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The Glynn County Parks & Recreation Department opened a new recreational facility on Saturday, May 23, 2009 the Neptune Park Fun Zone will open for the first time to residents and visitors. The Fun Zone is a multifaceted complex that includes a pool with splash feature, putt‐putt golf course and landside playground. The new facility also includes a bath house and concession stand. The Fun Zone is located in Neptune Park on St. Simons Island between the Casino and the lighthouse.
The facility will be open from Memorial Day weekend until Labor Day with extended operating hours of 1:00 pm to 8:00 pm for the pool and 1:00 pm to 9:00 pm for putt‐putt golf. The public will have access seven days a week. The days and times of operation offered at this new venue are a significant improvement over what was offered on the island in the past.
The multi‐functional pool of the Neptune Park Family Zone will allow expanded capacity for users and expanded services. The Parks & Recreation Department will offer water aerobics and swimming lessons in the morning prior to public swim times. The Neptune Park Fun Zone pool is open from 1 to 8 p.m. Daily admission is $7 per person.
The opening of Neptune Park Fun Zone marks the completion of Phase I of a comprehensive redesign plan for Neptune Park. The goal of the Village Master Plan was to create family friendly resources on St. Simons Island. Phase II of the Fun Zone will address the remainder of Neptune Park to enhance sidewalks, seating and lighting.
The following services will be offered at Neptune Park Fun Zone:
- Public Swim 7 days a week 1pm‐8pm
- Lifeguarded Water
- American Red Cross Swimming Lessons, Parent/Child, Preschool (new*), Learn‐to‐Swim Level 1‐6
- Private Swim Lessons by certified Instructors (new*)
- Swim Team (new*) Novice Team
- Water Aerobics (new* to this pool)
- Group Rates
- Locker Rental (new*)
- American Red Cross Lifeguard Certification Course
- American Red Cross Water Safety Instructor Certification Course
- American Red Cross Basic Water Rescue (what foster parents who have a pool need)
by Beth Burnsed, Jekyll Island Authority
Summer Waves Water Park on Jekyll Island is now open all week just in time for Memorial Day weekend. Regular park hours are Monday-Friday are 10 am – 6 pm with extended park hours on Saturday and Sunday.
Summer Waves Water Park offers six rushing water slides, the Turtle Creek lazy river, kiddie play zone, Splash Zone with a giant tipping bucket, and the Frantic Atlantic Wave Pool with waves reaching 2-4 feet high. In addition to cooling off, this season guests can “Have a Rockin Summer” at Summer Waves 
Water Park with in-park Wii Rock Band and karaoke competitions every weekend. For a quick, cool bite to eat the park features Larry’s Giant Subs and several snack stands serving cool drinks and cool treats.
Park Hours subject to change. For more information contact Summer Waves Water Park at 912-635-2074 or visit www.summerwaves.com. Be a fan of Summer Waves Water Park on facebook.com.
Neptune Park, located between the village and lighthouse, is St. Simons’s most popular park, where visitors can picnic, take a trolley tour of the island, fish off the pier, stroll on the pathway, or relax on a bench. Here visitors may listen to the cackling of iridescent boat-tailed grackles in the live oak canopies, or the screech of begging seagulls, or the noble silence of brown pelicans perched on the pier. One might want to examine finned trophies that lie gasping in buckets, if local fishermen have been lucky angling the deep currents that flow past the pier. The beach is best explored at low tide, when one might find whelks, horseshoe crabs, and sand dollars.
The park’s name is not in honor of Neptune, the god of sea, but Neptune Small, a slave that belonged to the Thomas Butler King family of Retreat Plantation, today the site of Sea Island Golf Course. During the Civil War, Small accompanied one of the Kings’ sons, who was killed during the Battle of Fredericksburg. Small retrieved the body from the battleground and bore it back to Savannah under very difficult circumstances. The family buried the son at Christ Church, and Small chose to return to Virginia to accompany another son for the rest of the bloody conflict. After the war, Small was given a plot of land on the plantation, located at the park, and he continued to work for the King family as a free man. When he died in 1907, he was buried in a small graveyard on Retreat Plantation.
Two exceptionally large Live Oaks are found shading the park, where visitors can use picnic tables, a playground, miniature golf, and benches and lounge chairs for contemplative views of sparkling St. Simons Sound. Neptune Park Casino has a public swimming pool open during summer. A 1.5-hour trolley tour leaves from here to other points of interest on the island, but some may prefer to see it under their own steam by using the biking/jogging path. The fishing pier is open to fishing, crabbing, and shrimping.
