to a contest. Compare scores. Great for learning geography of U.S.A.

There is also another new game in the Puzzles section that is great FUN!   How good are you at tossing a paper ball into the trash can.   Find out! It is called Throw Paper! Be sure to notice the wind speed and direction influence that the fan has on the paper ball.

Click here or just go to puzzles section and click on Jim's Map Game and Throw Paper!


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Coastal Viewpoint decided to ask a question of the three presidential candidates. It is an almost timeless question - Why did the chicken cross the road?

Barack Obama:

The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a CHANGE! Look, it was all about change. The chicken wanted CHANGE! He deserves change. The chickens on the other side should pay for that change.

John Mccain:

My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he too recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue. I say tear down that road. No more illegal chickens. Remove the hazards. I will work with my good friends on the other side .. In fact, let's tear down the differences .. One party, not two, all the same!

Hillary Clinton:

When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. We dodged bullets. But that experience makes me the one uniquely qualified to ensure - right from Day One! - that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road.. But then, this really isn't about me.....

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Coastal Viewpoint is very pleased to have just reached the White House for a comment from our President.

President George W. Bush:

Well, you know, the citizens asked for a fence, it was voted on and approved and I signed that bill into law. But the Democrats have held us up. If we would have had that fence in place, the chicken wouldn't have crossed the road.

Vice-President Dick Cheney:

Someone hid my shotgun or I would show you some change. I could take care of that problem.

CLICKABLE HIGHLIGHTS

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   New Humor from Bud

     Terrible Predictions

        New Fun Games

      New Wildlife Section

               Funny

                     Amy L. Callaway

is running for District 1 County Commissioner. She is running on some principles we can definitely agree with:

                                      No "Done Deals"

                                      Protect Private Property Rights

                                      A Commissioner Who Listens

Like everyone who lives or works or both on St. Simons Island, we have been concerned with the roundabout and the success and/or failure of that design. We have to travel the Island every day and so have had ample opportunity to evaluate the design. So far, so good. It has reduced the wait at that intersection, but it is not without some concerns.

The roundabout definitely requires a state of heightened awareness when busy. It is not as simple as a traffic light. When busy, you are sitting and waiting for an opportunity to jump into the flow. The problem is that you never know if the car coming at you is going to exit - hence providing a spot for you to enter the circle, or if it is going to continue on around and have the right away - hence cutting off that access point.

This decision process continues until you get the opportunity to enter the flow of traffic around the circle. We have paid particular attention to the process in an effort to measure the amount of time that a person has to make "THE" decision. When traffic is busy, the decision time is about one second. If you don't make the decision, then of course you get another chance. But if you miss more than one, people will rightfully get very aggravated with you.

As much as we have studied the traffic flow, we are still unable to figure how two lanes in the circle will work. The circle just seems too small to justify two lanes. We will have to see it to believe it.

The really scary part has nothing to do with the roundabout at all. We were in the Suntrust Bank which is less than 200 feet from the circle and faces Demere Rd. We noticed that they slanted the parking in the wrong direction. You normally drive into the front parking lot from the right side (as you face the front of the bank). But if you do that, the front spots are slanted very hard at a sharp angle away from you.

Thinking that Suntrust Bank must be changing the traffic flow, we decided to investigate. The problem was that Suntrust had nothing to do with the layout. The people in there who wanted to remain anonymous, said the same people who were building the roundabout tore up their parking lot and have redesigned it (with fewer spots). When we pointed out that the spots were slanted in the wrong direction, they just shrugged their shoulders and said there was nothing they could do about it.

Of course, Coastal Viewpoint has pointed out that once the county decides to do something - even something really dumb like tearing up a great pool and replacing it with a lesser pool just so it could fit their plan - even if it is only moved 20 feet - well, you can believe the county would do anything.

If the county can decide to build a jail and spend 5 times too much just for the initial cost, use eminent domain to take private property so they can build it on prime waterfront property in downtown Brunswick - risking the death of the town, then of course they could slant the parking spots in the wrong direction and never even think that traffic flow would have to be totally changed - or that it mattered.

