WTOC, Savannah, Georgia, news, weather and sports | Group of Tybee Residents Trying to Save Battery Backus
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Battery Backus was built in 1898 as a portion of Fort Screven.
A local Tybee developer wants to build condos on a historic piece of property, but several residents are worried about preserving American history that dates back to the Spanish-American War.
Ed Cawley has lived on Tybee Island for more than 30 years and preserving the island's history is very important to him. "There's a lot of people that think this piece of property is owned by the federal government," said Cawley.
But that's not true most of the forts on Tybee were bought by private owner's.
Battery Backus one of six on the island. It was built in 1898 as a portion of Fort Screven and the military used it up until 1947. The forts were used to protect the Savannah ports.
So when Cawley found out a local developer bought this historical piece of property last spring, he was very interested to see what the new buyers planed to do and now knows the new owner plans to build condos. "I think it's a shame to lose our historical integrity of the area just to make a couple of bucks," said Cawley.
But building a condo on the shore line isn't that simple. Before the fort goes away, the city of Tybee must grant permits to the developer. The first steps in the process happened a couple weeks ago when the developer made that request. Tybee's city council tabled the request for now, buying Cawley and other concerned citizens more time to come up with a plan to save the fort.
"We are attempting to go forward with acquiring and preserving these batteries," said Cawley.
Cawley would like to see someone buy the properties and restore them, so families can enjoy a really piece of American history. "This is one of the last if not the last fixed gun in placement installations in existence on American soil," said Cawley.
One that hasn't been used in 50 years, but apparently hasn't seen its last battle.
The project will go back before city council on September 27. We tried contacting the developer, but he did not return our calls.
Tonight the group is meeting from 6pm to 8pm at Tybee's Community Center. For more information on the group, visit, http://fortscrevenpreservation.org/default.aspx.
Reported by: Brooke Kelley, bkelley@wtoc.com
