In Sunday’s City Talk, I questioned whether weekday evening demand for on-street parking justifies the proposed extension of meter enforcement to 10 p.m.

It seems clear that evening enforcement will discourage Savannah area residents from going downtown in the evenings when parking is relatively easy to find.

Since writing that column, I’ve had some time to start digging into more of the draft recommendations that are part of the city’s broad Parking Matters initiative (http://www.savannahga.gov/parkingmatters). The strategic plan deals with other mobility beyond parking, including bicycling and pedestrians.

I was especially struck that the draft recommendations include the completion of a bicycle network through utilization of “low-stress on-street routes and protected lanes on less busy roads.”

One graphic suggests there should be bicycle routes on Drayton and Whitaker streets, and the study recommends protected bicycle lanes on Montgomery Street.

In numerous columns over the years, I have detailed the dimensions of some of Savannah’s unusually wide streets. According to one graphic in this new study, Montgomery Street is 52 feet wide, with two 15-foot travel lanes and two 11-foot parking lanes.

Those travel lanes are absurdly wide. Many highways have 12-foot wide lanes.

The plan presented last week would reduce the travel lanes to 12 feet, which I would argue is still too wide. The parking lanes would be reduced to a standard eight feet.

That would result in 12 feet of additional space on Montgomery Street, which would leave room for two bicycle lanes — one going north and one going south — with buffers between them. Those bicycle lanes would be on the same side of the road, and they would be between a parking lane and the sidewalk.

Those protected bicycle lanes would certainly be good for riders, and over the long term they’d be good for development in the Montgomery Street corridor.

Of course, for Montgomery Street to work optimally as a bicycling corridor, we would need two-way traffic between Broughton and Liberty streets. That’s a change that we’ve been advocating here at City Talk for many years.

And it’s worth emphasizing another issue. At the moment, there is more demand for a bicycle route in the Bull Street corridor than over on Montgomery Street.

These are obviously complex issues, and major modifications to city streets will probably meet with stiff resistance. Remember the Price Street conversion?

Still, it’s impressive that the Parking Matters study aims to make Savannah “America’s best bicycling city.”

That’s an ambitious goal that will require some bold moves.

City Talk appears every Sunday and Tuesday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 E. 32nd St., Savannah, GA 31401.

Officially opening the doors to the new corporate headquarters in Garden City on Monday, EnviroVac CEO Kevin Jackson said the company had come a long way since its start in a single trailer in 1998 with four employees.

“To be where we are today with 650 employees is just phenomenal. It started with our customers and all the people in Savannah,” Jackson said of his company, which offers industrial cleaning services, including vacuuming, hydroblasting, water-cutting and video inspection needs.

“Today is a culmination of a lot of hard work and a new chapter for sustainability and profitability in this company.”

Jackson, along with Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and former University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley, helped cut the ribbon at the new 25,000-square-foot building at 4912 Old Louisville Road, which will bring 50 new jobs to the area and serve as the headquarters for the company’s 15 offices.

“This is truly an opportunity to celebrate a small entrepreneur who is no longer small, and that’s the kind of success story that has made our state great,” Deal said.

Deal also touted the state’s dual-enrollment and apprenticeship programs for offering real-world experience and soft skills to high school students and graduates.

Locally, EnviroVac is taking part in The Summer 500 Program, the city of Savannah’s new collaborative internship program that will place 500 of the area’s rising high-school seniors in paid internships with businesses across the area this summer.

“For your undertaking to provide job opportunities for young children that are in our high schools, this is a great program,” Deal said.

“It’s something that I think will go a long way towards stabilizing the youth in the area, and giving them an opportunity to have hands-on work experience is a great thing.”

The nine-week program will run from May 31 through July 29, during which participating students will invest at least 32 hours per week, split between direct work experience and relevant training seminars.

“Environmental and industrial cleaning is a career path... If you’re not planning on going to college it’s a great living,” Jackson said.

From day one, Jackson said, he’s strived to operate the growing business as a family, always putting people first — a lesson he learned while playing football at the University of Georgia under Dooley’s leadership.

“I think it’s very simple. It’s a people first philosophy. You make them feel like family, give them good benefits, pay them well and treat them like they want to be treated,” Jackson said.

“If you surround yourself with good people and you’re good to them, then great things are going to happen. It’s kind of a simple man’s way to run a business, but it’s my philosophy.”

ABOUT ENVIROVAC

Founded in 1998 by Kevin Jackson, EnviroVac currently employs more than 600 people across 15 locations. The company provides industrial cleaning services, including vacuuming, hydroblasting, water-cutting and video inspection needs. For more information, call 912-964-0660 or go to www.envirovac.us.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is appealing a New York judge’s ruling that Apple cannot be forced to provide the government with access to locked iPhone data.

The filing in Brooklyn federal court on Monday came a week after U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein issued his decision in a routine drug case.

The New York case tackles the same legal ground as the California case in which a judge ordered Apple to create software to help the U.S. break into an encrypted iPhone used by the shooter who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, on Dec. 2.

Apple has vocally opposed the government’s move. Its pushback has fueled a national debate over digital privacy rights and national security.

The government’s response in the California case is due Thursday.

Enmarket announced Tuesday the firm is adding $500,000 to its annual budget to boost starting salaries at its 60-plus convenience stores in the Savannah area and also plans to increase earnings for senior general managers to $55,000 a year with a monthly profit sharing bonus of 5 percent.

“We’re giving people the opportunity to grow with a fresh career path and improve their lives financially, too,” said Ryan Chandler, vice president of business development at Colonial Group Inc., the parent company of enmarket.

Chandler said the plan to raise salaries has been in the works since last year.

“We really came together to form our mission, and as we started to define that we wanted to make sure we focused on our people... We want to show people that there are excellent careers at enmarket.”

Along with the boost to senior management positions, the average management salary rose to $45,000 a year, and managers are given the opportunity to earn a 5- percent bonus of their store’s net income each month, the company said.

