On the issue of the expense of a Jasper port (update: someone agrees with me)

Flickr user Andrew Albertson

Update at the bottom.

With talk of finding some way, really any way, to get a long-sought port in Jasper County built and running, a column from The Island Packet says: We have to make sure the benefits outweigh the substantial costs.

Take a read of that piece here.

It brings three things to mind:

  • How this conversation is starting to mirror the one that resulted in the never all-that-successful Port of Port Royal that was begged out of the State Ports Authority;
  • With the article citing 2008 proposed costs for the facility that didn't include rail access, it shows just how dated all this is. If all the drama about Charleston's forthcoming terminal shows one thing is that you have to have rail to be competitive. Three or five years ago was a different game.
  • How it still smarts that back in 2005, Jasper had a check in hand from a private developer that would have built it with virtually no cost to us and South Carolina told them to get lost.

Update November 2:

I'm not usually one for letters to the editor as they're often just barely above the quality of random post comments, but in this case I spotted one that seemed rather well thought out -- and it probably doesn't hurt that Darrell Thomas Johnson Jr.'s remarks back up my own on how it seems ridiculous that the Jasper port conversation is still stalled. Take a read here.

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