The Jekyll Island Authority (JIA) and its state-appointed Board of Directors, acting in concert with a yet-to-be-named private sector partner, will soon be drafting plans for the refurbishment and further development of Jekyll Island which will have major consequences for the island’s future.

In view of the legislative fact that Jekyll Island was established as a state park for the enjoyment of Georgia’s citizens and was specifically mandated to be affordable to people of average income, it seems both clearly logical and eminently fair that the people of Georgia ... be given an opportunity for their views on the development issues at hand to be sampled and counted along with those of the developers and politicians.

To this end, a development-oriented survey has been drafted by the Initiative to Protect Jekyll Island, a loose association of individuals united by their common interest in preserving Jekyll as “the people’s park.”

A ... vast majority of Jekyll’s visitors favors updating the island’s existing hotel properties, convention center and various amenities, and is adamantly opposed to further commercial and/or residential development, particularly on the island’s south end, which currently houses a 4-H environmental education center and one of the best soccer facilities in the Southeast, or within Jekyll’s golf course complex.

Please complete the JIS, the results of which will be shared with the JIA’s Board of Directors and lawmakers in Atlanta at the most appropriate moment.

Copies of the survey may be obtained by writing to [email protected] or by going to the website jekyllislandweather.net and clicking on to the Message Board item, “The Future of Jekyll Island?”

David Egan, Co-Chairman

Initiative to Protect Jekyll Island

degan (at) igc.org