Management underwent training during the last part of 2015, and Chandler said the new program has been a big morale booster with employees. He also said changes are already evident: There has been a 10 percent rise in applications compared to this time last year, and team members stepping up with new ideas to improve business including new menu items and introducing coffee kiosks.

“When you give people a stake in the outcome of their performance, it really brings out budding entrepreneurs,” he said.

“People are no longer just looking for a job. They’re looking for a career, so we want them to know they can find a home and career with enmarket.”

The Savannah-based company said it hopes starting salaries above the federal minimum wage and strengthening employment requirements for managers and senior managers will attract new talent with higher levels of education, experience and skills. The rate will vary by market, position and experience and also benefit current employees, and any employees making less than the new rate will be bumped up, according to director of marketing Matt Clements.

“Enmarket puts its employees and customers at the top of the priority list in our mission to enrich life. It starts by enriching the lives of our employees so that they may bring enrichment to our customers and the community. We feel our employees and enmarket’s commitment to those employees, sets us apart from other retailers,” he said.

Tuesday’s announcement indicated the new benefits will also play a large part in the company’s Enriching Life campaign, which encourages and strives to foster the personal and professional growth of employees, now called chief enrichment officers or CEOs.

“It’s more than a campaign; it’s our mission,” Chandler said. “Enriching life starts with our team because we know that investment leads to the highest levels of customer satisfaction.”

The company rebranded its stores last year to make the transition from Enmark to enmarket by adding heathy snacks, take-home meals and organic, gluten free and non-GMO options to their stores in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

“It signifies a fresh, new approach to retail in general. We are making significant investments in buildings, equipment, merchandise, food and our community. But the investment in the most important resource in our company,” Clements said of the rebranding and new pay scale.

ON THE WEB

To learn more about careers at enmarket, go to enmarket.com.

More and more companies have become interested in doing business in the Savannah area, judging by the number of prospect visits the Savannah Economic Development Authority has hosted in just the first two months of 2016.

“We’ve had 14 prospective companies here year-to-date, which is well ahead of last year,” said Trip Tollison, SEDA president and CEO.

But he had a caveat.

“We get a lot of interesting projects that come our way,” he said. “Most of them are looking for us to help them make connections, and we do our best to facilitate that. Many want to talk about available tax incentives, and that’s where we have to look at the number and types of jobs they want to bring and how much those jobs will pay.”

Every December, the state of Georgia lists the minimum hourly wage a company can pay to qualify for state tax credits. That number is based on a formula and, for this year, it is $11.74 an hour.

“So, at SEDA, we’re not going to entertain any project that doesn’t pay at least $11.74 an hour,” Tollison said. “We’re looking at three requests right now from companies that want to pay between $8 and $9 an hour, and we’re not going to engage in that.

“We’ve got a great area, and we can afford to be a little bullish on that.”

Film academy coming

One industry in which wages are more than adequate is the film and television business. Georgia currently ranks third behind only California and New York in film industry growth, with 3,000 to 5,000 new jobs expected in the next three years. The average earning per job is $84,000 a year.

That potential growth has prompted the state to launch the Georgia Film Academy, a statewide initiative to prepare Georgia citizens for those high-paying, high-demand careers.

Savannah Technical College announced Tuesday it will join the Georgia Film Academy as one of four locations in the state working to develop a skilled workforce for the film industry.

The college also has been approved at both the local and state board level to develop four new certificate programs: two for grip/electric and two for scenic design.

Ralph Singleton, movie producer and SEDA film consultant, told the board that total entertainment production in Chatham County jumped from $4.6 million in 2010 to $58.7 million.

“The Savannah Film Office now has production guidelines for the first time ever,” he said. “And one of our greatest accomplishments has been the launch of filmsavannah.org, a more dynamic and robust site that gives our film office the capability to create custom packages for filmmakers, location consultants and others.

“We still need to do more, especially with infrastructure and developing crew base, but we’re already getting great response to SEDA’s new local film incentives.”

World Trade Center

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, World Trade Center Savannah chairman Scott Center reported on the organization’s past year, which included expanding the Foreign-Trade Zone 104, hosting 18 global education programs for more than 350 participants and facilitating 155 business match-making meetings.

“In only its fourth year of operation, WTC Savannah generated more than 50 percent of its budget,” he said.

Moving into 2016, attention will focus on the EB-5 certification awarded the Savannah World Trade Center for Investment, a joint operation of the WTC Savannah and SEDA.

EB-5, in a nutshell, is a federal government-approved way for well-heeled foreign investors to bankroll projects in the United States that will create jobs and stimulate the economy. In return, the investor gets temporary visas for his or her family with a potential fast track — four to five years — to permanent U.S. residency.

While a relatively new concept for the area, EB-5s have a proven track record around the country, said Brynn Grant, SEDA’s chief operating officer.

“According to the Citizen and Immigration Service, there are currently 791 regional centers in the United States accounting for $4 billion in GNP and 41,000 new jobs per year,” she said.

In other business

• Savannah Mayor Eddie DeLoach and SEDA board member Kevin Jackson reported on the progress of the mayor’s new Summer 500 jobs program, designed to put 500 rising high school seniors into jobs and a mentoring program this summer.

“We have 275 jobs already secured,” Jackson told the group, urging the business people in the room to get on board.

• The SEDA board approved new appointments to the World Trade Center Savannah board – Mayor Eddie DeLoach; Cheryl Dozier, president of Savannah State University; Laura Moore of BankSouth; Steven Johnston of Rayonier; and Willie Seymore of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1414.

St. Joseph’s/Candler Immediate Care to open Rincon clinic

Georgia Emergency Associates will open on its sixth urgent care clinic location, St. Joseph’s/Candler Immediate Care – Rincon, on Highway 21 in Rincon on Monday, March 14.

