The Pooler Elementary School Chorus turned holiday carolers this week to help the Georgia Ports Authority wrap up its CASA gift campaign.
CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) is a nonprofit group that advocates for the best interests of abused and neglected children involved in juvenile court deprivation proceedings.
“CASA performs a vital service, looking after the interests of these children who are less fortunate,” said GPA Executive Director Curtis J. Foltz. “Participating in this gift drive allows us, in a small way, to take part in their important mission.”
CASA recruits and trains volunteers to help hundreds of children who have been removed from their homes and become entangled in an overcrowded juvenile justice and foster care system. The mission of the CASA program is to ensure abused and neglected children find a safe, permanent and nurturing home.
For its 12th annual drive, caseworkers at CASA supplied the GPA with wish lists for 72 children and teens ranging in age from 8 months to 17 years old.
Each GPA gift-giver helped sponsor a child by filling wish lists with holiday goodies. Gift suggestions included clothes, toys, dolls, bikes and games.
“CASA and the children we represent are lucky to have the Georgia Ports as a partner in believing that childhood should be something to be rejoiced in, not something to recover from,” said Anne Robinson, executive director of CASA.
Cordele’s inland port thriving
It seemed like a whacky idea at first — after all, isn’t an “inland port” an oxymoron? But it was no joke to the Crisp County business leaders who wanted to create jobs and economic impact in their middle-Georgia county.
Today, Cordele Intermodal Services provides direct container rail service to and from the Port of Savannah via Cordele, which is located on Interstate 75, some 200 miles from the port.
Containers originating in an area up to 350 miles south, west and northwest of Cordele that are destined for overseas shipment are brought by truck to Cordele for final shipment to Savannah. Containers entering the Savannah Port that are destined for this same area will be brought from Savannah to Cordele by rail and then transferred to truck for final delivery.
Recently, CIS began offering next-day rail service to Savannah, meaning that exporters in southwest Georgia and neighboring regions of Florida and Alabama can take advantage of overnight rail service to the port.
“With federal regulations decreasing truck operators’ hours of service, forecasted reductions in cost-effective drivers and increased trucking costs, GPA’s intermodal rail service has become a very reliable and cost-effective method of transporting customers’ containers,” said John Trent, GPA’s senior director of strategic operations and safety.
West Coast gridlock continues
Continuing congestion and delays affecting West Coast ports are reaching the point where it may leave the type of lasting negative impression that followed the 10-day work stoppage in 2002, the Journal of Commerce’s Peter Tirschwell reported Wednesday on JOC.com.
“Despite the peak holiday season ending as the holiday approaches, shippers and forwarders are saying that dwell times are not improving at the Los Angeles-Long Beach ports,
lending credence to the idea that the problems will not be easily solved,” said Tirschwell, a prominent thought-leader in maritime transportation with more than 20 years as journalist with the JOC.
“It is bringing back memories of the 2002 lockout of U.S. West Coast dockworkers amid a contentious contract negotiation.”
That situation, which came as a complete shock to many shippers, Tirschwell said, led to many of them adopting a more diversified port gateway strategy.
Meanwhile, all eyes are on the West Coast, where negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association have been ongoing for more than six months with no resolution in sight.
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 HS BRUCKNER Today
GCT MAERSK HARTFORD Today
GCT MAERSK CAROLINA Today
GCT POHORJE Today
GCT EVER SUMMIT Today
GCT NYK CONSTELLATION Today
GCT MOL EFFICIENCY Today
GCT SAMUS SWAN Today
OT ATLANTIC ELAND Today
GCT SAIGON EXPRESS Saturday
GCT MAERSK UTAH Saturday
GCT MSC VANESSA Saturday
GCT MSC ALESSIA Saturday
GCT CSCL VANCOUVER Saturday
GCT BERLIN EXPRESS Saturday
GCT AKINADA BRIDGE Saturday
OT STAR LUSTER Saturday
OT TUGELA Saturday
OT CIELO DI VENEZIA Saturday
GCT MSC INGRID Sunday
GCT SEATTLE EXPRESS Sunday
GCT EVER CHARMING Sunday
OT STAR LUSTER Saturday
OT TUGELA Saturday
OT TASCO Sunday
GCT HYUNDAI DYNASTY Monday
GCT CMA CGM FIGARO Monday
GCT TOKYO EXPRESS Monday
GCT CMA CGM L’ETOILE Monday
GCT AL FARAHIDI Monday
GCT APL EGYPT Tuesday
GCT YM MOBILITY Tuesday
GCT CAFER DEDE Tuesday
GCT HANJIN NEWPORT Tuesday
GCT ZIM TEXAS Tuesday
GCT CHARLESTON EXPRESS Tuesday
GCT APL CORAL Wednesday
GCT SHIPPAN ISLAND Wednesday
GCT NORTHERN DEXTERITY Wednesday
GCT BEATRICE Wednesday
OT OCEAN PEARL Wednesday
OT HUARMEY QUEEN Wednesday
OT OBERON Wednesday
GCT MAERSK WINNIPEG Thursday
GCT MOL MAXIM Thursday
GCT HS COLUMBIA Thursday
GCT ZIM BEIJING Thursday
GCT OCTAVIA Thursday
GCT YM ETERNITY Thursday
OT PACIFIC PRIMATE Thursday
OT JOHANN OLDENDORFF Thursday