If the then chairman of the county commissioners, Tony Thaw, can invite The Facility Group (you know, the company where the chief exec's have been indicted) down to Glynn county and then ask them to design our new charter school with no competitive bid process, ask them to tell us how much we should pay for it, then let them up the price by about $5 Million, ask them to write the construction bid AND contract, and then award them the bid (all without ANY competitive low cost bid OR performance bond), well,... you guessed it, those same county commissioners could care less that the parking lot of Suntrust Bank has the parking slots slanted in the wrong direction.

And now, the county, the Development Authority and their attorney have the audacity to say they have done nothing wrong during the entire charter school bid and construction process. Here is a little head's up guys,.. the Feds aren't going to agree with you. When it comes to public funds, you don't get to do it your way. Oh sure, maybe you have gotten away it with it for years, but there comes a day when it ends.

But back to the roundabout, when it is busy, you have about one second to decide to jump into the flow. Frankly, we like that kind of challenge and have no problem with it. Of course, if you add up all the driving experience here at Coastal Viewpoint, well,... it is significant. We will just leave it at that. But even we are challenged in visualizing how it will work with an inner circle and in the height of tourist season.

It is almost humorous that we have started hearing commercials based on the roundabout. "Car accident on the roundabout? .. You are only seconds from our body shop!" It won't be humorous if it starts happening.

GREAT news!

We have a super candidate running for the at-large County Commissioner seat.

His name is Bob Coleman. Bob has been very active as a citizen and life long resident of Glynn County. He is NOT a developer.

The Coastal Viewpoint whole-heartedly supports Bob Coleman. If only we had more like him to replace our current commissioners!

Photo of new parking in front of Suntrust Bank. Photo was taken from front door of Suntrust looking out towards the parking lot in front. A car was parked the normal way but you can see the sharply slanted parking that will be required in the future. The normal entrance was to the left of the car. So cars would pull in and turn into the parking which was 90 degrees to Demere. With the newly slanted parking, the traffic flow into the bank will have to be changed but the bank employees have not been told about this. The new parking lot design was a decision made by the county and the people who designed the roundabout. Who knows? Maybe the county commissioners have decided to build a new pool in this area. Stranger things have happened! Our guess is that they will have to swap the entrance and the exit. That's not going to confuse anyone, is it?!

The Coastal Viewpoint has double checked the recent press release by Terry Carter, the political opponent of Senator Jeff Chapman. In addition to the previous false attacks made by Carter’s direct mail piece against Senator Chapman, Carter now has added another untruth. He claims that he serves as a deacon in First Baptist Church Brunswick. Coastal Viewpoint has learned from the Chairman of the Deacons that Carter is not an active deacon.

This is a very sad situation for us. We also attend and are active at First Baptist Church. We hope that others will not judge this church by the un-Christian behavior of Terry Carter.

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LETTER TO CITIZENS BY DEFEND DOWNTOWN BRUNSWICK,LLC

Defend Downtown Brunswick, L.L.C. and our co-plaintiffs have decided to appeal the obviously flawed decision by Judge Albert Rahn, III to dismiss our complaints against the City of Brunswick and Glynn County. Clearly the intent of the Sunshine Law is to expose the people's business to the light of day and the Judge's short sighted ruling enables any government body to operate with impugnity while defying the public to detect what actions and what decisions are made in private only to have a Judge say that a subsequent public meeting cures all prior bad acts.

That kind of mistake cannot be allowed to stand. We will continue to fight for the preservation of full disclosure and open governement, which we believe to be fundamental to our country and to our Constitution.

Jeff Kilgore

Kathryn Kasper

Kathryn Kasper of Brunswick has qualified and is running for the Glynn County Board of Commisioners, District 5. This post is currently held by Jerome Clark. Susie Miller serves as the Chairperson of the Commitee to Elect Kathryn Kasper. As a commisioner Kathryn's goals are to protect private property rights, promote cooperation between the City of Brunswick and Glynn County both of which govern District 5, support mainland interests, encourage new businesses and homeowners to come to District 5, and restore "open" government to Glynn County. Kathryn can be reached at kasperforglynncounty@comcast.net and welcomes your input and comments.

