Georgia Inland Port Gets Almost $20 Million in Funding
CHATSWORTH, Georgia — An inland port planned for the Crandall area in northern Murray County took a big step forward July 25 when the Georgia Ports Authority approved funding for the project.
“I am pleased that the Appalachian Regional Port is moving forward,” said Murray County Sole Commissioner Brittany Pittman. “This project will prove to be an economic driver for Murray County along with the entire northwest Georgia region. It will allow current industries to ship their goods more cost-effectively and create a competitive advantage when recruiting new companies to locate in our area.”
The ports authority board of governors approved a $19.7 million spending package for the port, which includes $10 million from the state and $9.7 million from the ports authority.
In addition, Murray County purchased the 40-acre site at a cost of $700,000 and deeded the site to the ports authority, with $500,000 of the purchase price coming from a state economic development grant and the rest from the Murray County Economic Development Authority.
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“The Appalachian Regional Port will create a new gateway to the Port of Savannah for our customers serving Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and beyond,” said Ports Authority Executive Director Griff Lynch. “We estimate the ARP will offset more than 350 truck-miles per container, or close to 18 million miles every year.”
Gov. Nathan Deal announced the port in July 2015 at the Murray County courthouse, where officials from the state, the ports authority, CSX railroad and Murray County signed a memorandum of understanding for the port.
It will be the ports authority’s second inland terminal, after one in Cordele, and part of a planned “Network Georgia” that will create inland terminals throughout the state to reduce truck traffic and increase rail capacity to the southeast United States and elsewhere.
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The ports authority expects the port to be complete in late summer 2018.
“The ARP has already had a positive economic impact on Murray County even prior to ground being broken with the recent announcement of ARC Carpet, a Turkish-based company who located their U.S. headquarters earlier this year in Murray County so they could take advantage of the inland port,” said Pittman. “This project will be the foundation that creates a sustainable future for our community. I am grateful to everyone who contributed to make this project a reality.”
But some residents of the area around the port remain concerned about the effects the port will have on traffic, property values and the environment, especially the surrounding Cohutta Wilderness Area and the Chattahoochee National Forest. They’ve formed a group called North Georgia Citizens to Preserve the Environment, which is represented by attorney J.D. Rogers.
Rogers said July 25 that he did not know where the ports authority’s decision to fund the port leaves the group but the residents continue to explore all of their options. He said they have some environmental experts looking at the port and hope to hear from them soon.
He noted that ,as part of an open records request to the ports authority, the group found what appears to be a future development map that shows about two dozen properties in the northern part of the county, totaling well over 3,000 acres.
Both the ports authority and Pittman said the map was prepared simply to show the number of large parcels of land in the area around the port, and no one plans to use eminent domain to take any of it.
But Rogers noted the ports authority and the county have the power of eminent domain and neither agency can bind itself in the future not to use that power.
