Grapevine: Boeing 787s to get final paint coats in Texas
It's said that they do everything big in the Texas. That must include paint jobs.
Boeing Co. last week announced it has picked a specialty contractor to apply the final coats on all 787 Dreamliners made at its new North Charleston final assembly plant.
The job went to Leading Edge Aviation Services' facility in Amarillo, where it paints other widebody jets.
"Leading Edge is a well-respected company when it comes to painting airplanes," said David Palmer, director of Boeing's South Carolina delivery center. "The company shares our values of quality, safety and excellence and we look forward to our relationship with them."
Santa Ana, Calif.-based Leading Edge specializes in handling commercial and military planes. It will apply final paint and customer livery for the Dreamliners, a job that Boeing always said would not be done locally.
As 787s come off the assembly line at Charleston International Airport, they will make the 1,250-mile flight from North Charleston to Amarillo. The airplanes then will return to the Lowcountry for final delivery to customers from around the world.
Marco Cavazzoni, vice president and general manager of Boeing South Carolina Final Assembly and Delivery, said the new 787 plant is on schedule to begin production this summer, with first delivery scheduled for 2012. The schedule calls for three jets a month to be assembled in North Charleston and seven at the Boeing plant in Everett, Wash.
Going live
Savannah is featured prominently in a new website. But it's not the kind that the local port or chamber of commerce would approve of. An environmental coalition is using the Internet to highlight concerns over the controversial Savannah Harbor Expansion Project.
The site, portbarrel.org, includes background on the dredging plan and a news feed. It was launched last week. "Yes, we are accusing the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project of wasteful spending -- in addition to wasting the environment," the home page reads.
After devoting more than a decade and tens of millions of dollars to the plan to deepen the Port of Savannah's shipping channel, the Army Corps of Engineers released a draft report in mid-November and asked for public comment from late November until early January. Interested groups on both sides of the jointly owned river asked for more time to read through the reams of paper, and the Corps granted a few weeks.
South Carolina environmental experts have said that the channel, if dredged too deep, could cause tremendous ecological damage. Also, South Carolina navigation experts said the channel must go deeper or the new generation of container ships would run aground on most days.
South Carolina maritime leaders last week managed to stall work on a shipping terminal planned for Jasper County after hours of often-heated discussion Tuesday at the Georgia Ports Authority, much of it concerning the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project and its potential impact on the two-state terminal.
The agency set up to oversee the Jasper project adopted a budget not to exceed $500,000 for the year, which provides the money needed to proceed with work approved last year. But it does not fund two new key studies necessary to move the terminal forward.
Tensions between maritime leaders in South Carolina and Georgia became obvious last month when S.C. State Ports Authority Chairman Bill Stern sent a letter to his counterpart to the south, Alec Poitevint, saying he can't support spending any more Palmetto State money on a project that seems less and less likely to happen.
Grouped together
The newly formed West Ashley & James Island Business Association is getting on its feet.
The fledgling group will meet for the first time next week. Its goal is to provide members with a hyperlocal platform for networking and to flesh out issues that affect quality of life and commerce in their own back yards. "The impetus is to get a community of businesses to come together and provide a voice for a specific geographic region of Charleston," said architect Dinos Diollio, one of the organizers.
The first get-together will be 7:30-9 a.m. March 23 at Jason's Deli in St. Andrews Center. The scheduled speaker is Charleston Mayor Joe Riley. Cost is $10. See the Business Calendar on Page 5E for information.
Fat burner
Runners might be thinking first and foremost about gulping down some fluids, electrolytes and lean protein when they finish the 34th Cooper River Bridge Run on April 2. But they also will have a chance to partake of some not-so-lean sausage from a mighty big grill if they are so inclined.
Wisconsin-based Johnsonville Sausage will roll in its Big Taste Grill, the world's largest touring grill, to Marion Square to fire up some Johnsonville Brats and hand them out 8 a.m.-4 p.m. as free samples. Cadets from The Citadel will be volunteering.
The semitruck-size grill weighs 53,000 pounds and measures 65 feet long, 20 feet high and 6 feet in diameter. It can hold up to 10 grillers, preparing 750 brats at a time or about 2,500 brats an hour.
The traveling grill started in 1995 as part of Johnsonville Sausage's 50th anniversary and has helped raise more than $3 million for charities.
The big cooker also will appear at Bi-Lo at 975 Bacons Bridge Road in Summerville on April 3. Hours have not been announced. There, the brats will cost $2 to $3 with chips and a soda, and all proceeds will go to the Bi-Lo Charity Classic, which raises funds for various charities.
