Sometimes when people want to raise their economic quality of life, they need a helping hand — not a branch of government interfering. That is why, as chairman of Jasper County Council, I have asked for an immediate meeting with Gov. Mark Sanford.

Jasper County has spent more than a decade developing a plan to build a new deep-water container shipping terminal on the Savannah River. The new terminal would provide jobs that pay enough to support a family throughout the region and would return millions of dollars to one of the state’s poorest counties. Under our plan, the project would not require taxpayer support.

We want Gov. Sanford to know how hard we have worked, how good this project is and how much it means to our people. We would welcome his help. Unfortunately, instead of a helping hand or any support, we have received only the back of a hand repeatedly from the S.C. State Ports Authority.

While we spent the past decade planning our new terminal, the Ports Authority ignored us and opposed our idea. The Ports Authority kept saying it was focused on Charleston. It apparently didn’t understand what is now widely accepted — that our site is considered the best on the entire Eastern Seaboard for a new deep-water container terminal. It didn’t believe projections, which recent trends have verified, that the terminal could serve the new, deeper-draft ships and enable the region’s container volume to double by 2011.

When the Ports Authority finally realized, just three months ago, that the Jasper County terminal is a good idea, it filed a lawsuit to prevent our county from building it. Despite the existence of numerous private terminals in the state, the Ports Authority claimed only it has the authority to build terminals. Despite having no plan and no funding, the Ports Authority apparently wants to either hijack our project and its revenue stream for itself or simply mothball it.

Now we learn that the Ports Authority is issuing its own request for bids to private operators to build the terminal itself. We didn’t learn that from the Ports Authority. Instead, we found out from a newspaper reporter, who sent us the Ports Authority’s press release late Friday. As everybody knows, late Friday afternoon is when you announce news you don’t want anyone to hear.

To say we’re stunned and surprised is an understatement. Jasper County has already contracted with SSA Marine, America’s foremost developer and operator of shipping terminals, to design, build and operate the new terminal. SSA Marine has worked with us to conceive the project and promote it. The company has a long record of economic development successes around the world and is prepared to invest the half-billion dollars needed to support the terminal’s construction. Jasper County will oversee the project, and the land and facilities will remain in public ownership. Our plan is ready to implement.

Just as Jasper County has received no word from the Ports Authority of its request for bids, neither has SSA Marine. The Ports Authority’s actions are an embarrassment to South Carolina and a warning to every business that might want to invest here. The Legislature already has passed a resolution welcoming SSA Marine and its investment to the state. But the Ports Authority’s message to America’s premier shipping terminal company is, we will take your innovations and expertise and give them to your competitors. The shame is compounded by the fact that nearly all of those competitors are foreign-owned.

We would welcome the Ports Authority’s support and collaboration. However, only Jasper County has had the vision and commitment to move the terminal project forward over the past decade. We can only be assured it will be built if we do the job ourselves.

If we appear to lack faith in the Ports Authority, a state agency supposedly representing us, let me give just one more reason why. Jasper County is currently seeking to acquire the land for the new terminal from Georgia, which owns the county’s site.

The Ports Authority claims only it can negotiate with the Georgia Ports Authority to build the terminal. However, the Georgia Ports Authority, like the S.C. Ports Authority, has opposed the new terminal for the past decade.

If you wanted to move a project forward, would you trust two agencies that have a 10-year record of opposition to do the negotiating while they pushed you aside? This isn’t just the fox guarding the henhouse. This is two foxes talking about how they’ll build and operate the chicken and egg factory.

Under Jasper County’s plan, we can complete the terminal and have it operating within three years without taxpayer support. That deserves the state’s helping hand instead of the back-handed treatment we have received thus far.

Dr. Hood is the chairman of the Jasper County Council.