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Bank offering document shred day
Service designed to cut identity theft
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Ever wonder if there’s a better, safer place for paid bills and old checks as they fall from the fingertips and into the trash can?
With countless reports of identity theft and bank fraud cropping up all over the country, Linda Bowers, senior credit officer at Bryan Bank and Trust, said the branch on Ford Avenue will be offering a special service to customers who may be concerned about how they dispose of their banking, credit and other documents.
“As a courtesy to our customers we’re going to have a Shred Day …” she said. “We shred all of our inner-bank documents through Shred X, and they’re going to be there for customers for free.
The shredding event will be from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday in the back parking lot of the Bryan Bank and Trust at 9971 Ford Ave. in Richmond Hill.
“Our goal is just to make everyone aware what can happen with your documents and to get people to dispose of them in the correct manner,” Bowers said.
She said with people putting so much emphasis on identity theft and bank fraud, the event seemed like a good idea.
She said there have been some instances of fraudulent checks at Bryan Bank and Trust. Bowers also noted that people will even try to print their own checks with account numbers from someone else’s account.
“If someone gets a hold of an old account number on an old check, they can write those checks, and it will come back to the individual whose name is printed on the check,” Bowers explained. “If they get you Social Security number, they can apply for credit through your name – especially a credit card or anything they can apply for through the mail.”
The safest preventative measure, Bowers said, is to shred old documents.
“If people have old checks lying around, they should be shredded,” she said.
Another way to keep identity safe is to “paperless.” That means conducting most of your banking online and having all bank statements and credit card bills e-mailed, she said – that way there is no paper trail. Bowers said the Bryan Bank and Trust website – like those of most banks – is a secure site and protected from fraudulent activity.
This will be the first event of its kind for Bryan Bank and Trust, and Bowers said, “If this goes well, I would imagine we might continue this on a regular basis – maybe twice a year.”
For more information about Shred Day or banking security, call 756-4444.

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Record April boosts Savannah's container trade at port
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The Port of Savannah moved 356,700 20-foot equivalent container units in April, an increase of 7.1 percent. - photo by Provided

The Georgia Ports Authority's busiest April ever pushed its fiscal year-to-date totals to more than 3.4 million 20-foot equivalent container units (TEUs), an increase of 8.8 percent, or 280,000 TEUs, compared to the first 10 months of fiscal 2017.

"We're on track to move more than 300,000 TEUs in every month of the fiscal year, which will be a first for the authority," said GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch. "We're also anticipating this to be the first fiscal year for the Port of Savannah to handle more than 4 million TEUs."

April volumes reached 356,700 20-foot equivalent container units, up 7.1 percent or 23,700 units. As the fastest growing containerport in the nation, the Port of Savannah has achieved a compound annual growth rate of more than 5 percent a year over the past decade.

"As reported in the recent economic impact study by UGA's Terry College of Business, trade through Georgia's deepwater ports translates into jobs, higher incomes and greater productivity," said GPA Board Chairman Jimmy Allgood. "In every region of Georgia, employers rely on the ports of Savannah and Brunswick to help them become more competitive on the global stage."

To strengthen the Port of Savannah's ability to support the state's future economic growth, the GPA Board approved $66 million in terminal upgrades, including $24 million for the purchase of 10 additional rubber-tired gantry cranes.  

"The authority is committed to building additional capacity ahead of demand to ensure the Port of Savannah remains a trusted link in the supply chain serving Georgia and the Southeast," Lynch said.

The crane purchase will bring the fleet at Garden City Terminal to 156 RTGs. The new cranes will support three new container rows, which the board approved in March. The additional container rows will increase annual capacity at the Port of Savannah by 150,000 TEUs.

The RTGs will work over stacks that are five containers high and six deep, with a truck lane running alongside the stacks. Capable of running on electricity, the cranes will have a lift capacity of 50 metric tons.

The cranes will arrive in two batches of five in the first and second quarters of calendar year 2019.

 Also at Monday's meeting, the GPA Board elected its officers, with Jimmy Allgood as chairman, Will McKnight taking the position of vice chairman and Joel Wooten elected as the next secretary/treasurer.

For more information, visit gaports.com, or contact GPA Senior Director of Corporate Communications Robert Morris at (912) 964-3855 or rmorris@gaports.com.

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