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Freeport ballot measure vote yes for more Bryan County jobs
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Letter to the Editor
Updated: Oct 24, 2016, 1:16 PM
Published: Oct 24, 2016, 1:18 PM

(Editor’s note: The following letter to the editor was submitted by Derrick Smith, chair of the Development Authority of Bryan County; Jim Gardner, chair of the Richmond Hill-Bryan County Chamber of Commerce; and Sarah Williams, chair of the North Bryan County Chamber of Commerce.)

In the world of economic development, competition for projects is very fierce.

Economic development professionals must leverage all of their community’s available assets in order to convince companies that their community is the best place for a project. Unfortunately, an amazing quality of life is not always enough to cause a company to decide to call a community home; other incentives must be offered as well. The state of Georgia has a very robust set of incentives, as do local communities around the state. There is one area, however, in which Georgia is lacking. Florida, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina have no property taxes on business inventory at all, and, in fact, Georgia is one of only 11 states in the country that charge a tax on business inventory.

That being said, the state of Georgia does allow individual communities to vote to exempt certain classes of business inventory. Any community that does not pass business inventory tax exemptions will be at a competitive disadvantage.

Fortunately, in addition to a great quality of life, Bryan County has a 100 percent Freeport exemption for three defined categories of business inventory. In the most recent legislative session, the Georgia General Assembly passed House Bill 935 that was signed by Gov. Deal, which allows communities to vote to include a fourth category of Freeport: e-commerce in fulfillment centers. As we all know, online shopping is becoming more prevalent, and therefore, e-commerce fulfillment centers are being constructed all over the country. These facilities are typically significant employment centers.

The Freeport exemption for e-commerce is on the Nov. 8 ballot, and it is very important that it is passed. Otherwise, Bryan County may become a little less appealing to economic development projects that would bring jobs and investment to the county. Adding e-commerce to the categories of business inventory that already have a Freeport exemption would give the community another tool to help convince industrial projects to bring new jobs and investment to the county.

We strongly encourage the voters to vote yes for the Freeport ballot measure related to e-commerce, which can help create more jobs for Bryan County.

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Later yall, its been fun
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Ted O'Neil
Updated: May 23, 2018, 6:03 PM
Published: May 23, 2018, 6:05 PM

This is among the last pieces I’ll ever write for the Bryan County News.

Friday is my last day with the paper, and come June 1 I’m headed back to my native Michigan.

I moved here in 2015 from the Great Lake State due to my wife’s job. It’s amicable, but she has since moved on to a different life in a different state, and it’s time for me to do the same.

My son Thomas, an RHHS grad as of Saturday, also is headed back to Michigan to play basketball for a small school near Ann Arbor called Concordia University. My daughter, Erin, is in law school at University of Toledo. She had already begun her college volleyball career at Lourdes University in Ohio when we moved down here and had no desire to leave the Midwest.

With both of them and the rest of my family up north, there’s no reason for me to stay here. I haven’t missed winter one bit, but I’m sure I won’t miss the sand gnats, either.

Shortly after we arrived here in 2015, I got a job in communications with a certain art school in Savannah for a few short months. It was both personally and professionally toxic and I’ll leave it at that.

In March 2016 I signed on with the Bryan County News as assistant editor and I’ve loved every minute of it. My “first” newspaper career, in the late 80s and early 90s, was great. But when I left it to work in politics and later with a free-market think tank, I never pictured myself as an ink-stained wretch again.

Like they say, never say never.

During my time here at the News, I’ve covered everything that came along. That’s one big difference between working for a weekly as opposed to a daily paper. Reporters at a daily paper have a “beat” to cover. At a weekly paper like this, you cover … life. Sports, features, government meetings, crime, fundraisers, parades, festivals, successes, failures and everything in between. Oh, and hurricanes. Two of them. I’ll take a winter blizzard over that any day.

Along the way I’ve met a lot of great people. Volunteers, business owners, pastors, students, athletes, teachers, coaches, co-workers, first responders, veterans, soldiers and yes, even some politicians.

And I learned that the same adrenalin rush from covering “breaking news” that I experienced right out of college is still just as exciting nearly 30 years later.

With as much as I’ve written about the population increase and traffic problems, at least for a few short minutes my departure means there will be one less vehicle clogging up local roads. At least until I pass three or four moving vans headed this way as I get on northbound I-95.

The hub-bub over growth here can be humorous, unintentional and ironic all at once. We often get comments on our Facebook page that go something like this: “I’ve lived here for (usually less than five years) and the growth is out of control! We need a moratorium on new construction.”

It’s like people who move into phase I of “Walden Woods” subdivision after all the trees are cleared out and then complain about trees being cut down for phase II.

Bryan County will always hold a special place in my heart and I definitely plan on visiting again someday. My hope is that my boss, Jeff Whitten (one of the best I’ve ever had), will let me continue to be part of the Pembroke Mafia Football League from afar. If the Corleone family could expand to Vegas, there’s no reason the PMFL can’t expand to Michigan.

But the main reason I want to return someday is about that traffic issue. After all, I’ll need to see it with my own eyes before I’ll believe that Highway 144 actually got widened.

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