Col. Marvin L. Griffin will take command of the Savannah District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, from Col. Thomas J. Tickner in a formal ceremony at 10 a.m. Friday.

Brig. Gen. C. David Turner, commander of the Corps of Engineers’ South Atlantic Division, will officiate at the formal change-of-command ceremony in the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Griffin comes to Savannah from a Senior Service College Fellowship with the Secretary of Defense Corporate Fellowship Program.

Previous assignments including deployments to Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan, Operation Iraqi Freedom and to Operation Joint Guardian in Kosovo. He has served as an instructor and assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, United States Military Academy at West Point where he also earned his bachelor’s degree and commission.

Griffin previously served in the Corps of Engineers as the deputy commander of the Little Rock District in Arkansas.

Tickner took command of the Savannah district in July 2013. He will next be deployed to Afghanistan.

During his tenure in command, Tickner oversaw completion of Project Partnership Agreement between the state of Georgia and the Corps of Engineers outlining funding for the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project.

He also oversaw the beginning of construction of the Savannah harbor deepening.

Previous assignments include serving as the Military Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works. In addition, Tickner has served in various military assignments including a deployment to Operation Iraqi Freedom.

He has served in the Sacramento District and commanded the Philadelphia District in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The Savannah District maintains the deep water harbors in Savannah and Brunswick and leads the effort to deepen the Savannah harbor. The district also manages a multi-million dollar military construction program at 11 Army and Air Force installations in Georgia and North Carolina and oversees water resources and development activities in Georgia and portions of South Carolina.

In addition, the district oversees civil projects including dams and lakes Hartwell, Russell and Thurmond on the Georgia-South Carolina border and environmental and regulatory permits for Georgia. The district traces its heritage in Savannah to 1829.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C.— Hargray Communications announced Monday the framework of its plan to bring gigabit Internet speeds to neighborhoods, businesses and public spaces throughout Beaufort County, S.C.

The Lowcountry Broadband Plan will implement fiber optic-based technology and give users Internet speeds 100 times faster than the 10-megabit national average, according to Hargray officials.

The plan, introduced during a news conference at the company’s Hilton Head Island headquarters, aims to provide gigabit speeds to neighborhoods where a certain percentage of residents commit to the service, to businesses interested in pursuing it and public Wi-Fi in common areas, including some beaches.

“This is about taking the first steps to bring the area superfast Internet speeds,” Hargray Chairman and CEO Michael Gottdenker said. “Our company will make significant infrastructure investments to enable superfast speeds, and this is an endeavor made possible by cooperation with local governments.

“This is just the beginning. For this to really take hold, we’ll need the support of residents and businesses to make sure we can make investments in a ubiquitous way throughout Beaufort County.”

Local government and business leaders said they hope the plan will be a key tool for economic development and attract technology companies and other high-end businesses to the area.

The county, Bluffton, Hilton Head Island and Beaufort have all made resolutions to formally endorse the plan.

“Access to gigabit Internet speeds is necessary in advancing development and business interests in Beaufort County and Bluffton,” said County Councilman Tabor Vaux of Bluffton. “One thing I’ve learned is superfast Internet is not a ‘nice-to-have’ anymore, but it’s a must-have — especially as our local economy continues to compete on a national level.

“We hope this investment in our community will continue to bring new people to the area.”

Huge investment

Gottdenker said Hargray plans to invest tens of millions of dollars in the plan, meaning it will have to be spread out over several years.

The scope of the work in each community will be different, Gottdenker said. On the island, work will be focused on overhauling the underground copper infrastructure and replacing it with fiber optics.

In Bluffton, which already has fiber service, it will primarily be about replacing electronics to provide the higher speeds, he said.

Gottdenker said the company will complete a project this month to provide fiber optic technology to all 900 homes on Dataw Island. About 500 homes there have already signed up for the service.

As for the gigabit speeds, Gottdenker said the company is first reaching out to the large gated communities on Hilton Head and then will move into other areas.

“We asked folks to sign up ahead of time and pre-commit to these services because it clearly makes sense for us to prioritize our investments where the most demand is,” Gottdenker said. “We’re in communications right now with several communities, and a lot of preparation work and engineering work needs to be undertaken. Before the end of the year, we’ll be able to announce where we’re doing this construction to provide the new services.

“The reality is it’s going to take years to have these gigabit speeds throughout the county. This plan is the framework for making some real commitments.”

Hargray customers using their current Internet speeds would not be required to use gigabit services and wouldn’t see their bills increase as part of the plan, Gottdenker said.

“Like today, if the customer wanted to buy a higher speed, they would pay more,” he said. “It’s too early to speculate what the cost of gigabit service might be until the product is available, but our prices will be competitive with those in the industry market right now.”

Above average

Gottdenker cited a January report by the Federal Communications Commission that indicated access to higher broadband speeds in lower-density population areas is failing to keep pace with the national average.

Hargray provides access to 30-megabit speeds to 95 percent and 100-megabit speeds to two-thirds of its customers, he said.

Jim Collet, chairman of the Hilton Head Information Technology Taskforce, which has worked with Hargray to develop the framework of the plan, said gigabit service has been beneficial for other areas of the country, particularly with Google’s Fiber service.

“This plan is going to speak well for the future of Beaufort County,” Collet said. “In the next couple of years, the winners and losers, economically, for the next 20 years are going to be decided. The ones that embrace this technology are going to be the winners, and the ones that don’t are going to be the losers.

“I am really pleased we are aligning ourselves with the winners.”

Virginia Electric and Power Co. has ordered three M501J gas turbines from Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas to be manufactured and assembled at Mitsubishi’s Savannah Machinery Works and installed at the power company’s Greenville County Power Station.

Sam Suttle, vice president for North American Manufacturing and Repair, said Tuesday the new power plant will combine the output of the three, highly efficient M501J gas turbines with a steam turbine, resulting in the largest new construction gas turbine combined cycle — or GTCC — power plant in North America.

GTCC power stations use gas and steam turbines in combination to generate electricity in two stages. The first produces electric power from the gas turbine, and the second utilizes high-temperature exhaust gas from the gas turbine to produce the steam that drives the steam turbine. This enables GTCC power plants to achieve a higher thermal efficiency, which reduces fuel consumption and lowers emissions, Suttle said.

Work on the first of the three turbines will begin in about two months, Suttle said, adding that the manufacturing will be back-to-back with some overlap.

