New Faculty Tour: Last Day Wrap-up

Written by Beverly Johnson, public service assistant in governmental services and research, and Mara Register, public service assistant in governmental training, education and development, of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government.

Our last day is bittersweet. As we gather in the lobby, it begins to set in that this is our last day of the tour and that this wonderful journey is coming to an end. 

Our day began with a warm greeting from Malik Watkins, public service associate at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government. Malik escorts us to the Chatham County Metropolitan Planning Commission and introduces us to Ellen Harris, director of urban planning and historic preservation; and Bridget Lidy, tourism administrator in the City of Savannah Citizen Office. After a brief overview of Savannah's history, we take a short walking tour of Savannah's historic district.

The city is a wonderful mix of old and new. City planners and preservationists have masterfully woven national chains among local businesses to create a very cozy downtown. Much of this accomplishment can be attributed to "the seven women of Savannah," who began Savannah's historic preservation efforts. The city's effort has resulted in 12 National Register districts and 22 of its original 24 squares. 

Five facts on Savannah: 

• Founded by James Edward Oglethorpe in 1733, Savannah was the 13th colony and first capitol of Georgia.
• The squares found in downtown Savannah are a result of the Oglethorpe Plan.
• Spanish moss does not grow in the trees located in the center of most squares because there is no wind. Wind is required to spread moss to the trees.
• Savannah is the home of Savannah College of Art and Design and has a very lively arts scene.
• Street parking issues created problems in Savannah. In response, the city has transitioned to an underground garage system. Built in 2008, Whitaker Street Garage has four levels underground, space for 1,065 vehicles and sits beneath one of the city's most popular squares.

Next stop: Georgia Ports Authority!

Chief Frank Manson of the Georgia Ports Authority Police Department provided a very informative tour of the port of Savannah. The port supports trade in 150 countries, with Asia ranking the highest. This port receives and sends shipments by rail, truck and ship on a continuous basis, and works with the FBI, DEA and other federal agencies. 

The port of Savannah is a major component of Georgia's economic engine connecting Georgia's businesses to the world and creating 7 percent of Georgia's total employment. Efforts are underway to deepen the port to allow larger vessels to pass through, resulting in increased trade and thriving Georgia businesses. Many are surprised that this major effort to deepen the canal with increase its depth by six feet. 

Five fast facts:

• The Port of Savannah is the 4th largest port in the United States and the largest port on the East Coast.
• The Port of Savannah creates 295,443 full- and part-time jobs. 
• In 2010, 1,582,078 containers, equating to 25,059,092 tons, were processed through the Port of Savannah.
• The three largest exports from the Port of Savannah are kaolin, wood and bio-mass.
• An average of 9,000 trucks pass through the Port of Savannah every day.

Next stop: Plant Vogtle!

Georgia Power Company Community Development Manager Mike Worley provided our group with a tour of Plant Vogtle. Officially named the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, this site is one of two Georgia Power Company-maintained nuclear facilities. Ownership of the plant is divided among four entities: Georgia Power Company (45.7 percent), Oglethorpe Power Company (30 percent), Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (22.7 percent) and the City of Dalton (1.6 percent).

The plant is located on 3,200 acres ideally situated along the Savannah River. The river is vital to the operation of the facility because continuous water flow is required to run the nuclear reactors on the site. There are currently two units in operations with two additional units currently under construction. The newest units are the first new nuclear units in the United States in 30 years.

Our group was given a tour of the control room simulator. This simulator is used to train employees to work in the control facility for the two new units. Each day, these trainees work through various scenarios in preparation for federal certification and licensure required to operate a nuclear plant control facility. 

Five fast facts:

• Twenty-percent of Georgia's electricity is produced at Plant Vogtle.
• Each of the two cooling towers circulate 500,000 gallons of water per minute.
• The movie The Great Escape is based upon the life of Alvin Vogtle (Note: The motorcycle escape was a dramatic addition to the script). 
• Fifty-percent of Plant Vogtle's current employees will retire within the next five years. 
• Georgia Power's additional nuclear plant is Plant Hatch, located near Baxley and named for Edwin I. Hatch, who served as president of Georgia Power from 1963 to 1975.

New Faculty Tour: A walk around downtown Savannah

Written by Rosanna Rivero, assistant professor in the College of Environment and Design.

It's 6:00 a.m. Another early rise, tons of coffee and a little boost of energy for our last day of the tour.

