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Small business group honors lawmaker
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U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Federation of Independent Business on Monday named Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., a “guardian of small business” for his support of America’s small business owners.
NFIB President and CEO Dan Danner praised Kingston for standing up for small business.
“Jack Kingston has proven himself a champion of small business,” Danner said. “The guardian of small business award is a token of the deep appreciation that small business owners have for elected officials who promote and protect their right to own, operate and grow their businesses.”
 The award is the highest honor the NFIB bestows on legislators in recognition of their efforts to support small business in America. In accepting the award, Kingston stressed the importance of small businesses to the nation’s economy and their crucial role in any economic recovery.
“I support small businesses because I know they provide the path toward economic growth and toward putting Georgians back to work,” Kingston said. “They account for the majority of jobs and the vast majority of new jobs. To let small business do what it does best, we need to get government out of the way. We need to provide certainty by dropping the talk of new taxes, new regulations and new bureaucracies. To reinvigorate our economy, we need to stop focusing on big government and big business and start supporting the little guys that are the true economic engine of this country.”

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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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