David Pendered

The proposed privatization of Gwinnett County’s airport is a local matter in which the state won’t intervene, according to the state official who oversees aviation for the state Department of Transportation.

Gwinnett residents and leaders have wrestled for years with the question of what to do with Briscoe Field, located along Ga. 316 about two miles northeast of Lawrenceville. At the heart of the issue is a debate over whether to allow commercial passenger service – and the impact that would have on neighborhoods near the airport.

Speaking Tuesday to the Rotary Club of Gwinnett County, Carol Comer said the state has no role in deciding or recommending the future of the airport. Comer directs GDOT’s Intermodal Division, which oversees systems including aviation, transit, rail, ports and waterways.
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It turns out that more than $18 billion really doesn’t go as far as it used to.

That’s the amount to be raised within the next decade if voters in July approve the 1 percent sales tax for transportation in each of Georgia’s 12 special tax districts. Even that amount didn’t provide for the majority of road, transit and airport projects initially proposed.

Nor does the sum begin to make a dent in the $18 billion to $20 billion list of upgrades that must be made to the state’s freight handling systems – its highways, railroads, Savannah seaport and airports in Atlanta and Albany, according to a new report from the Georgia Department of Transportation.
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The effort to provide more green space in Buckhead received a lift Monday from the Atlanta City Council.

The idea is to establish a linear park in the right-of-way beneath and alongside the actual freeway corridor of Ga. 400, from North Buckhead to near MARTA’s Lindbergh Station. This planned trail is to be linked at some time in the future with other green space that backers hope to assemble with help from a host of public/private partners in Buckhead.

It’s all part of an effort that kicked off in October 2010 to provide more public space in park-starved Buckhead. The Buckhead area has the fewest acres of parkland of the 12 city council districts, according to a recent study.
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Challenges continue to mount for the proposed 1 percent sales tax for transportation, which is up for a vote in exactly 24 weeks.

In Congress, a new debate is starting over a transportation funding bill described by its Republican sponsors as the most sweeping reform plan since 1956. It could reduce the amount of federal money available to help pay for projects on metro Atlanta’s $6.14 billion list.

At the state Capitol, pending legislation could delay a sales tax referendum for at least two years. Even then, a sales tax vote could be called only if Georgia voters first agree to amend the state Constitution.

At the grassroots level, the campaign that’s to urge voters in metro Atlanta to approve the sales tax is still taking shape. The original campaign budget of $6 million to $8 million evidently has been revised. A spokeswoman said Monday the team is not ready to reveal its fundraising goal or how much money has been raised.
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Georgia in recent weeks has been the site of three significant developments that illustrate the nation’s struggle over energy sources.

A Republican proposal to loosen the market grip of power companies in order to promote renewable energy resources was introduced last week in the General Assembly. Senate Bill 401 bill carries the signatures of party leaders including Sen. Tommie Williams (R-Lyons), who essentially governs the chamber, and Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock), the majority leader.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration has granted both approval and financing for a nuclear power plant in Burke County, at Plant Vogtle. On the other side of the coin, a developer of a planned coal-fired power plant in Early County relinquished in December its permits for the plant as part of a settlement of a lawsuit brought by environmentalists over its plant in Texas. The fate of a proposed coal-fired plant near Sandersville appears uncertain after Cobb EMC pulled out of the deal.
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This story has been updated to reflect comments from the federal Justice Department.

A proposal to close the Atlanta field office of the U.S. Antitrust Division of the Justice Department has drawn opposition from U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat from Lithonia.

The Atlanta office would close as part of the Justice Department’s effort to save almost $8 million by consolidating the field offices now located in Atlanta, Cleveland, Dallas and Philadelphia. A total of 94 employees would be to existing offices in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Washington.

The department has not said when the consolidations would occur.

The Atlanta office has 26 employees, Johnson wrote. It is located in the Richard B. Russell Building in Downtown Atlanta.
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To the CEO of the Panama Canal Authority, there isn’t a question about the need to deepen the Savannah Harbor, or any other east coast port. All of them should be expanded so their regions can benefit from global trade.

The real question is whether the ports of Savannah, Charleston, Miami, New York and Jacksonville will have the highways, railroads and distribution centers to accommodate cargo delivered to and from the new generation of really big ocean-going vessels, according to Alberto Aleman Zubieta, chief of the Panama Canal Authority.

During a question and answer session after his speech Tuesday at the Modex 2012 logistics conference in Atlanta, Zubieta was asked how many trillions of dollars the U.S. needs to invest in its ports, and which ports are the closest to being fully prepared to handle newer ships that carry twice the cargo of older vessels.
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A central question related to the proposed deepening of the Savannah Harbor is to be addressed today by the CEO of the authority that oversees the Panama Canal.

The question involves how much additional cargo the Savannah port can expect to handle once much-bigger ships from Asia are able to reach the east coast through the canal.

A corollary question involves the amount of Asian cargo expected to stick with the nation’s two largest ports – Los Angeles and Long Beach. Those ports are hurrying to respond to the direct challenge the canal presents to their import/export business, and to their labor markets and local economies.
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Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, the Atlanta City Council, and a host of Atlanta’s past leaders today celebrated Marvin Arrington, who served 16 years as council president and is retiring as a judge of Fulton County Superior Court.

“Indeed, you have made your mark,” Reed said. “Thank you, judge…. Please, carry this man in your heart, and when you see him around the city, tip your hat and say, ‘Thank you.’ God bless you, judge.”

Councilperson Michael Julian Bond presided over the ceremony. Both Bond and Arrington were 27 years old when they were first elected, at age 27 years. Continue reading →

An Atlanta-based airport concessionaire that was awarded a major contract at Atlanta’s airport is the subject of litigation in Orlando that dates to an airport contract it won there in 2007.

The case illustrates the fierceness of battle that can be waged over government contracts to sell products to airline passengers. The Atlanta contracts are valued at about $3 billion over a lifespan of seven to 10 years. The Orlando case involves a 15-year, $300 million contract.

The situation now before U.S. District Court in Orlando has some interesting twists. The losing vendor, which is seeking to oust the Atlanta company, was founded by a man whom federal authorities charged in 2002 in relation to allegations that he had ties to Middle East terrorist organizations.
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