- Directions: From Brunswick, cross F.J. Torras Causeway. Go right on Kings Way to Ocean Boulevard. At Mallery Street, turn right to village and public parking.
- Activities: Historic touring, picnicking, bird-watching, miniature golf, swimming, fishing, crabbing, beachcombing. Dates: Visitor center is open 7 days a week from 9–5.
- Facilities: Visitor center, park, picnic tables, parking, swimming pool, restrooms, biking/jogging trails, lighthouse and museum, beach.
- Fees: A fee is charged for the trolley tour, Neptune Casino Swimming Pool, and miniature golf.
- Closest town: St. Simons Island. For more information: St. Simons Island Chamber of Commerce, Neptune Park, St. Simons Island, GA 31522. Phone (912) 638-9014. The Links Miniature Golf, phone (912) 638-0305. St. Simons Island Casino Swimming Pool, phone (912) 638-2877.
by Beth Burnsed, Jekyll Island Authority
Thanks to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center, the University of Georgia, and the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, diamondback terrapins now have safe havens along the Jekyll Island Causeway. Artificial nest mounds with raccoon proof cages have been placed at strategic points to hopefully reduce the number of terrapins crossing the road.
“Every year 200-300 terrapins are hit by cars while trying to cross the causeway,” said Dr. Terry Norton, Director and Veterinarian for the Georgia Sea Turtle Center “The turtles are looking for elevated ground to nest. Since the roadways are elevated above the marshlands around them, terrapins often believe them to be suitable nesting areas.”
The mounds were built to be safe elevated nesting areas approximately 30 ft back from the edge of the causeway to thereby decrease the number of times the terrapins try to cross the road. In addition, cages on top of the mounds will reduce the threat of predation. Terrapins can get in and out of the cages through small spaces at the bottom, but predators such as raccoons can not.
The work, although in its preliminary stages, is backed by similar projects in the Northeast for wood turtles. The concept is still in a research stage, and the Georgia Sea Turtle Center and its collaborators will examine the results at the end of the nesting season to see how much of difference the project made. “We are basically testing it out,” said Norton. “So it is a research project with conservation implications.”
Hodnett Cooper welcomes Mark Podlin to its commercial sales and leasing division.
Mark comes to Hodnett Cooper from Tampa, where he served as Senior Development Officer and Vice President of Asset Management for DeBartolo Development. During the great shopping center expansion period from the 1960’s through the 1990’s, the Edward J. DeBartolo Company was the largest shopping center developer in the world. Edward DeBartolo, Jr., owner of the San Francisco 49ers for 5 Superbowl wins, is the Chairman of DeBartolo Development, where Mark led his shopping center development group in designing and developing new major shopping center projects across the country, and personally negotiated anchor department store deals, acquired major tracts of land for development, obtained government entitlements, and supervised construction and leasing from project inception through grand opening. His most recent major deal was in Las Vegas where his work in attracting Bloomingdale’s as the anchor store to The Plaza Las Vegas resulted in the highest purchase price for land on the Las Vegas Strip–$1.2 Billion Dollars, which Elad Properties paid Phil Ruffin, the former owner of the Frontier Casino.
Throughout his 30 year career in the shopping center and regional mall development business, Mark has personally met and negotiated retail store real estate and development deals throughout the United States with the chairmen of Sak’s Fifth Avenue, Sears, Dillard’s, Macy’s, JC Penney, Kohl’s, Parisian, Belk, Montgomery Ward, as well as major store deals with Neiman-Marcus, Nordstrom, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Woolworth, McRae’s, Castner-Knott, The May Company, Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Michael’s, Staples, Petsmart, and many of the other well known stores we all shop.
Interestingly, Mark was educated as an actor and a lawyer, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and then a Juris Doctorate from UGA. Over the past thirty years, he has held an eclectic mix of corporate attorney and real estate positions, carrying him from Atlanta to Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, and beyond. He is a licensed Real Estate Broker in New York, Illinois, and Georgia, and was admitted to the bar in all three states, as well. Because of this broad background, Mark Podlin brings to Hodnett Cooper a unique combination of expertise and experience. As a member of their commercial group, his skills in management, acquisition, leasing, sales, financing and brokerage, paired with his knowledge of development and redevelopment, are certain to prove invaluable assets to both company and clients.
