Plans to bring VIPs to Screven County to consider making Plantation Airpark an industrial site were postponed, and some say killed, when a majority of county commissioners failed to endorse the idea Tuesday.
Also Tuesday, the Industrial Development Authority rescinded an earlier offer to pay up to $9,000 for the event that would have brought economic development experts to the county in April to look at the airport, shoot skeet and eat dinner at Shannon Vineyards.
One commissioner who supported the event walked out of the commission meeting during the discussion. “It’s gotten beyond economic development and has become an issue, in my opinion, of egos and turfs,” Commissioner Roland Stubbs said. “And with that, I need to be excused.”
Four other commissioners said the entire commission wasn’t consulted before the April event was planned and IDA funds were secured. They also said the deed to the airport requires federal permission before doing anything else on the property and they say they would want to secure that permission before bring VIPs to see the site.
“I’m on board for us moving forward,” Commissioner Gary Crews said. However, “We need to find out what we can and can’t do before we get people down here. … If you get them down here and you find out you can’t do anything, we don’t look too good.”
Crews also said he thinks the planning was mishandled, with Commissioner Stan Sheppard, who at the time was chairman of the commission, going to the IDA to secure funding before getting the support of the entire commission.
Will Boyd has since been elected county commission chairman.
Crews, Boyd and commissioners Gregg Ellison and Dennis Lawton said Tuesday that they preferred waiting to find out more information before moving forward. Commissioner J.C. Warren was not at Tuesday’s meeting.
Meanwhile, across town, the IDA, which meets at the same time as the county commission, was voting to rescind its offer to pay for the trip. IDA Executive Director Gayle Boykin said when the IDA board initially approved money for the event, they mistakenly thought it had the backing of the entire county commission.
“Economic development can’t be done without a majority of your commissioners,” she said.
Sheppard said a vote to delay the event would be a vote to kill it. After the meeting, Stubbs said he thinks the trip will never happen. They were looking for a vote of confidence from the commission before traveling to Atlanta to hand-deliver invitations to people including the governor and lieutenant governor.
After discussing the issue at the commission meeting, it was apparent that the majority didn’t favor supporting the April event, and no vote was taken.
About 20 people from outside the area would have been invited to the event that was scheduled for Thursday, April 22, including the state director of economic development, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Transportation, Ports Authority representative and various lawmakers.
The goal was to attract state and federal dollars to help establish an industrial park at the airport, which has 1,900 acres of land. A preliminary study recommended setting aside 570 acres for aviation uses and 1,300 acres for other development.
Sylvania, the county and IDA each paid $3,000 for the study, which is in its final stages. A rough draft says another study, a “feasibility” study, needs to be done, but it brings up the possibility of creating a mega industrial site or an “inland port,” where containerized sea-born freight would be staged and transferred.
Audrey Lewis, chairman of the Sylvania-Screven County Airport Authority, said later Tuesday that he hopes the idea isn’t dead. He said he hopes the commission will learn more about the proposed promotional event and eventually decide to support it.
“I think it would be a big help to Screven County,” he said. “We need an industrial park at the airport.”
Sheppard argued that the time was right to bring in VIPs. “I think it’s a great opportunity for us to promote economic industrial development for a county that desperately needs it,” he said. “I think we need to press forward.
“We’re bucking the odds, but if we aren’t willing to do something a little extraordinary, I don’t think our chances of enticing an industrial prospect to Screven County are very good,” Sheppard said.
Ellison said, “Times are hard and money is short. … Industry may not be permitted down there anyway.” Ellison said he would like commissioners to look at all of the issues “before we get ahead of ourselves.”
“I’m asking for your support,” Sheppard said. “If I can’t get it, there’s no use for me to continue to bloody my head and waste my time.”
Ellison said, “You need to go through those hoops and get permission before you go and try to get everybody in Atlanta on board, because what if you do and then you have to say we really can’t do this. We’ll really look like we’re a bunch of fools.”
Sheppard said consultants have said it was time to move forward with the campaign to woo economic development types.
“I wonder how 982 Screven County residents who have lost their jobs in the past year, what kind of message are we sending them with respect to economic development?” Stubbs said.
 “I’m for industrial development,” Lawton said. “I think we’ve got to get some hurdles solved before we jump any further.”
Boyd said he doesn’t think an inland port at the airport is a good idea. He also said the airport has been there for decades and he doesn’t see the harm in delaying a decision for a month or so.