“We should have the first one finished around February of next year,” he said. “The second should be done by the following June and the third in December of 2016.”

Utilizing low-cost natural gas, the Virginia plant will be capable of powering more than 400,000 homes once it’s completed in late 2018.

Having recently completed its powerhouse merger between the thermal power generation systems

of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Hitachi Ltd., the Fortune 150 giant is poised to get even busier, especially at the Savannah plant, which manufactures and services its massive, fuel-efficient gas and steam turbines.

The local plant, which currently has 320 employees, is on track to reach full capacity of 425 to 450 employees by 2018.

In addition to the Virginia Electric order, the Savannah plant has contract awards on the books for two new natural gas-powered 501J gas turbines for a new power plant for Enmax Capital Power in Edmonton, Canada, and four new gas turbines for Duke Energy in Florida.

Savannah Machinery Works is also more than halfway through a contract with the Grand River Dam Authority in Oklahoma to provide a M501J gas turbine, an SRT-50 steam turbine and associated electric generators as part of a new unit at the authority’s existing power plant.

That’s busy, considering Mitsubishi Hitachi’s J Series gas turbine is the largest and most efficient gas turbine in the world, carrying a price tag in the tens of millions.

Some 17 M501Js are currently in commercial operation for six different owners. Worldwide, there are contracts for 39 Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems J class gas turbines, including nine in North America.

Volunteers from Wells Fargo offices in Savannah joined with the city’s Community Housing Services Agency on Saturday to landscape and paint a new home at 1118 Bates Ave., and the bank presented a $20,000 grant to help with the project.

“I can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday than serving our communities alongside our co-workers, friends and nonprofit partners,” said Jenny Gentry, Well Fargo market president. “We’re so proud of our volunteers who are supporting the selfless work of these great organizations. Sometimes individual efforts may seem small, but when we join together we can make a huge impact on our community. ”

Wells Fargo volunteers took part in 26 volunteer activities in 20 communities around the state Saturday, and the company donated $115,000 to upgrade housing for nine Georgia families by either building new homes or repairing existing ones.

Sometimes we think inventions only happen behind closed doors in a lab. What could be more lab-like than a chemist? It’s interesting to realize that one great chemist, Charles Herty, actually spent a lot of time with people outside the lab.

While serving as a chemistry professor at the University of Georgia in the 1890s, Herty advocated for the expansion of collegiate sports, including the creation of the school’s first varsity football team.

Throughout his career, Herty was active in numerous professional societies, serving as president of national academic and trade organizations. He continually ventured outside his field of chemistry, and at one point, was instrumental in launching the National Institutes of Health.

Herty knew the importance of diversity of thought and collaboration.

His life makes me think of Geekend.

Geekend, which runs from Oct. 15-17, is a place where innovation and creativity merge, a place where people with different backgrounds and interests get together to share ideas, challenge one another and look at things from new perspectives — kind of like Herty and all his activities.

We often think innovation has a minimal impact: It’s incremental, it’s slight and it can’t really make a difference in the world. That’s why I like thinking about Charles Herty.

Herty foresaw the devastating consequences the destruction of the pine forests would bring to the South, so he began searching for solutions.

He didn’t see innovation as something with minimal impact. Quite the opposite. Herty knew his success would have a major impact on industries employing hundreds people. He also knew he could make a positive impact that would last for decades, well beyond his own lifetime.

Herty had a vision of a ‘New South’ created by the naval stores industry, and even if northern companies insisted

it was impossible for the South to use pine trees, Herty disagreed. Finally, he received several grants, and his gamble paid off.

Herty’s work is credited with saving one industry, naval stores manufacturing, and creating a new one, newsprint from southern pines. His work helped secure Savannah’s future, and we are still benefitting today.

Knowing what I know about innovation, company creation and collaborative thinking, it is impossible for anyone who cares about the future of Savannah to think “Geekend is not for me.”

Like Herty, who sought out different viewpoints and perspectives to expand his own problem-solving capabilities, Geekend provides the opportunity for you to engage with others from different fields, different experiences and different visions.

Geekend is about maker spaces, virtual reality, healthcare, mobility, the maker movement, entrepreneurship and more. The innovations we can create when we connect and collaborate can be dramatic, and the possibilities are endless.

I love thinking about what the great citizens of Savannah and beyond will do with the things they learn at this year’s Geekend. I get really excited thinking how Geekend 2015 really serves as the “anti-poverty” event of 2025. The only cure for poverty is jobs, and innovation creates jobs — the higher paying, the better.

It’s time to gain valuable experiences outside your “lab” and open your world to the creative minds outside your area of expertise. Be inspired, have a vision, be part of the innovative community. Be the Charles Herty of the 21st century. Geekend is for you.

Sometimes we are so busy looking to the future that we forget to pay tribute to our innovative past. So thank you Charles Herty for realizing the power of collaboration and stepping outside your lab. Your spirit will be with us at Geekend 2015.

I hope you catch the collaboration spirit and join us at Geekend.

Bea Wray is the executive director of The Creative Coast, a not-for-profit organization that promotes the creative and entrepreneurial community within the region. Bea can be reached at 912-447-8457 or bea@thecreativecoast.org

By Bea Wray

Tybee Island receives two summer accolades

Coastal Living magazine recently announced the winners of its annual top 10 list of “America’s Happiest Seaside Towns,” and readers selected Tybee Island as the No. 6 happiest seaside town in the United States.

The complete list of winners can be found at www.coastalliving.com/travel/top-10/2015-americas-happiest-seaside-towns.

“This was our chance to show how much we love Tybee Island, and we are so happy with the results,” said Mayor Jason Buelterman.

Tybee was also recognized by Matador Network, an independent travel publisher with more than 12 million unique monthly users, as one of the “20 Coolest Beach Towns in America.”

See the complete list at http://matadornetwork.com/trips/20-coolest-beach-towns-in-america/.

“We knew Tybee was a great place to be. Now we get to share with even more people how special the island is,” said Sara Lane, director of Visit Tybee.

Partnership to form BIG Pitch Competition

STATESBORO — Georgia Southern University and the Ocean Exchange will have a signing ceremony June 23 to commemorate forming a partnership for the new BIG Pitch Competition.

The signing ceremony at 10:30 a.m. at City Campus in downtown Statesboro will include Georgia Southern president Brooks A. Keel and Ocean Exchange CEO Millicent Pitts.

The BIG Pitch Competition, with a prize of $10,000, is open to undergraduate and graduate students with faculty advisers from around the world. The contest focuses on solutions in sciences, engineering and technology to help sustainability.