Our visit to downtown historic Savannah was hosted by the Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission and the Carl Vinson Institute of Government. The visit stressed the importance of historic preservation, urban planning and design codes and standards to preserve the unique character of our oldest city, founded by General Oglethorpe in 1733.

What makes downtown Savannah so unique is its pattern or configuration of streets, originally envisioned by its founder on the concept of a central open space or plaza surrounded by four blocks of public buildings (called trust lots) and four residential blocks (called tythings). Although this idea may seem to convey our more contemporary sense of a recreational and social space, it's original conception seems to be driven by military defense needs.

Today, 22 of the original 24 squares remain. From our visit, we could see the very distinct character of each of the squares - the more traditional ones with a deep tree canopy and a central monument that is inviting and refreshing, and the new ones which are less vegetated but also popular with tourists and visitors and well connected with the popular City Market.

Overall, this city has a magic of its own. From personal experience, it is worth losing the GPS and getting lost in the wonderful grid of streets and plazas to see what the city is about. As a new faculty in UGA's College of Environment and Design, I definitely look forward to the opportunity for many more visits to Savannah and Coastal Georgia.

New Faculty Tour: The gift of life...stingray life, that is.

Written by Chandler Christoffel, science instruction and reference librarian at the UGA science library. 

Yesterday we went out on some trawlers near the Savannah coast. As we spotted dolphins and enjoyed the charitable breeze, our Marine Extension Service hosts guided us along the river, all the while trawling the river floor for varieties of marine life. Our catch included gar with its intimidating needle-nose and handsome spots, shrimp, several dozen potato sponges, a perturbed-looking puffer fish, whitefish, sea bass, several flat fish, a sponge that smelled of garlic, another sponge reminiscent of a pirate's red beard, and, last but not least, A PREGNANT STINGRAY!

Combing through our bounty, we spied little sting ray tails protruding from the mother's womb. And shortly after our guides moved her from the trawl net to a makeshift aquarium in a plastic bin, mama delivered two baby sting rays of sunshine into the world - one boy and one girl. We, naturally, named them Steve and Jennifer, after our NFT leaders. Proud godparents all, we celebrated with a delicious, buttery low country broil.

New Faculty Tour: Sustainable Living

Written by Tessa Andrews, assistant professor of biological sciences in UGA's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Our first stop on Thursday morning was the Future Farmhouse on the UGA-Tifton campus. The Future Farmhouse is a development and research program, where developers are building a zero-energy house, or a house that will create as much or more energy than it will consume. The primary, and maybe only, source of energy will come from the sun. The roof is covered with thin solar panels and an additional bank of panels will sit in a field near the house. The house is built with three different materials and sensors are embedded in the walls so that the energy waste can be assessed. Sensors have also been deployed around the farm. Researchers will be able to use the data gathered for research purposes, as well as contributing to our knowledge about integrated personal data gathering systems.

Once it is finished, two lucky graduate students will get to live in the house and they will be charged with the responsibility of maintaining the ongoing research projects. The project also extends beyond the house; the group is designing an edible landscape to surround the house. What they learn through this project will be made available more broadly through peer-reviewed publications, cooperative extension and the retailers who have contributed materials and supplies to the project. The project is an excellent example of the function of a land-grant university; it integrates the efforts and expertise of the university with the needs, efforts and knowledge of businesses and citizens of Georgia.

New Faculty Tour: On the Coast

Written by Beverly Johnson, public service assistant in governmental services and research, and Mara Register, public service assistant in governmental training, education and development, of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government. 

In one day, we completed the transportation triad: planes, trains and automobiles. Our last visit of the day was Gulfstream in Savannah. First we got a free car from Kia, and then a Gulfstream G650 sticker! We completed our tour of the new G650 facility and needless to say, it was incredible. The original facility was built in 1967 in Savannah through a coordinated effort by the state, local community and the company. In 2006, Gulfstream announced the first of two expansions that had an ultimate impact on the state of 3,200 new jobs and $900 million in investment -- all of which was facilitated again through a partnership between the state, community and manufacturer. This company is clearly a significant part of the economic viability of the coast and also substantially invests in helping improve the local community. The company contributes more than $2 million annually to the Uniter Way, completes numerous community volunteer hours and has developed a Student Leadership Program that currently mentors 600 local high school students. Gulfstream is clearly committed to the company mission, their employees and helping to improve the local community!