The Rincon clinic, at 5621 Highway 21 South, will treat adults and children over 9 months old for minor illness and injuries that do not require a trip to the hospital emergency room.

The clinic will also offer a full range of employer healthcare services, including workers’ compensation medical care and case management and will accept most commercial insurance as well as Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare.

Georgia Emergency Associates operates the St. Joseph’s/Candler Immediate Care and South Georgia Immediate Care Centers in the southern Georgia region.

“Our immediate care centers are all about meeting the community’s need for quality medical care at convenient times, in convenient locations and in a comfortable setting,” said Dr. Brian Kornblatt, the centers’ Savannah-based founder.

The Rincon clinic will be open seven days a week. For more information, go to getIMMEDIATEcare.com.

Tybee Wine Festival kicks off April 20

The Eigfhth Annual Tybee Wine Festival, presented by the Tybee Post Theater, will be April 20-24 and will feature five days of international wines, fine food and live music set in multiple venues across the island.

The festival will kick off with “A Celebration of Earth and Vine” on Wednesday, April 20. The event pays homage to the 46th anniversary of Earth Week with a five-course wine dinner prepared by five celebrity chefs from Tybee Island and Savannah.

The dishes and accompanying wines will be presented personally by each chef.

For more information on festival events and to buy tickets, go to www.TybeeWineFestival.com. For sponsorship opportunities, call 912-472-4790 or email Melissa Turner at info@tybeeposttheater.org.

Santee Cooper, Conway discuss plans for smokestack site

CONWAY, S.C. — Santee Cooper and city of Conway officials are discussing the future of the site of the former Grainger plant, which the city is interested in buying.

The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reports Santee Cooper wants to convert the 12-acre property into an industrial site. City leaders are interested in buying the property for a recreational area.

For 50 years, the 300-foot smokestacks of the coal-fired Grainger Generating Station sat on the property. The smokestacks were destroyed last month.

Ray Pinson of Santee Cooper didn’t dismiss the idea when a city council member asked Friday if the state-run utility would be interested in selling the land. He said the utility would consider any offer.

“No man is an island,” replies Joseph “Joe” Stevens, referencing the famous John Donne poem when I ask why he shows up regularly for events and programs at the Creators’ Foundry, the entrepreneurial center established by The Creative Coast in 2014.

“It’s the energy and the feedback. When you watch someone else in the position you want to be in one day, it just inspires you. It makes you want to do that, too. You’re rooting for them, and they’re rooting for you,” Joe says of his favorite event, 1 Million Cups Savannah, a weekly presentation platform for entrepreneurs to garner feedback from the community.

Joe comes to the Creators’ Foundry on Boundary Street on a regular basis to attend 1MC, and he participated last week as a volunteer at the FastPitch 2016 competition. Joe is also a full-time maintenance worker.

You might be wondering why someone in the maintenance industry shows up to a place like Creators’ Foundry, home of The Creative Coast and a building that is recognized as Savannah’s innovation and entrepreneurial hub. How does a place like Creators’ Foundry fit into Joe’s work life and goals?

As an aspiring entrepreneur, Joe finds value in opening his network to the wide variety of people who attend the programs and events at Creators’ Foundry: “I’m trying to pitch something. I just love the energy here. I take notes or just listen and interact with different people. I hear different ideas.”

Joe understands the importance of a commodity that many business people and entrepreneurs fail to value: an open network.

Michael Simmons, author and entrepreneur, wrote a 2015 article “The No. 1 Predictor Of Career Success According To Network Science” in which he reports his findings based on interviews with top network scientists: “Simply being in an open network instead of a closed one is the best predictor of career success.”

Simmons found that “most people spend their careers in closed networks; networks of people who already know each other.”

He continues by writing that “people often stay in the same industry, the same religion, and the same political party,” which does not allow for much personal or professional growth.

It is easy and comfortable to surround yourself with people you already know, but Simmons compares a closed network to an “echo chamber” in which one hears the same ideas and beliefs validated over and over again, never developing new perspective or understanding from other groups or types of people.

Forbes magazine contributor Ekaterina Walter writes on the subject as well: “Diversity is essential to growth and prosperity of any company: diversity of perspectives, experiences, cultures, genders and age. Why? Because diversity breeds innovation. And innovation breeds business success.”

Walter backs her article with various studies, including one by Lou Hong and Scott Page that developed a mathematical theorem proving that “groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high-ability problem solvers.”

Shannon Detro, marketing director for GO Race Productions, a company that coordinates 70 running events throughout Georgia, finds the same value in connecting with the entrepreneurial community as Joe.

“While I’m not going to pitch a product, there’s value for me in being here every week. Being around people sparks new ideas and 1MC connects me with a very innovative community,” she says.

Creators’ Foundry is the innovation hub The Creative Coast dreamed it would be: a place where people of varying backgrounds, professions and ideals would come together and ideas could collide. The Creative Coast sees new and innovative ideas spurring all the time through the weekly events and programs we offer, as well as the meetups and outside events that regularly take place in the Creators’ Foundry event space.

Joe’s entrepreneurial endeavor is inspired by his nieces and nephews. He has developed a prototype toy that helps kids “learn faster through play.”

For now Joe is keeping the particulars of his invention under lock and key, but he is about to submit his idea for a patent. You can learn all about Joe’s venture on Wednesday, June 1, when he presents at 1MC for feedback and critique.

In the meantime, stop by Creators’ Foundry from 9-10 a.m. any Wednesday morning to learn more about The Creative Coast and how we’re building a sounding board for innovation through 1MC or schedule an appointment to tour Creators’ Foundry and learn about the power of a diverse entrepreneurial community.

Kait Lance is an entrepreneurship evangelist and community manager at The Creative Coast, a not-for-profit organization that promotes the creative and entrepreneurial community within the region. Kait can be reached at 912-447-8457 or kait@thecreativecoast.org.