The Ocean Exchange also partners with Gulfstream Aerospace and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, each of which offer $100,000 in prize money for separate contests.

For more information on the BIG Pitch Competition, contact Millicent Pitts at 912-257-0209 or millicent.pitts@oceanexchange.org or Dominique Halaby at 912-478-2733 or dhalaby@georgiasouthern.edu.

Junior League of Savannah seeks Lowcountry project applications

The Junior League of Savannah is accepting applications for South Carolina Lowcountry community projects. The league is looking for community partners that will align with its focus on women and children.

Community Partners are organizations that join forces with the Junior League of Savannah and receive funding and volunteers for community projects within the organization.

Currently, the league focuses its efforts on women and children’s advocacy. Its members believe women and children deserve to be empowered through quality opportunities in order to thrive and to be contributing members of the community.

To apply, visit the Junior League of Savannah’s website at www.jrleaguesav.org or call the league’s headquarters at 912-790-1002. The application deadline is July 15.

WASHINGTON — With evidence that the U.S. economy is rebounding from a winter slump, the Federal Reserve will likely signal this week that an interest rate increase is coming — just not quite yet.

Many economists say that if the economy keeps improving, the Fed will most likely raise its key short-term rate when it meets in September. That rate has been held at a record low near zero since 2008.

The Fed’s timetable has far-reaching impact: Once it begins raising short-term rates, other rates — for mortgages, auto loans, corporate borrowing — could head higher. Stock and bond prices could be squeezed.

In recent weeks, key sectors of the economy — the job market, retail spending, home sales — have improved. The gains mark a reversal from the January-March quarter, when the economy is estimated to have shrunk, in part because of a harsh winter.

Today, the Fed may sketch a slightly brighter picture of the economy in a statement after its latest policy meeting ends and in a news conference by Chair Janet Yellen to follow. The central bank will also update its economic forecasts.

Among economists, the Fed is seen as wanting to prepare investors for a coming rate hike — if the economy continues to improve — while stressing the reassuring message that it will raise rates very gradually. The idea is to avoid spooking investors, who are already on edge over the likelihood of a rate hike and the threat of a default by Greece’s government. The Fed wants to convince the markets that the economy will be sturdy enough to withstand slightly higher rates.

When the Fed last met in April, the economy had just emerged from a stall-out. Growth in the January-

March quarter had been depressed by weather that kept consumers home, a labor dispute that disrupted West Coast ports, a stronger dollar that slowed exports and cheaper oil that triggered cutbacks by drilling companies. After its meeting, the Fed downgraded its assessment of the economy and gave no indication it was any closer to raising rates.

Recent economic reports have turned more buoyant, with a rebound in home construction and retail sales and near-record auto sales.

Perhaps most important, the job market has revived, having added an average of 217,000 jobs a month this year. The unemployment rate, at 5.5 percent, is down from 6.3 percent a year ago and 7.5 percent two years ago. Even pay growth, which has languished during the economic recovery, has begun to pick up.

All that points to solid economic growth of around 2.5 percent in the current April-June quarter.

Yet there are still lingering problems that Yellen and other Fed officials are likely to cite as reasons for delaying a first rate hike a while longer. Though average hourly earnings rose 2.3 percent in May from a year ago, wage increases remain generally sluggish.

Other labor market indicators — from the number of people jobless for more than six months to the number of part-time workers who would prefer full-time jobs — remain at levels the Fed views as subpar.

Beyond employment, the central bank has yet to achieve its other mandate — promoting stable prices. Inflation has remained persistently below the Fed’s 2 percent annual target. Too-low inflation tends to hold back economic growth.

Some economists also note that if a Greek default and an exit from the euro currency alliance were to ignite turmoil in global markets, or if investors dumped bonds and sent long-term rates soaring, the Fed might decide to put off a rate increase until next year.

The International Monetary Fund this month downgraded its forecast for the U.S. economy and urged the Fed to consider delaying a rate hike until 2016. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the risks of raising rates too soon — and slowing and perhaps wounding the economy before it’s reached full strength — outweighed the risks of waiting a bit too long and allowing inflation to creep up.

Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial, said she expects the Fed to raise rates by a quarter-point in September and then to wait until the first quarter of 2016 before making another quarter-point move. The idea would be to give investors time to adjust.

At the same time, economist David Jones, the author of several books on the Fed, says the jump in rates on 10-year Treasury notes and on German bonds shows that bond investors have grown skittish.

“When the Fed does start to move, we are going to see a spike in interest rates and significant volatility — not just in the United States but global markets as well,” Jones said.

WASHINGTON —

AT&T Mobility LLC has been slapped with a record $100 million fine for offering consumers “unlimited” data, but then slowing their Internet speeds after they reached a certain amount. The company says it will fight the charges.

The Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday that the company misled consumers into buying plans they believed would give them unlimited ability to send and receive data, including Web browsing, GPS navigation and streaming videos. But once the consumer hit a certain level, the data on unlimited plans would be slowed down significantly, at speeds lower than advertised, the FCC said.

AT&T said it would “vigorously dispute” the fine, which was the largest proposed in FCC history. If AT&T can provide evidence that the FCC allegations are wrong, the fine could be reduced. Otherwise, if AT&T refuses to pay, it’s possible the two sides will wind up in court.

“The FCC has specifically identified this practice as a legitimate and reasonable way to manage network resources for the benefit of all customers, and has known for years that all of the major carriers use it,” the company said in a statement released to reporters. “We have been fully transpar

ent with our customers, providing notice in multiple ways and going well beyond the FCC’s disclosure requirements.”

It’s not unusual for phone companies to slow, or “throttle,” speeds on a network as a way to manage congestion. Verizon slows down speeds for its heaviest users, but only on certain smartphones when there is congestion. Once the bottleneck eases, speeds return to normal.

Until this spring, AT&T was slowing speeds until the customer’s next billing cycle, even when there was no congestion.

Both Verizon and AT&T had phased out their unlimited plans after data usage grew following the iPhone’s launch in 2007. Existing customers, however, were able to keep their unlimited plans.

The FCC says AT&T’s approach to unlimited plans violated the agency’s transparency rule.

“Unlimited means unlimited,” said Travis LeBlanc, the FCC enforcement bureau chief. “As today’s action demonstrates, the commission is committed to holding accountable those broadband providers who fail to be fully transparent about data limits.”

