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Web posted Sunday,
September 26, 2004
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Channel finally clear for Jasper ship
terminal project
RIDGELAND: Officials say
they finally have firm grasp on where Georgia,
South Carolina authorities stand.
By Mark Kreuzwieser
Carolina Morning News
Officials with Jasper County and a private
maritime company now say they have a clear idea on
what it will take to develop a $450 million
shipping terminal and business park on the
Savannah River south of Hardeeville.
With
South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford's recent remarks
that the state must support existing ports in
Charleston and Georgetown before committing to a
new facility in Jasper County, proponents of the
Jasper terminal now say they know where they
stand.
Sanford, in Port Royal last week to
sign a bill officially closing the state's port in
that town, said "... I think the feeling in
Columbia is that we have to take care of the needs
of the existing port facilities
first."
Sanford went on to say that Georgia
Gov. Sonny Purdue feels the same way about the
Georgia Ports Authority's Port of
Savannah.
"I don't think it would be
advantageous to the taxpayers of either state to
have two port operations so closely located,"
Sanford said.
Jasper County officials and
SSA Marine had been working the past year with
Georgia and South Carolina representatives to try
and negotiate some sort of partnership that would
result in a Jasper shipping terminal and negate
the need for the county having to condemn the
land. A condemnation effort failed at the state
Supreme Court in September 2003.
"At least
now, we know where we stand and what we must do to
get the port project moving ahead," Jasper County
Administrator Andrew Fulghum said
Friday.
And, Jake Coakley, SSA Marine's
regional vice president for port operations, said
South Carolina and Georgia finally have made it
abundantly clear they'll not help with Jasper's
dream for a shipping terminal.
"They are
saying that Georgia's and South Carolina's ports
are going to blow away if Jasper develops a
shipping terminal," Coakley said
Friday.
"We are going to go forward with
Jasper's project, and I think we are going to
win," Coakley said.
First, of course,
Jasper needs the land: 1,776 acres of prime
Savannah River frontage that the Georgia
Department of Transportation has been using to
dump spoil from dredging the Savannah Harbor
shipping channel. Georgia has been buying land in
South Carolina for years, and now Jasper will have
to condemn the acreage if it wants to build the
shipping terminal.
The terminal, as
proposed by SSA Marine, would feature container
cargo docks just six miles from the Atlantic
Ocean, several miles closer than the GPA's Garden
City Containerport facilities. Jasper's proposed
terminal could handle 500,000 cargo containers the
first year of operation, and more than a million
when fully up and running, SSA Marine
says.
Georgia has been all but silent on
Jasper's hopes for developing its side of the
Savannah River. But, Georgia Ports Authority
Executive Director Doug Marchand said last week he
is unconcerned about Jasper's determination to
build a
container cargo
terminal.
"We have our own job to do," he
said. "We have the space and ability to increase
capacity by 150 percent in 15 years. We're not
letting Jasper's plans impact what we do. The
cargo's coming. We have to get Savannah prepared
for that growth.
Marchand added that
forecasts based on a number of shipping trends
indicate growth of at least 150 percent by 2018.
That means Savannah, the fifth largest U.S. port,
would be handling 4 million containers of import
and export cargo per year, up from 1.57 million in
the fiscal year that ended June 30.
Exactly
the point Jasper and SSA Marine have been trying
to make for the last three years, Coakley
said.
"There is a demonstrated need for
additional shipping facilities, both in Savannah
and Charleston," he said. "Jasper's proposal
wouldn't take away any business from either
port.
Jasper recently struggled to right
its ship after several changes in local
leadership: Long-time port proponent Henry Moss
was fired as county administrator, and county
attorney Tom Johnson was dismissed and replaced by
Marvin Jones of Walterboro. Also, the law firm of
Parker, Poe, which had worked as lead counsel on
Jasper's failed bid to condemn the land for the
proposed shipping terminal, was replaced by
another firm, Lewis, Babcock &
Hawkins.
SSA Marine since has hired Moss as
a port development consultant, and Johnson has
continued on as an adviser and attorney for the
county's newly formed port authority
board.
But in yet another strange twist to
the Jasper effort to develop the shipping
terminal, Johnson last week wrote a letter to
County Council members lamenting his removal from
much of the development process.
"...I am
surprised I have been removed from the case I have
devoted most of my life to ..." Johnson writes in
the letter. "... Ask yourself why I need to be
eliminated."
Johnson writes he believes he
has been removed from working for Jasper County
because of "perceived affiliation with Henry"
Moss. The former administrator's job late last
year became political fodder amongst County
Council members, and he was fired by a 3 to 2 vote
that had to be taken several times.
County
Councilwoman Gladys Jones said Johnson's role was
curtailed because "our county attorney (Marvin
Jones) has to be in charge.
"I like Tom a
lot," she said, "he's a good man, but we have to
do what we feel we have to do."
Gladys
Jones said Johnson will continue to consult with
county officials, but Marvin Jones and his firm
will "be Jasper's main counsel on the proposed
port."
Johnson, contacted on Friday about
his letter to council members dated last Tuesday,
said he is disappointed.
"I wouldn't deny
I'm upset ... for personal reasons," he said,
adding he also questions "any outside entity
having undue control in Jasper County."
He
declined to elaborate.
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