Though Jasper officials and state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, D-Ridgeland, came out of the morning meeting confident, Ports Authority board of directors Chairman Harry Butler released a letter to the General Assembly on Wednesday again dismissing any possibility that the state agency will back a Savannah River port compromise.
Jasper, which reached an exclusive $450 million development agreement with SSA Marine in January, has been met with a legal challenge from the Ports Authority, which is fighting Jasper's ability to own and operate a port in the state Supreme Court.
The Ports Authority has also started looking for its own private port development firm for the 1,863-acre Savannah River site owned by the Georgia Department of Transportation.
Last week, Pinckney announced a plan to circumvent a court battle, which the Port Authority dismissed immediately.
"Today, we were presented with the same proposal we already rejected," Butler's letter states. "We again state that the proposal is not in the best interest of the state, and we cannot accept it."
Pinckney, Sen. David Thomas, R-Fountain Inn, and Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, met with Butler, Ports Authority board members Tom Davis and Carroll Campbell III and Bernard Groseclose, executive director of the state agency Wednesday.
Also at the meeting were Jasper County Administrator Andrew Fulghum, Jasper County Council Chairman George Hood and Jake Coakley, regional vice president of SSA Marine, Jasper's private development partner.
"We had a conversation this morning," Pinckney said late Wednesday. "It was the start of the conversation, the first of more to come. We're continuing to move forward, and I'm convinced we're going to have a terminal in Jasper County."
Under Pinckney's compromise, Jasper would develop the port with SSA Marine and operate it for 32 years before turning the facility over to the Ports Authority.
Jasper would collect $4 million a year over the port's first 32 years under the proposal, but the $2 per-container fee that Jasper would receive under its deal with SSA Marine would be paid to the Ports Authority.
"We reaffirm our position that it is imperative for this state's economic future to maintain a system of public ports," Butler's letter states. "The integrity of the public port concept must not be jeopardized."
After the morning meeting, Fulghum, Hood and Coakley presented the county's plan to the State Ports Authority Oversight Committee, part of the Charleston County Legislative Delegation.
State ports officials were also in attendance.
"The delegation was interested in the state Ports Authority's timing," Hood said Wednesday. "We don't believe they can bring a terminal to Jasper in a timely fashion with all the work they have to do in Charleston."