The hefty fine by the FCC comes on the heels of a federal lawsuit filed against the company last fall. The Federal Trade Commission, which enforces rules against deceptive advertising, said it wants to refund customers who were offered the unlimited data packages, only to be given slower data speeds than advertised. That lawsuit is still working its way through a federal court in California.

Earlier this year, the FTC accused TracFone Wireless of similar tactics. TracFone agreed to settle the case for $40 million.

AT&T Mobility is located in Atlanta and is a subsidiary of Dallas-based AT&T Inc.

DETROIT — The quality of cars and trucks made by European, Korean and U.S. companies has improved so much in recent years that Japanese automakers, long the industry standard, are having trouble keeping pace.

The latest survey on new vehicle quality by the J.D. Power consulting firm also found that despite continued problems with entertainment and connectivity systems, quality is starting to improve for the auto industry as a whole. For the first time since 2012, buyers reported fewer problems in new cars and trucks than the previous year.

“The cars being built, for the most part, are very good quality coming out of the box,” said John Humphreys, senior vice president of J.D. Power.

The industry score went up because many companies improved existing models, and the top companies did better with mechanical and infotainment quality of new models, J.D. Power said.

The 2015 survey of more

than 84,000 car buyers in February and March found that Porsche was once again the top brand for quality. Kia vaulted five spots to take second place and its sister brand Hyundai finished fourth. Jaguar, in third, and Infiniti rounded out the top five finishers in the survey, which asked about problems in the first 90 days of ownership.

The worst-performing brands were Fiat, Smart, Chrysler, Subaru and Jeep. The car owners all had 2015 models.

The Korean brands have been improving quality for years by bringing consumers into the process as they design cars, especially with electronics, Humphreys said. U.S. and European brands also improved. The Japanese brands raised their overall score, but the rest of the industry improved at a faster rate, he said.

Korean brands led the industry with only 90 problems per 100 vehicles, 11 fewer problems than last year. European brands followed at 113 problems, passing Japanese brands for the first time. Japanese brands combined had 114 problems per 100 vehicles, two better than last year. That tied with U.S. brands, according to the survey.

The industry average was 112 problems per vehicle, four better than last year. For the first time in the 29-year history of the survey, Japanese brands fell below the industry average. Only four of 10 Japanese brands in the study showed an improvement.

“There’s a shift in terms of who is doing the best in terms of industry leadership,” Humphreys said.

The shift, he said, is significant, because Japanese brands promote their quality and reliability, but that advantage is eroding and the Japanese will have to find another way to differentiate themselves.

The survey is the first major assessment of quality for 2015 vehicles, and it’s closely watched by car shoppers. Consumer Reports magazine’s influential quality study comes out in October and includes other years.

THE FINDINGS

WINNERS AND LOSERS: Porsche, which won for the third year in a row, had 80 problems per 100 vehicles. Fiat was last of 33 brands with 161.

MOST IMPROVED: Infiniti climbed 18 spots to fifth in the rankings with 97 problems.

BIGGEST SLIDE: The Chrysler brand fell 19 spots with 43 problems.

BEST CORPORATE PERFORMANCE: General Motors, Hyundai, Nissan and Volkswagen had four winners in the segment awards.

When it comes to considering long-term healthcare costs in retirement, very few retirees consider these costs as part of their budget. Medicare and supplemental costs alone average 14 percent of income. However, Medicare will not cover long-term care in the home or a facility.

Unfortunately, only 19 percent of retirees understand Medicare benefits, according to a 2015 study by Merrill Lynch. There may be no money to set aside for long-term care. And finally, there is the hope that they will not be the unlucky person to need long-term care.

The reality is 70 percent of individuals over 65 will require some kind of long-term care during their lifetime.

One of the challenges for individuals as they age is to remain independent in their home. Small events can happen until additional care is needed. For couples, the healthy spouse usually steps in to offer assistance.

Studies have shown care-giving spouse will wear out emotionally and physically over time, and he/she will require help. The solution is to bring in help before both spouses need assistance. For individuals who live alone, there is the additional danger of accidents.

In most cases, the person needing help wishes to remain in the home. However, there is a cost for bringing someone into the home. And this is when some realities need to be faced.

Options for paying for long-term care in the home include:

• Private pay: The average cost for in-home care in Georgia is $20 per hour with a four-hour minimum required. This type of service is generally provided by licensed private companies and is private pay.

• Help from family: If family is nearby, they can supplement the care that is needed. However, there is a limit to how much care a family member can provide.

• Medicaid: Medicaid is a needs-based benefit. There usually is a long list of applicants for this service, and it may take months or years to be able to receive help. This option is not available for an immediate need.

• Veterans’ benefits: For military veterans who qualify, there are benefits through the Veteran Administration’s Aid and Attendance Program, which is also needs based. This also is not an option for an immediate need.

• Reverse mortgages: One of the original uses for these loans was to pay for long-term health care. The amount an individual can receive is based on the appraised value of the home, the age of the younger borrower on the title and the current interest rate.

A reverse mortgage becomes a viable option for someone needing immediate assistance in his/her home. The National Council on Aging produced a study on reverse mortgages and long term-care that states: “Almost half of older homeowners would be candidates for using a reverse mortgage for long-term care.”

The study “Use your home to Stay at Home: Expanding the Use of Reverse Mortgages for Long-Term Care: A Blueprint for Action” is available at www.ncoa.org.

The reverse mortgage was created during the Reagan administration, is administered by HUD and is insured by FHA. Urban legends have persisted for years that the lender will own the home,but that is not true. Costs associated with the loan are in line with any FHA loan program.

The program is unique in several ways.

• No payments are required.

• The homeowner and heirs have no personal responsibility for the loan. Equity left after the last homeowner leaves the home will go to the homeowner or heirs.

• Funds can be used by the spouse in the home to help pay for expenses if the other spouse is in a nursing facility and is on Medicaid.

• Funds remaining in the line of credit grow since more funds are released to the homeowner over time.

• Most costs associated with a reverse mortgage can be put into the loan.

The proper name for reverse mortgages is: Home Equity Conversion Mortgage. When someone has a reverse mortgage, that is what they are doing. They are converting a portion of their equity into usable funds to be used for something they need, such as long-term care.

Joan E Hillman has been a reverse mortgage loan originator for more than 12 years and works for Franklin-funding Reverse mortgages. For questions or information, she can be reached at 912-226-7637 or joan@franklin-funding.com.

