Citizens’ group
launches campaign to preserve “the people’s
island”
August 28, 2007
“To keep Jekyll Island State Park affordable for visitors of average income” is
the goal of a statewide campaign by the Initiative to Protect Jekyll Island (IPJI),
a grassroots, non-profit group serving as the voice of Jekyll’s visitors. IPJI
began its campaign after the governor-appointed Board of Directors of the Jekyll
Island Authority (JIA) made clear its approach to ‘revitalizing’ the
island.
The group is asking citizens throughout the state to sign a petition to discourage
the JIA’s Board from implementing a Jekyll redevelopment plan that, in
effect, would convert “the people’s island” into just another
upscale resort.
Hoping to gather tens of thousands of signatures on the petition, IPJI is asking
Jekyll’s many friends to spread the word far and wide, to everyone—family,
friends, neighbors and colleagues. The petition is available online at
the Initiative to Protect Jekyll Island’s website: http://www.savejekyllisland.org.
Hard copies for distribution are also available.
According to David Egan, Co-Director of IPJI, “By signing the petition,
citizens have the opportunity to step forward publicly, as Jekyll’s Senator
Jeff Chapman has done, to side with the ‘plain people of Georgia’ in
an effort to keep ‘Georgia’s Jewel’ affordable for all of the
state’s citizens.”
The island’s affordability mandate is part of Jekyll Island State Park’s
founding legislation, and IPJI hopes the petition will help protect that mandate.
IPJI will circulate the petition for the remainder of the year and present the
results to Governor Perdue and the Jekyll Island House-Senate Oversight Committee.
With widespread public backing and moral high ground under its feet, IPJI is
hoping Georgia’s lawmakers will call for the revitalized Jekyll to be affordable
and accessible to mainstream citizens rather than just the favored few.
