Kingston speaks to the MBA – Photo by Brenda Borden
Former U.S. Congressman Jack Kingston was the featured speaker at the Marietta Business Association’s monthly lunch Monday where he discussed the process of deepening the Savannah Harbor and how that mission benefits Georgians across the state, even all the way up North in Cobb County.
InsiderAdvantage Chairman Phil Kent provided the introduction for the Savannah Republican, praising him for his long service for the state of Georgia and in particular the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project (SHEP). “With out Jack Kingston,” said Kent, “that project would have stalled out.” The longtime friends shared a laugh when Kingston took the stage and mentioned how one of the first endorsements he ever received in his political career was from Kent at the Augusta Chronicle, noting that it didn’t help much since it wasn’t in the district but that it had made him a friend for life.
Kingston, now a top political analyst for CNN, quickly showed off the charisma and quick wit that made him one of Georgia’s most popular Congressmen during his 22 years in the House of Representatives. He began by laying out some key numbers that figure into any discussion about the Port of Savannah:
- February 1st, 1733 – the date on which James Oglethorpe landed near the site of present day Savannah. The port would quickly become one of the busiest and most important in the British colonies as its southernmost commercial port.
- 47 feet – the depth that the main waterway in the harbor needs to be dredged to in order to facilitate the largest container ships in the world, some of which are now capable of carrying a staggering 22,500 tons of cargo at once.
- 369,000 – the number of Georgia jobs directly related to the port.
- $20 billion, $84 billion, and $1.4 billion – the amount that the Port of Savannah generates in income, sales, and state taxes annually.
Ever the history buff, Kingston led the audience through the history of the port, taking them from Oglethorpe to present day where a full 10% of cargo in the U.S. comes directly through Savannah. Kingston, along with his peers in the Georgia Congressional Delegation began work on SHEP in the mid-90’s. With opposition from nature groups concerned with environmental impact as well as from rival ports in South Carolina, progress was often slow as he and his contemporaries worked to obtain federal funding and then begin the process of actual construction with the Army Corps of Engineers.
Now the process is nearly finished, with a completion date set for as early as July of 2018. Kingston concluded his remarks with a chuckle, saying “I’m sure once we’re done we’ll start talking about dredging the channel to 55 feet, because if history tells me anything it’s that we’re always repeating it.”
