Lowndes County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a resolution requiring certain activities at the Lowndes County Port to have the county’s blessing.
Golden Triangle Development LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins asked the supervisors to approve the new arrangement, explaining that it was tied to an as-yet-unnamed Steel Dynamics Inc. project.
SDI recently announced a $2.5 billion project in Lowndes County that will see construction of a new aluminum mill and a biocarbon production facility. According to the resolution passed Tuesday, a third project is in play, and Lowndes County is in the running for it.
The port owns the land in question for that project.
“Over the last two weeks we’ve had numerous meetings with company officials and they are looking at a real need to do something at the east bank port as far as loading and off-loading products and the ability to support a future project,” Higgins said.
The port authority did not sign the original memorandum of understanding between SDI and Lowndes County, Higgins said.
“They were wanting $200,000 to hold the site for a period of time, and the company was unwilling to do that given they were committed to building a $2.5 billion investment,” Higgins said. “They thought that was earnest money enough.”
The resolution puts strictures on what kind of deals the port can make without prior approval from the board of supervisors.
“They can’t take any big contract options more than six months in term or involving more than $25,000 without consultation and approval with y’all,” Higgins told supervisors. “We think this brings us back to the left hand knowing what the right hand is doing, and somebody doesn’t just jump out and take some action unilaterally that may have a detrimental impact on us winning another project.”
Higgins expanded on that theme Thursday, telling The Dispatch the port had some potential lease agreements that could possibly conflict with the SDI project.
“I learned that (the port authority) was negotiating some leases on some property out there that may or may not have had a detrimental impact on our proposed layout,” he said. “You don’t want them to go ahead and lease some property and then find out that we’ve got a problem. So we just want to slow the game down.”
The supervisors, with no discussion, unanimously approved the resolution.
Afterward, President Trip Hairston explained the resolution did not aim to interfere with the port’s day-to-day operations.
“It doesn’t impede the port from doing what they need to do to do regular activities,” Hairston said. “It gives them some oversight as far as getting into anything that would commit them to anything long-term or significant.”
Hairston said the supervisors will do everything they can to work with the port.
“If they’ve got some issue, that’s something we can work through,” he said. “If we need to call a special meeting, we’ll get it passed and get it done.”
Under the terms of the agreement, SDI has two years to pull the trigger on any potential deal, Hairston said. However, there is no defined sunset for the resolution with the port.
“It will last until we rescind it,” Hairston said. “At some point we will rescind it, of course.”
Higgins said he doubted the agreement would be necessary for more than about six months.
“It’s just until we can get i’s dotted and t’s crossed and engineering and layouts and cost estimates,” Higgins said.
When contacted for comment, Lowndes County Port Authority Director Will Sanders issued a statement via email.
“We were not aware that the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors were going to consider any type of resolution concerning the port and thus we had no opportunity to comment,” the statement reads. “Without making a detailed response, I can say that the port authority has always enthusiastically supported economic development in Lowndes County. We support the new project and have cooperated, and will continue to cooperate, with its development.”
Hairston, when asked Thursday if the port had been informed about the issue being on the agenda or not, said he didn’t know.
“I don’t know if they did or not,” he said. “… I did go and meet with (Sanders) after the resolution was passed and we’re working through the logistics of it.”
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.