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Bryan leaders attend training
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Bryan County Commissioner Carter Infinger, third from top left, Pembroke Mayor-elect Mary Warnell, Jeff Ahearn with Georgia Electric Membership Cooperative, Marilyn Page with Pembroke, bottom left, and Pembroke Downtown Development Authority Board member Jeanne McCormick show off their Georgia Academy for Economic Development certificates with facilitators Peggy Jolley, left, and Pat Merritt and Georgia Academy Board member Mike Worley. - photo by Photo provided.

Five local government and civic leaders from Bryan County recently graduated from 2011 Multi-Day Training Program through the Board of the Georgia Academy for Economic Development.
Bryan County leaders included District 4 County Commissioner Carter Infinger, Pembroke Mayor-elect Mary Warnell, Jeff Ahearn with Georgia Electric Membership Cooperative, Marilyn Page with the city of Pembroke and Pembroke Downtown Development Authority Board member Jeanne McCormick.
Class participants represented a number of professional and nonprofessional economic development fields, including elected officials, public servants, business leaders, educators and social service providers from Coastal Georgia. The curriculum provides insights into the complexities of economic and community development on the local, regional, and state levels.
Created in 1993 by then-Gov. Zell Miller’s Development Council, the academy assembles a cross-section of economic development professionals and resources to provide this training in all 12 service delivery regions in Georgia.
“One of the goals for the multi-day regional academies is to encourage multicounty cooperation,” said Corinne Thornton, director of the Georgia Academy for Economic Development. “Many times, the participants discover the issues facing their community are the same as those facing other communities in their region and can then combine limited resources to address the issue.”
Georgia EMC and Georgia Power provide facilitators for the program, and the Georgia Department of Community Affairs provides staff support to this important program.
The next Region 12 Georgia Academy for Economic Development will begin in September 2012. For more information, contact Teresa Concannon at (912) 536-5723.

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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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