ATLANTA – Georgia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in May was 6.3 percent, up one-tenth of a percentage point from a revised 6.2 percent in April, the state Department of Labor announced today. The preliminary April rate was reported at 6.3 percent, but was revised down by one-tenth of a percentage point. The rate was 7.3 percent in May 2014.

“Our labor force expanded for the 18th month in a row, and that’s probably the biggest factor in driving up the rate,” said Labor Commissioner Mark Butler. “Also, initial unemployment claims were up, but by less than one-percent.”

The labor force grew to 4,774,912, an increase of 7,379 from April, and while the new entrants are searching for work, they’re counted as unemployed. Last year in May, the labor force grew by 2,773.

The number of initial claims for unemployment insurance in May rose by 207, or 0.7 percent, from April to 27,946. Most of the increase in claims came in health care and social assistance, along with accommodations and food services. Over the year, claims were down 15.8 percent, or 5,245, from May of last year. The decline came mostly in accommodations and food services, manufacturing, construction, retail trade and transportation and warehousing.

The number of seasonally adjusted jobs grew to 4,252,800 in May. “The private sector actually had very good job growth last month,” said Butler. “Our employers created 11,700 jobs, which is almost twice the average job growth for May over the last three years.”

However, the private sector gain was somewhat offset by a loss of 7,800 government jobs, resulting in a net gain of 3,900 from April.

Most of the job gains came in professional and business services, 11,200; leisure and hospitality, 1,700; construction, 1,300; and transportation and warehousing, 1,200.

“Over the year, we’re still showing strong job growth,” Butler said. “We had 114,900 more jobs than we did a year ago. And, the pace of job growth in Georgia at 2.8 percent is better than the national average at 2.2 percent. Right now, we’re showing a stronger pace of growth than we did last year, and 2014 was a very good year.”

Most of the over-the-year growth came in trade, transportation and warehousing, 30,800; professional and business services, 27,700; leisure and hospitality, 26,300; education and health services, 19,300; manufacturing, 6,200; financial activities, 4,600; construction, 3,600; and information services, 1,300. Government lost 3,700 jobs.

Tables and graphs reflecting labor market data are available at http://www.dol.state.ga.us/pr/current_data.htm.

Walmart hiring for new Hinesville market

HINESVILLE — Walmart has announced it will hire as many as 95 people to work at the new Walmart Neighborhood Market slated to open this fall in Hinesville.

A temporary hiring center has opened at 790 Veterans Parkway, Suite 108, inside the Central Station Shopping Center.

Applications will be accepted from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday. Applicants may also apply at http://careers.walmart.com.

Walmart will offer a job to any eligible U.S. veteran who has been honorably discharged from active duty since the Veterans Welcome Home Commitment launched on Memorial Day 2013. Interested veterans may find out more at http://walmartcareerswithamission.com.

Store manager Dennis Parrott said the store will be hiring both full- and part-time employees. The majority of new employees will begin work in July to help prepare the store for its grand opening.

Parker’s Market Urban Gourmet wins TripAdvisor honor

Parker’s Market Urban Gourmet in downtown Savannah has received a TripAdvisor 2015 Certificate of Excellence.

The market at 222 Drayton St. has earned the award for three consecutive years.

“We’ve definitely raised the bar, offering restaurant-quality cuisine for customers on the go,” said Greg Parker, president and CEO of Parker’s. “We’re grateful for the positive feedback we receive on TripAdvisor and appreciate this honor.”

The crtificate of excellence is awarded to businesses ranking in the top 10 percent worldwide for traveler feedback.

Parker’s operates 37 convenience stores and employs nearly 500 individuals throughout Georgia and South Carolina.

HOS Management honored at annual convention

HOS Management, a second generation hospitality and development company with headquarters in Savannah, was recently honored by the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) and awarded the IAHA Independent Hotel of the Year Award for The Cotton Sail Hotel.

The award, presented at the organization’s annual convention in Long Beach, Calif., is for a hotel that sets a high standard of excellence in quality, service and guest satisfaction.

HOS Management opened The Cotton Sail at 126 W. Bay Street in May 2014.

“Our experience working with premier hospitality franchise brands over the last 30 years has been instrumental in the success of The Cotton Sail Hotel,” said Kris Patel, CFO at HOS Management.

HOS Management manages a diverse group of hotel brands in the Southeast, including Hilton, Choice, IHG and Marriott and has Aloft and Fairfield hotels, as well as a public parking garage, in development in downtown Savannah.

For more information, visit www.hosmanagement.com.

NEW YORK — Fitbit flexed some muscle Thursday and its shares rocketed almost 50 percent higher in the first day of trading for the fitness tracking gear maker.

Fitbit’s initial public offering priced at $20 per share, bringing in more than $730 million and valuing Fitbit at about $4.1 billion in total. The company had already raised its stock price expectations this week and said the IPO would include additional shares, but the offering still surpassed its estimates.

The company makes devices that can be worn on the wrist or clipped to clothing. They track steps taken, calories burned and other data and can be synced up with smartphones. Fitbit also sells a Wi-Fi enabled scale that tracks body mass and other data.

Fitbit Inc. is the biggest-selling company in the young fitness tracking gear industry. Sales surged to $745 million in 2014, almost tripled its total from the previous year. Its first-quarter revenue this year tripled as well. In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Fitbit said it sold 10.9 million devices last year.

Market research company CCS Insight expects that companies including Fitbit, Jawbone, Nike, Xaomi, Garmin and Misfit will ship 24 million fitness trackers in the U.S. this year, and says that number will double in 2018. But some fitness trackers may already face a big threat from an even newer product: smart watches from companies like Apple, Google and Samsung.

Gfk research group thinks smart watch sales will top fitness tracker sales this year, although it’s strong growth in fitness tracker sales. Gfk said more people will buy smart watches as marketing grows and as the devices become more similar to smartphones.

Fitbit sold a total of 22.4 million shares, raising $448 million. Its stockholders sold another 14.2 million shares, worth about $284 million.

The San Francisco company’s shares jumped $9.68 to $29.68 Thursday. The stock is trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “FIT.”

Jawbone filed a pair of lawsuits against Fitbit recently. In May Jawbone said Fitbit and a group of its former employees who had jumped ship to join its rival stole trade secrets, business plans and market research, among other things. Earlier this month Jawbone said essentially all of Fitbit’s products violate patents belonging to Jawbone.