Another announcement of sorts was sent out as a mailer postcard by the man who is running against the best state Senator that we have ever had. We have decided not to give him the credibility of putting his name in print. But since The Islander printed his most recent press release, we have to mention Terry Carter by name. The mailer included lies and slander about Senator Chapman. It was the worst case of lying that we have ever seen in 40 years of politics.

This supposed candidate/man has never ran for any public office. So naturally he doesn't have any record. He did serve as president of the Exchange club for one year but we understand that he was Not invited to run again. We just don't know why he didn't go ahead and run for President except that he didn't have any experience as a County Commissioner. He is a developer.

It would be a complete joke except that lies and slander are not a joke. Now that this candidate has shown that he can lie and slander with the worst of them, maybe he would would like to start closer to the bottom .. like dog catcher (not that we could endorse him for any position of responsibility).

We do have more on The Facility Group (TFG) in Glynn County. But first, we have to comment on The Brunswick "news" (Bn) editorial today (Friday). Admittedly, it was so poorly written that we had trouble paying attention. The Bn blithely states that TFG "was not required to submit a performance bond."

STOP EVERYTHING! EVERYBODY, PAY ATTENTION TO THIS! It is the LAW that requires a performance bond.   True, The Facility Group was given complete freedom to tell us what to design, how much we would have to pay for it, what the specs should say (and shouldn't say) and then gets to build it to the specifications that they designed. And true, they wrote the specs so that no performance bond was required. What do you expect of such a company?? BUT THAT DOES NOT CHANGE THE LAW!!

Then the Bn goes on to say the unbelievable. "Ordinarily, this might not be a big deal as some in the community stood up and professed openly last month." NOT A BIG DEAL???!!! Well, if you consider all the laws that were broken in the process from start to this date by TFG and Tony Thaw and other local officials in regard to the technical school, maybe this additional one is "no big deal." But it really would not matter if every local official said that we didn't need a performance bond. The LAW says that when public funds are involved, a performance bond is required!! (That's the LAW for you. It just won't listen to Tony and his TFG friends.)

Then the Bn goes on to state the obvious (but riddled with reasons why we should kick TFG out right now) "Given all the company's legal problems, though, a performance bond would have allowed investors – at least the public school system – to breathe easier."

If TFG is not kicked out right now, and TFG goes under, there is liability that will fall on some unsuspecting heads. We hope everyone and especially the school board is paying attention to this.

Anyone who says a performance bond is not required for the publicly funded technical school is not telling the truth. We have challenged the attorney for the Development Authority and we challenge the County attorney to submit a written statement that a performance bond is unnecessary. Of course they will not do that because they know that a performance bond is required of The Facility Group! Based on that one single fact, The Facility Group (TFG) contract could be voided. But actually, there more and bigger facts that should negate doing business with TFG.

Admittedly, Tony Thaw and the Development Authority have yet to agree that a performance bond is a legal requirement. But since Glynn County did it Tony's way and the entire process ignored Georgia law, it isn't like we could depend on them to recognize a legal process.

In addition, TFG should have mentioned the MAJOR LEGAL ACTION AGAINST THEM. There is a space on the worksheet where each of the "bidders" (it wasn't a real bid even though a "real" bid is a legal requirement) is evaluated. TFG was given the highest marks allowed because no one knew about the litigation against them. If everyone had known about the litigation, they would not have gotten the points that they did. Because TFG did not tell the truth about the litigation, they did not comply with the process and that is another reason the contract with them should be void.

More Facility Group - Glynn County news coming soon!! We discover and investigate the news that no one else bothers with.   And we have some hot news - further proof of previous stories.   We will now probably hold that news to Monday. There is little danger that one of the other publications will break it ahead of us.

Check back! Also news about our readers. We get about a 20 page report on viewers whenever we want. It starts off generally with the average number of viewers per day based on the last seven days average. That is a moving average so it is very accurate.

But we can also check out the IP address of each viewer.   Guess who is a dedicated reader?!   The Facility Group!! Yep, lots of readers from that company. We guess they have to check with us to see what is going on. You guys at TFG will want to check back again because the next story is very hot!!