By Kait Lance

The recently opened Homewood Suites Hotel at 611 E. River St. got a little ahead of itself when it installed 16 light fixtures on its rooftop pool deck without asking Savannah’s Historic Review Board for permission.

The board voted unanimously Wednesday afternoon to deny the after-the-fact installation of the 20-foot-tall structures after neighbors complained about the lights, which are visible from Bay, River and East Broad streets.

The owners of the hotel, Atlanta-based North Point Hospitality Group, didn’t know they needed approval from the board, according to the lead architect, Patrick Shay of Gunn Meyerhoff Shay Architecture.

The lights were installed after the owners learned about a Chatham County Health Department guideline for pool lighting, which states that any pool that permits night swimming must have adequate lighting to illuminate the entire pool area.

“(The guideline) is much more strict than it is in other jurisdictions, and that is why the specialized light consultant for this project did not plan for this from the very beginning. During construction it became apparent that the interpretation was going to have to be enforced,” Shay told the board on Wednesday.

“... I didn’t become aware of it until after the poles were already installed.”

Neighbors complained about the fixtures last fall, and they came to the hotel owner’s formal attention in October after a site inspection.

The only member of the public who spoke at Wednesday’s meeting was Danielle Meunier, representing the Historic Savannah Foundation, who agreed with staff that the lighting was not visually compatible and should be restudied.

Since the fall, board staff has been working with the hotel to determine an alternate solution since the health department doesn’t permit any variances in this situation.

Ellen Harris, director of the Historic Preservation and Urban Planning Department, presented several alternatives in her report to the board, including revising the existing trellis — which spans perpendicularly above a section of the raised pool — to incorporate some or all of the fixtures or redesign the height and placement of the fixtures.

“The height of the light fixtures could be reduced significantly, and the angle of the light sources themselves adjusted to provide the minimum required lighting,” Harris said, adding that the four north and south fixtures, which are the most visible and closest to the building’s facade may not even be needed because they aren’t providing significant lighting over the pool.

“What the owner and developer would prefer, of course, is that you find that because they’re required to do this by jurisdiction that is outside of yours, that they’re able to leave the light poles as they are,” Shay said.

“Failing that, we have convinced the owner and developer that there is probably a path forward with a hybrid solution that you heard today...”

The only alternative Shay said the owners weren’t willing to consider was removing the lighting completely and closing the pool at night.

He said raising the trellis height would be difficult, but that’s an alternative he’s willing to explore. However, the existing lighting would be reused in the new design.

“I don’t want to mislead you, it’s still going to be bright light. There’s no way to avoid that due to the health department requirement, but we would not have to have this forest of 20-foot high light poles that are around it,” he said.

“We think that we will probably still need to have two... But we do think we can position those toward the middle so that they are much less intrusive from the outside.”

With a Request for Qualifications in the hands of more than 1,000 potential developers, the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center’s quest for more convention hotel rooms on Hutchinson Island is now underway, trade center authority chairman Mark Smith told his board Wednesday.

While Smith has made it clear the trade center would still welcome participation from the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort and Spa, the island’s only hotel, a number of sources have told the Savannah Morning News the hotel has not been in a position to make a commitment because it has been for sale.

The request for qualifications to build a 300- to 500-room convention hotel on Parcel 7 on the island — also known as Trade Center Landing — on the other side of the trade center from the Westin has a deadline of March 24.

“This is the first step,” Smith said. “With this RFQ, we’re identifying those companies doing business building, owning and operating convention hotels to gauge their interest in building, owning and operating a convention hotel here.”

The new hotel would be built with private funds.

The quest for more hotel rooms on Hutchinson has been an ongoing one that initially involved the Westin Savannah Harbor Spa and Resort.

For at least five years, the trade center authority has commissioned feasibility studies and engaged consultants to look at the financing and economic development potential of a major hotel project on the island.

In the most recent study, begun in mid-2014, PKF Hospitality Research of Atlanta indicated Hutchinson Island will need at least 300 more hotel rooms if the trade center is to grow its convention business, suggesting that the best way to achieve that would be through an expansion of the already existing Westin hotel property.

If talks with the Westin proved unsuccessful, PKF said, the trade center authority should consider talking with developers about a freestanding 300-room hotel on the land just west of the trade center.

Smith would not comment on the Westin’s lack of involvement in the project, and the hotel’s ownership, which includes CSX Realty Co., has declined to comment.

The next step, Smith said, will come after the RFQs are submitted to the Georgia World Congress Center, which manages the operation of the local trade center.

“At that point, we’ll determine whose qualifications meet our specifications and begin discussions with them,” he said.

”Ultimately we hope to issue a Request for Proposal.”

Vying for dollars

In other business, the board voted to contract with Lee Hughes as a lobbyist on the local, state and national level.

“Other authorities have been successful in getting federal funds for their water ferries,” Smith said. “We aren’t looking to bake a water ferry pie, but if one is being baked, we want a piece of it. That’s why we need eyes and ears in D.C.”

Board member and SEDA President Trip Tollison, a former governmental affairs specialist, agreed.

“I can tell you from first-hand experience, if we don’t have someone on the ground in Washington looking out for our interests, it just won’t happen,” he said.

Hughes will be paid $5,000 a month

Numbers looking good

With two-thirds of its fiscal year complete, the trade center is on track to finish fiscal year 2016 more than a quarter-million dollars favorable to budget, trade center finance director Stephen Hall told the authority board at Wednesday’s meeting, adding that the numbers reflected improvements in food and beverage revenue.

“Food and beverage continues to lead the way with no signs of slowing,” he said, noting that Savor Savannah Catering, the center’s contracted provider, hosted events on 28 of February’s 29 days this year.

Water ferry operations are also currently projected to be favorable to budget in the fiscal year, Hall said, primarily because of lower fuel prices.

