Written by Lou Phelps Saturday, 21 April 2012 06:37
The newspaper reports that the resort has bled financially for years as visitor numbers declined and projects designed to generate revenues have instead drained them.
A prospective buyer is eager to move forward on the 4,000-acre purchase. The property had been put up as collateral for a loan granted the resort by Synovus Financial Corp., a Columbus-based regional bank. That loan has since been transferred to the owner of the Waffle House Restaurant chain, Atlanta-based Yellow Sign.
In a lengthy interview with the Ledger-Enquirer, Edward Callaway, CEO & chairman of the foundation's board, said, said the resort has been suffering for a long time, starting with a decline in visitors after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The Gardens marks its 60th anniversary today and once attracted 1 million visitors per year. Annual attendance fell to about 769,000 five years ago and was down to 395,000 last summer, the newspaper reports
Callaway said an upscale hotel, a spa and housing developments have not returned the revenue expected.
The Great Recession has prolonged the financial distress, leading the foundation to initiate four rounds of layoffs – the latest in January and March.
The Harris County employer's workforce is down to 500 from 800 full-time workers when Callaway took over the CEO post in early 2004.
Written by Lou Phelps Saturday, 31 March 2012 21:32
By Lou Phelps, SBJ Staff
April 2, 2012 – The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a favorable ruling last week in a lawsuit brought by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy’s (SACE) seeking
It’s been a two-year pursuit. SACE has challenged the U.S Department of Energy to release important information related to the $8.3 billion U.S. taxpayer-financed nuclear loan guarantee that was conditionally committed to Southern Company and its utility partners in February 2010 to support efforts to build two new nuclear reactors at the existing Plant Vogtle site near Waynesboro, west of Savannah.
According to Dr. Stephen A. Smith, executive director of SACE, “though this ruling is long overdue given that we filed our original Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Energy over two years ago, we are extremely pleased that the Court essentially ruled in our favor: that the agency has not been able to justify why they have withheld significant amounts of information from the public for an $8.3 billion taxpayer-financed nuclear loan guarantee for Southern Company’s ill-advised pursuit of building two additional nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle. We are particularly pleased that the Court definitively ordered the Department of Energy to release the credit subsidy fee estimates, which essentially represents what “skin” the utilities have had to place into the “game,”’ he explained.
“Unfortunately the Court is giving the agency another chance to justify why equally important information should continue to be withheld from the public. The Department of Energy will have sixty (60) more days to explain why certain terms and conditions of the loan guarantees should not be released. As the Court noted, if the agency chooses to withhold the information, the agency must then show that Southern Company actually provided its own loan guarantee terms. We find it alarming that a utility gets to call the shots with billions of dollars of taxpayer money potentially on the line,” he said.
“We believe it is imperative that until all the terms of the loan guarantee are made transparent, the Department of Energy must not finalize the loan guarantee with Southern Company and its partners in the Vogtle project. Further, we implore Southern Company to step away from this deal, which will do nothing but put U.S. taxpayers at risk should the project default.
“Again, we are glad the Court agrees with our challenge that the Department of Energy has not made a compelling case but are disappointed that the agency, which has mismanaged the loan guarantee program as cited in many reports by various government agencies, has been given an undeserved, second chance. Instead, the information we requested should be made immediately available to the public,” he concluded.
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is a nonprofit organization that promotes responsible energy choices that create global warming solutions and ensure clean, safe, and healthy communities throughout the Southeast. www.cleanenergy.org.




The South Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club along with the Alliance for Nuclear Accountability and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) believe the NRC has once again made a serious mistake by ignoring the lessons learned from the Japan Fukushima nuclear disaster with the South Carolina approvals.






