BLUFFTON TODAY
A state Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday paves the way for negotiations between the state and Jasper County for the development of a deepwater shipping terminal on the Savannah River, officials with a recently formed non-profit group said.
The court’s decision that Jasper County has the right to develop and operate a marine terminal also opens the door to “market-based port expansion,” without burdening taxpayers, said Dick Stewart, president of S.C. Free Market Ports.
“This decision is a complete and total victory for Jasper County as well as a clear and compelling endorsement of market-based port expansion in South Carolina,” said, Stewart, who is also a Beaufort County Council member.
“On top of that, it’s a huge wake-up call for the (S.C.) State Ports Authority,” he said. “The SPA cannot thumb its nose at progress and stand in the way of public-private partnerships any longer. It now has an obligation to come to the table and start acting in the best interests of our state’s economy.”
Although the Supreme Court justices said the state ports authority has the right to override Jasper County and condemn the land itself, Stewart said the ports authority would have to pay just compensation on a valid condemnation claim to both Jasper County and SSA Marine, a Seattle-based company which seeks to invest over half a billion dollars in the first phase of construction of the Savannah River terminal.
The site is about 1,776 acres of land south of Hardeeville but owned by the state of Georgia. Georgia’s transportation department manages the land.
Meanwhile, Bill Stern, chairman of the state ports authority’s board of directors, wrote the Georgia Department of Transportation’s commissioner, Harold Linnenkohl asking for negotiations to begin as soon as possible.
“… We need to move forward … to discuss the acquisition of the property with you,” Stern says in the letter faxed on Monday shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“In that regard, we enclose the initial appraisal of the property for your information,” he said.
State ports authority officials on Tuesday did not provide the initial appraisal amount, but Jasper’s last offer to Georgia was about $8.5 million.
“We look forward to talking with you further to resolve this matter amicably,” Stern ended the letter.
Also, on Tuesday, Gov. Mark Sanford’s spokesman Joel Sawyer said, the high court’s ruling is important because it lays down “rules (for) going forward with an expansion of port capacity in Jasper County.”
Will Folks, a former employee with Sanford and now spokesman for Stewart’s S.C. Free Market Ports, said state ports authority officials are “living on another planet” if they think taxpayers can support the development of a Jasper County marine terminal.
“The fact remains that they didn’t have the money to do the jobs in front of them before, and they certainly don’t have the money to do the jobs in front of them now, given Jasper’s newly minted, court-affirmed legal rights and SSA Marine’s court-affirmed contractual rights,” Folks said.
“It’s time for the SPA to take its headquarters out of its hindquarters on port expansion and join the rest of our competitors in embracing, not attacking, public-private partnerships, he said.