UK-based rental firm orders 50 JCB skid steers

JCB’s Pooler manufacturing plant has announced it has received an order for 50 skid steer and compact track loaders from UK-based equipment and crane rental firm Hewden in a deal worth approximately $3.5 million.

The deal also includes a range of JCB attachments, including augers, pallet forks, shovels, trenchers, waste grapples, patch planners, sweeper collectors, brush cutters, landscape power rakes and breakers.

“This is the latest in a significant round of investments for Hewden,” said Hewden CEO Adrian Murphy. “We believe in having the latest and newest technology to meet our clients’ exacting demands.”

“This order is very significant for JCB, and we are delighted that such a major hirer as Hewden recognises the unique health and safety benefits of the JCB skid steer range,” said JCB Chief Executive Officer Graeme Macdonald.

For more information, go to www.jcbna.com.

BankSouth honors Savannah-based employees

BankSouth recognized three Savannah-based managers for their accomplishments during its first awards ceremony Feb. 20 in Athens.

Heather Peloquin, assistant vice president and relationship manager of BankSouth in the Savannah market, was presented the “Relationship Optimization” award for customer service and her focus on evaluating customer needs

Michael Caputo, who oversees daily operations in the Savannah market, was presented with the “Relationship Optimization” award for his exceptional management of clients’ needs and his focus on placing customers with the right banking and mortgage solutions.

Retail banking associate Kay Peacock received the “Customer Service Associate of the Year” award for her outstanding level of customer service, as well as serving as an advocate for customer experience enhancements and eliminating barriers to customer satisfaction.

Black Tiger Taekwon-Do ribbon-cutting

The Richmond Hill/Bryan County Chamber of Commerce will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. March 23 with Richmond Hill Mayor Harold Fowler and other guests for the grand opening of Black Tiger Taekwon-Do, 10104 Ford Ave. in Richmond Hill.

Black Tiger Taekwon-Do is a family owned and operated martial arts and fitness facility. Master Robert Schneider and his wife, Anna, relocated to Richmond Hill from New Jersey in February 2015.

Grand opening promotions include six Weeks of Taekwon-Do classes for $69 plus a free uniform, complimentary combat fitness class and free personal training assessment. For a complete list of programs and services, go to MartialArtsRichmondHill.com or email BlackTigerRichmondHill@gmaill.com.

For more information about the ribbon cutting ceremony, go to RHBCchamber.org or contact Brianne M. Yontz at 912-756-3444 or byontz@rhbcchamber.org.

If you are looking at your advertising budget and wondering how to stretch those dollars, consider Facebook. Why? Just check out the numbers and the benefits.

First of all, with more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook has tremendous reach. Secondly, Facebook continues to innovate and expand, from its Instagram acquisition to video content to the recent addition of its new Canvas feature, and each strategic move has positioned Facebook as a cost-effective and results-driven advertising medium.

In the past year, Instagram advertising became available worldwide, meaning advertisers are now able to easily manage and run campaigns across Facebook and Instagram from the management dashboard. This ease of operation helps advertisers reach even more people.

Advertisers can also increase exposure with a Pay Per Engagement (PPE) campaign. With Facebook, you can run a PPE campaign, controlling the amount spent and reaching thousands of targeted, potential customers. Your business can also increase lead generation and customers with Facebook by setting up web click campaigns, which send your target audience to an optimized landing page or website.

One of the most highly rated benefits of Facebook advertising is how easy it is for a business to update ads and enjoy creative control. Let’s say you decide you don’t like an ad or need to update it with new information. With Facebook you have the freedom to make those changes whenever you want.

In addition, you can test your ads, find the ideal audience and see which ad performs best.

For example, Facebook insights help you better understand how people are engaging with your ads and your page. You can track page performance as well as engagement metrics, impressions, audience demographic and more. All of these elements help you monitor and improve your business’s advertising strategy.

One advertising strategy that more businesses are using is video. Facebook now averages 8 billion video views each day. That is a huge number. This number also means there is plenty of space for Facebook to attract money that is shifting from TV to digital as well as improving video reach and views.

More recently, Facebook introduced a full-screen ad experience that brings products and brands to life on mobile devices. Facebook Canvas is a new post click, full-screen, immersive mobile ad experience on Facebook that loads instantaneously.

Before Facebook launched its Canvas feature, mobile users would click through a creative ad placement and the advertiser’s website would be slow to load or not be optimized for mobile, often resulting in the viewer abandoning the website. Now Canvas ads open instantly from the News Feed to a full-screen experience that incorporates a mix of video, images, text, and call-to-action buttons.

Companies such as Coca-Cola and Lowe’s are benefitting from Canvas. A Coca-Cola Canvas ad reached nearly 16 million users and had an average view time of 18 seconds, while people spent an average of 28 seconds exploring Lowe’s Canvas ad about easy home do-it-yourself projects.

There is no question that Facebook is a powerful advertising medium. Small and large businesses, with extensive or limited advertising budgets, are seeing that Facebook advertising delivers results. Many businesses are finding that they can utilize Facebook to better target their audience across multiple platforms and ultimately increase brand awareness and generate sales.

This column was compiled by Karen Robertson, director of public relations and client development at Robertson & Markowitz Advertising & Public Relations, Inc. She can be reached at karen@robmark.com or 912-921-1040.

The logo for the new Children’s Hospital at Memorial University Medical Center was unveiled March 3 at the Chatham Club.

Construction on what will be called the Dwaine and Cynthia Willett Children’s Hospital of Savannah began early this year and should be complete in spring 2017. The new freestanding facility will be placed in what is now the Savannah Rehabilitation Hospital on the Waters Avenue campus.

The Willetts have contributed $5 million in support of the new hospital as part of a five-year, $20 million “Kids Only” capital campaign kicked off by the Memorial Foundation in February 2014. The campaign has raised more than $15 million so far, and the Willetts’ contribution marks the largest single gift to the campaign.