Jawbone has asked a judge to prevent Fitbit from making and selling those products. Fitbit says it will defend itself against both lawsuits.

NEW YORK — The burger chain that put “supersize” into the American vernacular is slimming down: For the first time in more than 40 years, and perhaps ever, McDonald’s says the number of U.S. restaurants it has is shrinking.

McDonald’s plans to close more restaurants in the U.S. than it opens this year, according to the world’s biggest hamburger chain. That hasn’t happened since at least 1970, according to an Associated Press review of McDonald’s regulatory filings.

Becca Hary, a McDonald’s spokeswoman, declined to provide a specific figure but said the reduction would be “minimal” compared with its total of about 14,300 U.S. locations.

Still, the contraction is symbolic of troubles under the Golden Arches and how it’s trying to regroup.

The company enjoyed rapid expansion for much of its history by offering consistent food at affordable prices. It even thrived during the recession, when its Dollar Menu drew in people trying to save money and new products like McCafe coffee drove up sales.

But since then, chains like Chipotle that market themselves as serving better food and ingredients have chipped away at McDonald’s dominance. A new breed of “better burger” chains such as Five Guys Burgers and Fries is taking away customers, too.

McDonald’s past success led to “a natural overconfidence,” said John Gordon, a restaurant industry analyst with Pacific Management Consulting Group.

“McDonald’s is such an internally focused organization, it’s a situation where you don’t have a fresh perspective coming in,” Gordon said.

McDonald’s executives have also conceded that an overly complicated

menu led to inaccurate orders and longer wait times, and that they failed to keep pace with changing tastes.

Cutting the fat

In April, McDonald’s said it would close about 700 underperforming locations around the world this year, including in the U.S. CEO Steve Easterbrook, who stepped into the role on March 1, also later laid out plans to restructure the company to remove layers of bureaucracy and move more nimbly.

In any given year, some underperforming McDonald’s restaurants will close. But previously, the number of closings has been outweighed by new restaurants that open.

The U.S. store closings will be a mix of franchised and company-owned locations, Hary said. She noted that the closings are part of a strategic review intended to set the stage for the future growth. The company did not provide a list of locations expected to close.

McDonald’s Corp. has not reported an annual reduction in U.S. locations since at least 1970, according to archived filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For 1969, McDonald’s did not include a U.S. store count in its annual report.

The company declined to comment on the last time it reduced its U.S. store base. But given the rapid expansion that characterized its early years, it’s likely McDonald’s hadn’t pulled back since Ray Kroc founded the company in 1955.

Saturation point or room to run?

Closing weak stores isn’t unusual for companies trying to turn around their fortunes. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz shuttered hundreds of U.S. cafes after returning to head the company in 2008. Since then, the coffee chain has enjoyed healthy sales growth and expanded its footprint.

Mike Donahue, who served as McDonald’s chief communications officer before leaving in 2006, said McDonald’s hasn’t necessarily reached its limit in the U.S.

“The only thing that stops growth is relevancy to the customer,” said Donahue, who has since co-founded Lyfe Kitchen, a chain that positions itself as serving more wholesome food.

Even though it’s closing locations, McDonald’s easily remains the country’s biggest hamburger chain. It still has more than twice as many restaurants as No. 2 Burger King, according to the industry tracker Technomic.

Among all fast-food chains, Subway has the most locations in the country with about 27,000 stores, though they do far less business than the typical McDonald’s.

And McDonald’s is still growing globally. It plans to add about 300 restaurants to its worldwide total of more than 36,000.

Donahue said that people were saying decades ago that McDonald’s had reached its saturation point in the U.S. But within the company, he said there was always confidence that there was room to expand.

Even when McDonald’s closed underperforming stores in the past, he said it would open new restaurants in better locations. The closings this year appear to be a way to strengthen its base of stores, he said.

“What they’re doing is pruning the tree,” he said.

NEW YORK —

Sales of fitness trackers are climbing, and the biggest maker of the gadgets, Fitbit, made a splashy debut on the stock market Thursday. But will the devices really help you get healthier?

Experts agree that getting people to set goals — and then reminding them of the goals — absolutely works, and the wearable devices are built to do that. But evidence people get healthier when using fitness trackers is limited because they are new and studies of them have mostly been small or focused on specific groups of people.

Strapped to your wrist, shoe, or clothes, fitness trackers can grab a lot of data: how many steps you’ve taken, where you’ve run, how many calories you’ve burned, how fast your heart is beating, how much oxygen you’ve got in your blood, and how well you’re sleeping. They can be synched with smartphones, apps and scales. They can quantify how active you are, and it’s satisfying to set a goal, reach it, and see if you can do better.

That might be why fitness trackers are one of the first types of wearable technology to really take off. International Data Corp. says more than 11 million of the devices were sold in the first quarter of this year, triple sales from a year ago. Fitbit’s product sales doubled and revenue nearly tripled in 2014.

Let’s say you’re determined to get more sleep. If you use the “Today I Will” feature on Jawbone’s Up tracker, you push a button that says “I’m in,” committing to your goal. The device will send you a reminder an hour before you’re supposed to go to bed. If you’re not meeting your sleep goals, it’ll remind you about that, too.

“Millennials seem to be wired for this kind of data, this kind of feedback,” says Dr. Jason Mendoza, who is running small studies to see if the devices will help teenagers.

In one of the few completed clinical trials of fitness trackers, Dr. Lisa Cadmus-Bertram found that overweight middle-aged and older women who used a Fitbit got about an hour of additional exercise a week. A group of women who were given pedometers didn’t improve.

Cadmus-Bertram thinks that if the women had received more support they might have experienced even bigger gains. But the study involved a specific group of women — they were around 60 years old, white and affluent. And they still didn’t reach the activity goals that experts recommend.

The results were published in American Journal of Preventive Medicine this month. Cadmus-Bertram is preparing to launch additional studies on Garmin’s Vivofit tracker and plans to test the LED-based heartbeat sensors in some activity trackers to see if their measurements are accurate. She said it’s hard for researchers to keep up with the pace of innovation and new features to determine if they are really useful.

But even if the trackers’ benefits prove hard to quantify, experts say they may do some real good because they could change the way people think about their own habits and their approach to health. Dr. Julie Wang, who has also studied the devices, said public health experts have been trying to get people to monitor their health for years, and by encouraging people to set and meet goals, fitness trackers might actually get them to do it.

Mendoza and other researchers say the devices are probably most effective if they’re one piece of a health regimen, combined with other tools like coaching.