“Coming back to the Golden Isles is coming home for me, since I graduated from Glynn Academy in 1971,” Podlin states. “In fact, it was in 1970 when, fresh from my summer at the Governor’s Honor’s acting program, I first met the Hodnett family.” Ann Hodnett was producing The Lion in Winter at the Island Players, and the young aspiring actor landed a part in the play. “I was star struck – not just with the play, but with the whole Hodnett family, and now here I am, a part of Hodnett Cooper!” When Podlin is not brokering real estate, he likes to visit real estate around the world. His most recent trips have carried him to Tokyo, Rome, and Egypt, and he plans to take his son, Hunter, to Egypt and Greece this summer.
Mark will be in the Mainland Office, adjacent to the Glynn Place Mall at 11 Trade Street in Brunswick, Georgia.
Hodnett Cooper Real Estate’s commercial sales and leasing division offers local expertise in the growing Coastal Georgia retail and office space markets. Our professional and experienced commercial real estate group services Saint Simons Island, Jekyll Island, Brunswick’s Historic Downtown, the Colonial Mall Shopping District, Saint Marys, and Darien.
by Beth Burnsed, Jekyll Island Authority
Online registration for the highly anticipated 2009 Jekyll Island Georgia-Florida Golf Classic is now open. The Jekyll Island Georgia Florida Golf Classic is a tradition on the Georgia coast with 2009 marking the 30th year of the tournament. Dates for this year’s tournament are October 29-30. A precursor to the Georgia-Florida Football Game on Saturday, October 31, the tournament provides a platform for fans to show their team spirit in a friendly competition. “We are proud to host the Georgia-Florida Golf Classic. Every year we enjoy hosting our friends – old and new friends alike,” stated Johnny Paulk, Tournament Director. “It’s got to be one of the largest golf
tournaments in the country, and maybe one of the longest running.” Over 570 golfers compete in the two-day event and, between rounds, enjoy celebrating with friends at the traditional Wednesday night Cocktail Party and Thursday night Oyster Roast Buffet Dinner. Nonplayers can also choose from a selection of activities including putting contests, wine tastings, and luncheons.
While the Georgia-Florida football game is played in Jacksonville, Florida at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium, Jekyll Island and St. Simons Island are only a 90-minute drive. Many University of Georgia fans enjoy the tradition of staying in the area and taking advantage of the easy drive to the stadium. Registration is $270 per player until July 1 and $300 after. Online registration is limited to the first 400 registrants and includes tournament greens fees, ½ electric cart rental, cocktail party and oyster roast for player and guest and non-player activities. For more information on the Georgia-Florida Golf Tournament, contact the Jekyll Island Golf Pro Shop at (912) 635-2368. Be a fan of the Georgia-Florida Golf Classic and Jekyll Island on Facebook.com
by Alice Barlow
Monday, May 11, 2009 at 7:15 PM
St. William Catholic Church, St. Simons Island
Free and open to the public!
New Renaissance, an island ensemble of 15-20 volunteers, will present Antonio Vivaldi’s “Gloria,” featuring soloists Rhonda Hambright and Vanessa Mincey, a string quartet and organ accompaniment by John Harper. Conducted by Dr. Kermit Breem, the program will include madrigals and other a cappella selections.
New Renaissance current members are a varied lot whose occupations include – or included for those retired – high school and college teacher, hospital vice president, foundation director, judge, physician, counselor, lawyer, accountant, chemical engineer, and even a musician or two. Many are active in local churches as chorister, director, and organist. All are avid singers with a love of – and talent for – singing quality music. This is a program not to be missed!
Two developers, Jeff Mosley and Terry Carter of Covington Pointe, received word early this week that a Brunswick family was in immediate need. Delilah, a critically ill 10-month old infant was on the organ transplant list when organs suddenly became available in Miami, Florida.
While this was a wonderful, unexpected blessing, the family needed to arrange transportation for Delilah to Miami, with no time to spare. Word travels fast in a small town! Within an hour, Jeff and Terry, both trained pilots, were made aware of the situation. Terry’s initial reaction to the call for help, “neither of us needed time to think!” The two pilots began preparations immediately and transported the infant, her mother, and grandmother safely to surgery. We’re told the surgery went well and our community will be following Delilah’s progress closely.
When asked about this experience, Terry said “Sometimes God provides the right combination of people, resources, and quick thinking to come together in order to help others. It is an amazing feeling to see the joy and relief on the faces of those in need of help, to know that you are giving a precious gift to another human being. Jeff and I are both grateful and fortunate to have the ability to give back to our community! Giving to others is the greatest reward that exists.”
Thank you Terry & Jeff!!