Cynthia Willettt has been actively involved in the Children’s Hospital Charter Circle (for pediatric neurosurgery) and in fundraising for the “Kids Only” capital campaign. She serves as a trustee of the Memorial Health Foundation and recently co-chaired the Lowcountry Annie Oakleys Charity Clays for Children fundraiser.

The Children’s Hospital at Memorial provides care for approximately 70,000 children each year.

It was a double celebration on Wednesday for Pride Pools, Spas and Leisure Products, Inc. as the company celebrated its 41st anniversary and the opening of a new showroom at its Savannah location at 11 Gateway Blvd. inside the Shoppes of Savannah.

“It feels great. I’ve been doing this 32 of the 41 years,” said Sherry Buckman, who owns the company with her brothers Alex and Marshall Smith, who operates a second location in Claxton.

“The expansion is something that I’ve been trying to do for the last couple of years, so it happening this year is a good thing,” Buckman said.

Renovation on the 1,500-square-foot expansion took about two weeks and gives the company room to showcase the three spa lines they carry as well as above ground pools.

The siblings bought the company, which installs in-ground and above-ground pools and features a full service and renovations department, from their father, Gary E. Smith, in 1999 and brought in new products, including grills, tanning beds, saunas and outdoor toys and games.

Buckman and Alex Smith, who operate the Savannah location, said providing a family-like atmosphere to both employees and customers has kept the business going. “We try to make it a person thing with our customers and treat them like family,” Buckman said.

The store moved to its current location in 2005, which Alex Smith said was a blessing in disguise.

“It’s been good for the community and good for us. We felt like expanding will make things better for the business and give more service to the customer and that’s what it’s all about,” Smith said.

“Our dad started this in 1975, and we’ve just been fortunate and lucky enough to be part of it.”

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about Pride Pools, go to www.pridepools.com or call 912-927-3957

Metro Savannah’s unemployment rate for January was 5.2 percent, up three-tenths of a percentage point from 4.9 percent in December, the Georgia Department of Labor announced today. The rate in January 2015 was 6.4 percent.

The rate rose as the number of jobs in Savannah decreased to 172,500, down by 3,100, or 1.8 percent, from 175,600 in December.

Most of the decrease came in leisure and hospitality, retail trade, professional and business services, state government, mining, logging and construction, and education and health services.

However, over the year, Savannah gained 7,000 jobs, a 4.2 percent growth rate, up from 165,500 in January 2015. Most of the job gains came in professional and business services, 1,900; leisure and hospitality, 1,300; education and health services, 1,100; manufacturing, along with trade, transportation and warehousing, 1,000 each.

Also, the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance decreased by 302, or 22.7 percent, to 1,026 in January. Most of the decrease came in administrative and support services, transportation and warehousing, and accommodations and food services. Also, over the year, claims were down by 684, or 40 percent, from 1,710 in January 2015.

Metro Gainesville had the lowest area jobless rate at 4.5 percent, while Metro Dalton had the highest at 7.2 percent.

Meanwhile, Georgia’s seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for January was 5.4 percent, down from 5.5 percent in December. It was 6.3 percent in January 2015.

Local area unemployment data are not seasonally adjusted. Georgia labor market data are available at www.dol.georgia.gov.

DETROIT — It’s a first for police cars: Doors that can protect against armor-piercing bullets.

Ford will soon be offering the doors on its Police Interceptor sedans and SUVs. They’ll be the first in the U.S. to meet the Justice Department’s highest standard for body armor, the equivalent of a bulky SWAT team vest.

The doors are designed to stop a .30-caliber bullet shot from a high-powered rifle like an AK-47. That’s more powerful ammunition than many soldiers carry.

Ford has offered factory-installed ballistic panels on its police car doors since 2008. But previous versions protected against handgun fire and non-armor piercing bullets. Between 5 percent and 10 percent of police vehicles Ford sells have the optional ballistic protection, which costs around $1,500 per door.

But Randy Freiburger, a Ford engineer who works with police customers, said the company was getting frequent requests for better protection, particularly from police in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. So engineers starting working on upgraded panels.

“In some places outside the U.S., they face the armor-piercing threat on a daily basis,” Freiburger said. “This is the price of entry for those markets.”

Ford was also facing pressure from its rivals. Dodge began offering non-armor piercing protection on police versions of the Charger in 2012. Ford controlled 60 percent of the U.S. police vehicle market in 2015.

Other automakers, including Land Rover and Audi, make vehicles from high-strength steel that can protect against armor-piercing bullets. But the cost would likely be out of reach for most police departments. The armored Range Rover Sentinel, which isn’t sold in the U.S., starts at $569,000. A Ford Police Interceptor SUV — which is based on an Explorer — starts around $30,000.

Ford’s ballistic panels — which cover most of the door — have two layers. The outside is made from ballistic-grade ceramic tile. When a bullet hits the tile, it disperses the energy and starts to break the bullet into pieces. The inner layer is made from aramid fiber, which is the same material used for Kevlar. The fiber catches the shrapnel from the bullet.

If bullets strike twice in the same spot, which is rare, the panels will still offer some protection, Ford says.

Freiburger said increasing the ballistic protection was an engineering challenge. The composition of the ceramic tile and the interior fiber had to be changed. The doors also weigh more, so engineers had to make sure that the hinges would hold them.

Ford will continue offering both non-armor piercing and armor-piercing doors for departments with different needs. Pricing for the upgraded protection hasn’t been announced.

The doors aren’t available to the public. In fact, they’re destroyed when police cars are scrapped so they can’t get into criminals’ hands.

Freiburger said the car windows do not have ballistic protection because it significantly increases the weight of the glass. Bulletproof glass could also make it more difficult to get injured people out of a patrol car.

Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations, said police are frequently targeted when they’re in their cars, so they will likely welcome the more advanced protection.

“Any kind of protection that can be added into the vehicles that officers are driving in is a great idea,” Johnson said.”

