After serving eight years on the ports board, the grocery store magnate will be replaced by Tom Davis, a former top aide for Gov. Mark Sanford.

Sanford's office notified the ports authority last Tuesday that Davis had been appointed to the board and that Newton's resignation was official. Davis still must be confirmed by the Legislature, but the Beaufort attorney attended his first board meeting last week in Charleston.

A former co-chief of staff and senior adviser for Sanford, Davis took an unpaid leave of absence from the governor's office in July. He said then he was leaving his post to spend more time with his family and because next year's legislative session would coincide with the birth of his third child, due in January.

Davis worked on Sanford's first congressional campaign in 1994 and managed his 2002 gubernatorial campaign, and the two are close friends.

Davis could not be reached for comment. He is the second member of the nine-member board who hails from Beaufort.

Newton, 63, was appointed to the ports board in January 1996 by former Gov. David Beasley and served under both Sanford and former Gov. Jim Hodges.

Newton said last week he just felt it was time to move on.

"It was a very friendly resignation," he said. "I thought it was time for some new blood and some new ideas. Every time I would talk to some of the other board members about doing it before, they'd talk me out of it. So I didn't tell anybody this time."

Newton said the ports board is entering an interesting era, with proposed expansion on the horizon and the field of port competition getting more crowded.

"I happen to think our management team is excellent and I have a lot of faith in them," he said. "I have a lot of friends on the board and on the staff, and I'll miss that part of it. But I've got a lot of other things going on."

Ports board members' terms are seven years, and they can be reappointed.

TOP TRADERS

The South Carolina World Trade Center has named this year's outstanding companies with international ties.

The 2004 winners of the state's World Trader of the Year Awards were Garden Zone LLC of North Charleston and Harsco Track Technologies of Cayce-West Columbia.

Garden Zone took the prize for small firms. The company, which makes wire fencing and garden borders, was formed in 1998 when owners saw the state's steel industry declining due to cheaper imported products. Garden Zone imports low-cost goods from its facility in China but uses a South Carolina work force to market and sell the products to retailers.

Harsco Track, which employs 20,000 people at 400 locations in 40 countries, took the large-firm award this year after 38 years of business in South Carolina. The company helps construct and maintain railroad tracks all over the world.

The two companies will be honored Thursday at the trade center's annual meeting.

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