Fun facts:

• General Dynamics is the parent company of Gulfstream Aerospace.
• General Dynamics is one of the top five defense contractors in the country and employees more than 90,000 people worldwide. 
• The cost to purchase one of the new G650 business jets is $65 million. 
• The range of the G650 is 7,000 nautical miles.
• The facility in Savannah employees approximately 8,700 people.

Our incredible day ended with a wonderful evening on Skidaway Island. We took a ride on UGA Marine Extension Service's SeaDawg, ending right at sunset. We watched the research trawler bring in an amazing variety of marine life and enjoyed a fantastic low country boil.

We can't believe today is our last day together! This has truly been a life-changing week.

New Faculty Tour: Crossing of the Ways

Written by Beverly Johnson, public service assistant in governmental services and research, and Mara Register, public service assistant in governmental training, education and development, of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government.

After leaving Tifton yesterday, we traveled approximately one hour East to the "crossing of the ways," the city of Waycross. While we were there, we toured two strong economic engines in this area of our state. First, we visited Georgia Bio-Mass, the largest bio-energy plant in the world. We were greeted at the facility by Billy Parrish and Bob Mayhew, a proud graduate of the University of Georgia! The facility represents a $240 million investment in the community. The plant converts pine trees into wood pellets that are burned in coal power plants in Europe. In order to comply with European Union standards, the facility only purchases wood products from sustainably managed forests. They employ 84 workers and facility supports 1,000 trucking and 1,200 logging jobs in the area. Furthermore, they purchase $50 million in wood products annually and produce 750,000 metric tons of wood pellets each year.

Fun facts:

• There are 24 million acres of renewable pine forests in Georgia.
• As of 2011, the forestry industry supported more than 46,000 jobs in Georgia. 
• There is more commercial forest-land in Georgia than any other state in the country. 
• The facility in Waycross purchases 1.5 tons of wood product annually, representing 52,000 truck-loads of pine trees. 
• The wood pellets are railed to the Savannah port by CSX railroad and placed into storage until 30,000 tons are accumulated for shipping to Europe. 

Speaking of the CSX railroad...our next stop was the Rice Yard in Waycross, where we were happily greeted by Jake Hunter, assistant terminal superintendent. This immediate point facility processes approximately 2,000 cars each day for distribution out of this central collection point. Jake shared with the group that 80 percent of the railcars they process are leased and CSX is the service provider. Craig Camuso, another UGA graduate, also spoke to the group as we enjoyed an incredible lunch and toured the control tower.

Fun facts:

• CSX has 6,000 miles of tracks in Georgia alone. 
• There are two main line operators and 23 short line operators in Georgia.
• CSX runs in 23 states in the U.S.
• CSX has 3,000 employees in Georgia, 800 of which are employed at the Rice Yard.
• CSX annually invests $115 million in Georgia and $2 billion in the U.S.

New Faculty Tour: Got Milk?

Written by Beverly Johnson, public service assistant in governmental services and research, and Mara Register, public service assistant in governmental training, education and development, of the Carl Vinson Institute of Government. 

Thursday started out bright and early with a visit to the University of Georgia experimental station in Tifton. Our visit to the facility was hosted by Dr. Joe West. This world renowned research facility was established in 1918 on land donated by Captain H.H. Tifton. More than 500 employees representing twenty-two countries work at the station. It is co-located with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and contains more than 2,200 acres of field laboratories.

We had the opportunity to see the progress of the Future Farmstead Project, a residential farm structure and site that will support research focused on sustainability and energy efficiency in farm facilities. We then heard from Dr. Charles Douglas who provided additional information about the experimental station during our visits to the dairy and peanut crop research field. The dairy was an amazing facility financially self-sufficient from milk sales. The dairy industry has an annual economic impact in our state of more than $780 million. One milk cow can produce 100 pounds of milk every day...and there are more than 80,000 milk cows in Georgia! Got Milk? You bet! It was an incredible visit with people passionate about agriculture and the key economic role it plays in our state and country.

Five fun facts:

• Ninety-five percent of milk production in the United States comes from Holstein cows.
• Georgia is the top producer in the country for pecans, peanuts and poultry.
• In 2012, Georgia became the top producing state for blueberries
• Georgia produces 35 commercial vegetable crops and is third in the country for overall vegetable production. 
• Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton has an annual enrollment of 3,300 students from eighteen states and 20 foreign countries.