DUBLIN — Government statisticians say Ireland’s economy grew by a Europe-leading 7.8 percent in 2015, its fastest rate in 15 years.

Ireland’s rapid recovery from a 2010-2013 international bailout despite imposing stern austerity measures has surprised many economists.

Thursday’s report found that gross domestic product — driven by the exports of 1,000 Ireland-based multinationals — experienced its strongest growth since 2000 during Ireland’s construction-driven Celtic Tiger boom. Reckless bank lending to property developers forced Ireland to nationalize credit-starved banks starting in 2008 and ultimately overwhelmed the state’s ability to finance itself.

Economists say they expect Ireland’s growth to lead Europe again in 2016, barring shocks at home or abroad.

Ireland’s lawmakers are currently trying to form a new coalition government following an inconclusive Feb. 26 election. That process could take weeks.

Gulfstream supplier LMI Aerospace this week notified 20 of its 32 Savannah employees that their positions will be eliminated as the company consolidates more of its assembly work in its St. Charles, Mo., plant.

The lay-offs will be phased in over the next month, according to company spokeswoman Amy Horton.

“Some employees were immediately released when we made the notifications this week, while others will be phased out in the next weeks as we wind down our assembly operations,” she said.

All affected employees receive severance benefits, assistance with job searches and the option to apply for positions elsewhere in the company, Horton said.

Missouri-based LMI opened the Savannah facility on Coleman Industrial Boulevard more than a dozen years ago, primarily to be closer to Gulfstream.

On Wednesday, LMI Aerospace reported total net sales for 2015 of $375 million, compared to $388 million in 2014. Guidance for 2016 indicated net sales in aerostructures to be between $315 million and $325 million, compared to $327 million in 2015.

In a statement released Wednesday, LMI’s chief operating officer Joe DeMartino said the company’s decision to transfer its Savannah assembly work to St. Charles was part of a key strategy to integrate operations.

“Making changes like this is hard because they affect our people and their families,” he said.

“We are providing severance benefits to affected employees, and to the greatest extent possible we will also help them find opportunities elsewhere in the company, and provide job search resources, career counseling services and other assistance to help them through this transition.”

Savannah remains an important site for LMI, given its proximity to customers with operations in the Southeast, DeMartino said.

“Kitting and distribution activities currently preformed at Savannah will continue, and we are looking for opportunities to expand the distribution work statement there.”

Historical ups and downs

LMI opened its Savannah facility in 2003 as LMI Kitting LLC, developing and supplying fuselage skin kit assemblies that worked well with Gulfstream’s lean, just-in-time manufacturing process. It had five employees.

In 2006, the company added Aviation Partners Boeing as a client, producing a kit that supports the installation of winglets on the Boeing 737, 757 and 767 models.

In May of 2011, the Georgia Department of Economic Development named LMI Savannah the Georgia Manufacturer of the Year for 2010 in the category of small manufacturer with 150 or fewer employees. In February of 2012, the facility was named Supplier of the Year for 2011 by Aviation Partners Boeing and, in December of 2012, was named 2012 Manufacturer of the Year by the Savannah Morning News.

By the end of 2012, LMI’s local presence had grown from 28,800 square feet to 111,400 square feet and 55 employees. That same year, the company added a world-class, $3.2 million machining center, giving it the capability to do high-speed machining of aircraft aluminum.

While 2012 was a banner year for the company, LMI suffered a reversal of fortune in 2013, reporting losses of $58.5 million compared to a profit of $16.5 in 2012.

With those losses spilling over into early 2014, the company restructured its Savannah operation, shuttering the highly touted machining center it opened a little more than 18 months earlier.

ABOUT LMI AEROSPACE

LMI Aerospace Inc. (NASDAQ: LMIA) is a leading supplier of structural solutions and engineering services to the commercial, business and regional, and military aerospace markets. Manufacturing more than 40,000 products for a variety of platforms and providing turnkey engineering capabilities to support aircraft lifecycles, LMI offers complete, integrated solutions in aerostructures, engineering and program management. Based in St. Louis, LMI has 22 locations across the United States and in Mexico, the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka.

ON THE WEB

www.lmiaerospace.com

Jobless rate edges up
in Savannah area

Metro Savannah’s unemployment rate for January was 5.2 percent, up from 4.9 percent in December, the Georgia Department of Labor announced Thursday. The rate in January 2015 was 6.4 percent.

The rate rose as the number of jobs decreased to 172,500, down by 3,100, or 1.8 percent, from 175,600 in December.

Most of the decrease came in leisure and hospitality, retail trade, professional and business services, state government, mining, logging and construction, and education and health services.

Over the year, Savannah gained 7,000 jobs, a 4.2 percent growth rate, up from 165,500 in January 2015. Most of those came in professional and business services, 1,900; leisure and hospitality, 1,300; education and health services, 1,100; manufacturing, along with trade, transportation and warehousing, 1,000 each. Initial claims for unemployment insurance decreased by 302, or 22.7 percent, to 1,026 in January. Over the year, claims were down by 684, or 40 percent, from 1,710 in January 2015.

9.3% of local mortgages in negative equity

A report released Thursday by CoreLogic, a real estate information reporting firm, indicates 5,482 residential properties with a mortgage in the Savannah metro area – 9.3 percent of all homes with mortgages – were in negative equity at the end of 2015 compared with 7,791, or 13.6 percent, at the end of 2014 and 5,116, or 8.7 percent, in 2015.

An additional 2,328 Savannah area properties, or 3.9 percent, were in near-negative equity at the end of 2015 compared with 3,180, or 5.6 percent, in 2014.

Nationally, CoreLogic reported, one million borrowers regained equity in 2015, bringing the total number of mortgaged residential properties with equity at the end of 2015 to approximately 46.3 million, or 91.5 percent of all mortgaged properties. Nationwide, borrower equity increased year over year by $682 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Commission warns about utility scams

The Georgia Public Service Commission is warning consumers to beware of telephone calls from persons claiming to be Georgia Power Co. employees trying to collect payment for bills and threatening to disconnect their service.

