County claims state has no intention of building a port

Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Jasper County officials say in court filings that the State Ports Authority has no plans to build a terminal on the Savannah River and is trying to block local efforts to develop an 1,800-acre site.

County Administrator Andrew Fulghum said Friday that the county is concerned the state will acquire the site just to prevent the county from going ahead with its $600 million development deal with Seattle-based SSA Marine.

Earlier this month, the state Supreme Court ruled that Jasper can develop its own port, but the state has priority over the land.

Last week, the Ports Authority asked the court to force Jasper to drop its efforts to condemn the land owned by the Georgia Transportation Department.

In its rsponse to that requrest, Jasper's attorneys argued that, unlike the county, the Ports Authority does not have the necessary "firm plan in place to condemn the land ... for a public use."

"We don't intend to let SPA stop our progress or to just sit on the land until they eventually come up with a plan of their own," Jasper County Council Chairman George Hood said in a statement Friday. "We will seek legal proof that they even have an economically viable plan for developing this property."

The Ports Authority had no comment on the county's recent filing, said spokesman Byron Miller.

Earlier this month, the Georgia Transportation Department rejected the Ports Authority's $9.3 million cash offer for the proposed port property.

In a letter to the editor to be published in Sunday's Beaufort Gazette, Ports Authority board member J. Colden Battey writes that the authority is "committed to building a port facility in Jasper County and will dedicate the resources necessary to make it a reality."

"The state's involvement ensures that we will acquire the site and will develop the terminal, providing jobs and related businesses in Jasper County, across the Lowcountry and throughout the state."