Dr. Daniel Neides of the Cleveland Clinic says a simple Pebble+ fitness tracker helped him get in the best shape of his life. And Neides says he’s not alone: the clinic started offering the devices to employees in 2013 in a program intended to reduce its costs. Employees who met step-counting or activity goals could save about $2,000 a year in out-of-pocket health care spending.

Neides said the program reduced medication costs, emergency room visits and hospitalizations, and sick days. He said the clinic had tried a similar program without fitness trackers, but it didn’t work very well.

“Human nature indicates that for a lot of us, we just need a gentle nudge in the right direction,” he said. “I look at it like a report card. I have a goal. I want to get an A. For me, getting an A is hitting 10,000 steps every single day.”

NEW YORK — Ralph Roberts, a cable pioneer who built Comcast from a small cable TV system in Mississippi into an entertainment and communications behemoth, has died. He was 95.

Comcast said in a statement that Roberts died Thursday night in Philadelphia of natural causes.

He was in his 40s when he began his career in the fledgling cable industry, with a $500,000 purchase of American Cable Systems, a company with 1,200 subscribers in Tupelo, Mississippi. A string of acquisitions followed. Roberts changed the name of the company to Comcast and ran it until he was in his 80s.

He handed control of the company to one of his sons, Brian, who is now Comcast’s chairman and CEO, while keeping the title of chairman emeritus.

Roberts, who was known for wearing a bowtie to work every day, had grand ambitions. “Ralph was always about what comes next, what’s the next deal,” said Steve Burke, CEO of NBCUniversal, who has worked at Comcast for 17 years. “He gave his DNA to his son Brian, who has always been a real ambitious person for the company.”

Now Comcast is the nation’s largest provider of cable TV and home Internet service as well as the owner of NBCUniversal, home of the NBC network, a slew of cable channels, film studio Universal Pictures and theme parks.

“He remade the cable industry. When he started, it was a bunch of mom and pop businesses. He’s shown that you can take that idea and transition it to a worldwide media business,” said Terry Bienstock, a former general counsel at Comcast who met Ralph Roberts in the early 1980s. “The NBC thing will be his legacy.”

Ralph Joel Roberts was born in New York City on March 13, 1920, into an affluent family. They owned a drugstore chain in Westchester County, N.Y. But things took a dire turn during the Depression.

“My father died, and we lost all our money. People who never had a financial problem in their lives can never understand what terror there is in that,” he told The New York Times in 1997.

That experience gave Roberts the determination to seek financial security.

His family moved to Philadelphia and Roberts put himself through the University of Pennsylvania. One of his first jobs was with Aitken Kynett Advertising Agency, where he worked his way up from researcher to account executive. A client at Aitken Kynett was the local franchise of Muzak Corp., the company behind elevator music. He joined Muzak and rose to vice president.

But he didn’t like the pressures of the job and sought to leave. A recruiter brought him to Pioneer Suspender Co., a maker of men’s accessories such as belts, suspenders and ties, and two years later he would buy the company.

In 1961, he noticed that beltless pants were coming into style and he became concerned that he wouldn’t sell as many belts, his company’s top product. Men also weren’t wearing ties, shirts and cufflinks as often. So he sold the company.

Using money from the sale, Roberts set up an investment company. A street encounter with an acquaintance led to his purchase of American Cable Systems.

In 1969, the company was renamed Comcast — a combination of “communications” and “broadcast” — and incorporated in Pennsylvania. Roberts began acquiring smaller cable systems and built the company into the nation’s fifth-largest by 1988. Two years later, his son would become president of Comcast and continued the expansion Roberts began.

The company became the country’s largest cable TV operator, with 22 million customers, when it bought AT&T Broadband, the telephone company’s cable systems, in 2002.

Roberts often served as a diplomat for the entire cable industry, trying to bring regulators and cable executives together, said Reed Hundt, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. In particular, Hundt remembers the approach Roberts took in criticizing the FCC’s policies at a dinner in 1994.

“Instead of beginning by criticizing or challenging, he said, ‘I’m sure you’re doing what you think is best and you have a particular job to do that I respect. Then he began to tell me in a very gentle way the mistakes that I’ve made,” Hundt said.

“But by beginning in the way that he did, he made it so easy to listen to him,” he said.

Bienstock recalled how he was introduced to Roberts’ folksy manner when he was first hired at Comcast. New in town, with his family still in Miami, Bienstock got a call in his hotel room one night from Roberts. The boss had tickets to the theater and Roberts’ wife had decided not to go.

“Do you want to be my date?” Roberts asked.

“That was Ralph’s way of making you feel at home,” Bienstock said. “That’s a typical Ralph thing.”

Roberts stayed CEO of Comcast until 2002, when he was 82, before ceding the title of chief executive to his son. That year he also left the chairman’s post.

But even in 2009, as Comcast was negotiating to buy a controlling stake in NBC Universal from General Electric Co., Ralph Roberts played a role. In July 2009 Roberts and Comcast’s chief operating officer, Steve Burke, flew to Sun Valley, Idaho, to meet with GE’s CEO, Jeff Immelt. It was after that meeting that Comcast and GE struck a deal.

But there have been checks to the company’s desire to grow. Its attempt to buy Time Warner Cable, the No. 2 cable company, was quashed by regulators this year who were wary of Comcast’s power over the country’s Internet access and ability to undermine the growing online video industry.

A graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Roberts also served in the U.S. Navy. He was a well-known philanthropist in Philadelphia, supporting such efforts as Project H.O.M.E., an outreach program for the homeless.

Roberts is survived by his wife of 72 years, Suzanne, four of his five children and eight grandchildren. Brian is the only one of his children who went into the family business.

“He will always be remembered for his generosity, integrity, honesty, kindness and respect for everyone around him,” the Roberts family said in a statement Friday.

University of Georgia among top 100 for U.S. patents

Athens — The University of Georgia is ranked among the top 100 universities worldwide for the number of U.S. utility patents granted in 2014, according to a list released by the National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association.

The list, based on data obtained from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, recognizes the important role patents play in facilitating the movement of university research discoveries into the marketplace.

The UGA patents issued in 2014 included those covering antimicrobial coatings for textiles, a candidate HIV treatment, a biomarker that may enhance early detection of breast cancer, two poultry vaccines and a method for neutralizing munitions residue.