The commission reminds consumers that Georgia Power does not ask for personal or financial information such as a credit card, debit card, banking information, or Social Security number over the phone.

One of the phone numbers used was 844-523-9869.

For more information, go to www.psc.state.ga.us. Consumers may contact the commission at 800-282-5813 or gapsc@psc.state.ga.us.

Contact Gale Baldwin, Managing Editor/Business Editor at 912-652-0300 or gale.baldwin@savannahnow.com.

Preciball USA, a world leader in the manufacture and supply of industrial ball products, is building a new facility with 37,600 square feet of floor space in Pooler’s Westside Business Park.

The company is currently on King George Boulevard on Savannah’s southside.

The new distribution center will serve all of North America, according to Don Peak, general manager for Preciball USA.

“We provide products manufactured all over the world to customers in the U.S., Canada and Mexico from our Savannah distribution center, so the geography and proximity of this location to the airport, the port, I-95 and Highway 80 were important in our decision to relocate,” Peak said.

“Not only is this project a good example of effective land use, a thoughtful design process and energy efficient construction, but it should also have a favorable impact to the area’s economic development potential.”

Preciball is expected to occupy about half of the building and make the remaining space available for lease. Suites incorporate both warehouse and office space.

“The building has a number of unique aspects in that it provides this flexible space and is adaptable to Preciball’s rapidly expanding growth,” Peak said. “Other key benefits include the building’s high efficiency warehouse lighting and HVAC equipment, as well as dock-high loading doors and dock levelers. The warehouse space is also pillar-free with clear span truss construction.”

One of the more interesting aspects of this project was placing the building design on a challenging site, said Chris Tilton, president and co-founder of Dewitt Tilton Group, the Savannah commercial construction firm selected to build the new facility.

“But we were able to come up with a design that fits well in the space and provides for convenient in-and-out truck traffic,” he said.

Preciball expects to be in its new location by late summer.

D.J. Powers opens two new offices

Savannah’s D.J. Powers, one of Georgia’s oldest freight forwarders and custom brokerage firms, started the New Year by establishing two new overseas offices in Ningbo and Shenzhen, China, expanding a global footprint that currently includes offices in Rotterdam and Shanghai.

Ningbo, an industrial hub located in east China’s Zhejiang province, is one of China’s oldest cities, as well as being one of the busiest ports in the world. Shenzhen, a city known to link Hong Kong with the Chinese mainland, is also an important seaport, making the 2014 Port Rankings List as the third-busiest port in the world.

“This is an exciting time of growth, and we look forward to continued success as we expand our reach to provide unparalleled service to clients around the world to keep their supply chains relevant to market changes,” said Powers spokeswoman Laura Green. “Our superior measurement reporting ensures their goals are achieved along with numerous other services we provide, which allow them to compete in the world market and thus take advantage of opportunities to grow their businesses.”

With seven U.S. offices and four overseas offices, as well as a network of more than 175 affiliated offices worldwide, D.J. Powers specializes in providing global logistics services for a wide variety of commodities including chemicals, machinery, frozen foods, vehicles, consumer goods and bulk minerals.

Senior business reporter Mary Carr Mayle covers the ports for the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow. She can be reached at 912-652-0324 or at mary.mayle@savannahnow.com.

SHIPPING SCHEDULE

Following are the ships expected to call on Georgia Ports Authority’s Garden City and Ocean terminals this week. Schedules are supplied by GPA and are subject to change.

TERMINAL VESSEL ETA

GCT MSC MARIANNA Today

GCT ZIM SAN FRANCISCO Today

GCT MAERSK KURE Today

GCT MAERSK ATLANTA Today

GCT CSCL AMERICA Today

GCT SPIRIT OF COLOMBO Today

GCT MAERSK WAKAYAMA Today

GCT CUCKOO HUNTER Today

GCT XENA Saturday

GCT ANL KURANGO Saturday

GCT MSC VITTORIA Saturday

GCT MAERSK KOLKATA Saturday

GCT PHILADELPHIA EXPRESS Saturday

GCT NYK ADONIS Saturday

GCT MOL MAGNIFICENCE Saturday

GCT CMA CGM MAUPASSANT Saturday

GCT YORKTOWN EXPRESS Sunday

GCT OSAKA EXPRESS Sunday

GCT EVER LIBRA Sunday

GCT MUKADDES KALKAVAN Sunday

GCT NORTHERN JUSTICE Sunday

OT TIJUCA Sunday

GCT CONTI CANBERRA Monday

GCT MAERSK HARTFORD Monday

GCT SEA LAND MERCURY Monday

GCT ERNEST HEMINGWAY Monday

GCT SEOUL EXPRESS Monday

GCT VANCOUVER EXPRESS Monday

OT GRANDE GABON Monday

GCT HANOI BRIDGE Tuesday

GCT OOCL KUALA LUMPUR Tuesday

GCT MAERSK KOTKA Tuesday

GCT ZIM TARRAGONA Tuesday

GCT BENEDICT SCHULTE Tuesday

GCT CMA CGM LA SCALA Tuesday

OT STAR HANSA Tuesday

OT GLOBAL CORAL Tuesday

GCT CONRAD S Wednesday

GCT JACK LONDON Wednesday

GCT APL TURQUOISE Wednesday

GCT CMA CGM MOLIERE Wednesday

OT FIDELIO Wednesday

GCT HARMONY Thursday

GCT EVER SUMMIT Thursday

GCT MAERSK SERANGOON Thursday

GCT MSC GENEVA Thursday

GCT MSC PAMELA Thursday

GCT YM ELIXIR Thursday

GCT SHANGHAI TRADER Thursday

OT MORNING CORNELIA Thursday

OT LAWIN ARROW Thursday