“Inclusion on this list reflects UGA’s commitment to moving discoveries into the market, an integral part of the University of Georgia land grant mission,” said Derek Eberhart, director of UGA Innovation Gateway.

More than 500 products based on UGA technologies have reached the marketplace.

Kroger shoppers asked to ‘round up’ to help USO

Kroger, with 11 stores in the Savannah metro area, is joining forces with the United Service Organization (USO) from June 21–July 4 to “Round-Up” support for American troops and their families by giving customers the opportunity to round up their store purchases to the nearest dollar.

For example, a customer who buys $99.02 of groceries is urged to round up the bill to $100 by donating 98 cents.

The goal is to raise $200,000.

Established in 1941, the USO — a nonprofit, congressionally chartered organization — supports American troops in combat, as well as military personnel on local bases, the National Guard, Guard Reserves and other personnel providing humanitarian aid.

For more information, visit www.HonoringOurHeroes.com.

Georgia Southern WebMAcc ranked 5th in nation

STATESBORO — Masters-in-accounting.org has ranked the Georgia Southern WebMAcc as fifth in the nation in its 2015 report of the Top 10 Online Masters of Accounting Degree Programs.

The rankings were based upon CPA exam pass rates, undergraduate GPAs, accreditation, delivery modes and tuition costs. After totaling scores received in each category, the website created its rankings.

The fifth ranked WebMAcc program includes its own “AACSB accreditation, 100 percent online classes, and a cohort-learning model that emphasizes team projects,” according to Masters-in-accounting.org. The website also highlights programs offering classes in a distance education format, the school’s online portal providing live streaming of audio and video, user-friendly virtual bulletin boards, and smartphone and tablet applications.

For a more in-depth look at the rankings, visit www.masters-in-accounting.org/best/online-masters-of-accounting-degree-programs-2015/.

In a change-of-command ceremony that traces its roots back to Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire, Col. Thomas J. Tickner relinquished command of the Savannah District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by passing the Corps’ colors to incoming commander Col. Marvin L. Griffin on Friday morning at the Hyatt Regency Savannah.

Brig. Gen. C. David Turner, commander of the Corps’ South Atlantic Division, commended Tickner on his work to rebuild the Savannah District as well as his contributions to the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, or SHEP, which is now in its construction phase.

“When Col. Tickner took command in Savannah two years ago, he inherited a district that had just struggled through a workforce reduction that reduced the strength of the district by more than 30 percent,” Turner said. “Not long after, they weathered sequestration and a government shutdown.

“While not fully recovered from these events, the district today is much stronger and more resilient from Tom’s leadership.”

Tickner navigated the district through the challenges associated with shrinking budgets in an extreme fiscal environment, Turner said. “And faced with a wave of senior leadership retirements, he built a new, dynamic team to lead the district.”

Tickner took command of the Savannah District in July 2013. He will next be deployed to Afghanistan.

During his tenure in command, Tickner oversaw completion of the Project Partnership Agreement between the state of Georgia and the Corps of Engineers outlining funding for the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project.

He also oversaw the beginning of construction of the Savannah harbor deepening, as well as the construction of a new hospital at Fort Benning in Columbus, substantial work at Fort Gordon in Augusta and other projects.

“I couldn’t be prouder of the Savannah District. We have accomplished so much together, and I’m going to miss you all,” Tickner said. “And I’m also grateful for our many partners in the state and region who have worked so hard to make SHEP happen.”

Tickner said he and his family hope to eventually retire in the Savannah area.

Griffin congratulated Tickner on a job well done and thanked him for his help in the transition to district command.

The Corps’ newest district commander comes to Savannah from a Senior Service College Fellowship with the Secretary of Defense Corporate Fellowship Program. His previous assignments include deployments to Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan, Operation Iraqi Freedom and to Operation Joint Guardian in Kosovo.

A graduate of the United States Military Academy, he has served as an instructor and assistant professor in the department of civil and mechanical engineering at West Point.

He served as executive officer of the 4th Brigade Special Troops Battalion of the 3rd Infantry Divison at Fort Stewart from 2006 to 2009.

“This feels very much like coming home,” he said.

The Savannah District, which traces its Savannah heritage to 1829, maintains the deep water harbors in Savannah and Brunswick, as well as leading the effort to deepen the Savannah harbor. The District manages a multi-million dollar military construction program at 11 Army and Air Force installations in Georgia and North Carolina, and oversees water resources and development activities in Georgia and portions of South Carolina.

The District also oversees civil projects including dams on lakes Hartwell, Russell, and Thurmond on the Georgia-South Carolina border and environmental and regulatory permits for Georgia.

This April, the Georgia Center for Nonprofits, Foundation Center and Georgia Grantmakers Alliance released the results of a survey undertaken in 2014 to assess Georgia’s grant-making trends. At stake for Georgia nonprofits and funders was gaining an understanding of Georgia giving patterns’ relationship to nonprofit needs.

As often reported, the Georgia nonprofit sector continues to grow. Less well known is the strong expansion of Georgia foundations, an increase of about 33 percent since 2000. In 2012, Georgia foundations made grants totaling a robust $932 million.

Of the 1,533 foundations in Georgia, the bulk are independent foundations (80 percent), with just 5.7 percent operating foundations, a surprisingly low 3 percent corporate foundations and community foundations 14 percent of this total.

Smaller but promising community nonprofits may struggle to get buy-in from larger foundations, but community foundations and local corporate foundations can be

significant sources of funding as we have seen demonstrated in coastal Georgia.

Generally, the Taking Measure report on Georgia’s foundations and nonprofits reflects national trends. However, the reliance of Georgia nonprofits on foundations is higher than the national average. In Georgia, reliance on private grants for support equates to about 30 percent while nationally just under 13 percent of nonprofit funding comes from grants.

In ranking their funding needs, Georgia nonprofits track with national statistics, with the top needs shown to be funding for program and operating support, capacity building and new programs and initiatives.

Interestingly, Georgia foundations also responded to the survey that these are important priorities, though in each of these categories slightly fewer foundations than nonprofits ranked those concerns as high in priority.

One may conclude from the latter results that Georgia foundations find operating support important but are not prepared to provide it, and that’s still the national trend.

The cost to nonprofits and their missions of the widespread refusal to fund operating support has been detailed in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (2009) and termed the “nonprofit starvation cycle.”

Inroads are being made for operating support by innovative funders such as the Kresge, William and Flora Hewlett and Edna McDonnel Clark Foundations, which have realized higher investments in nonprofit capacity building can result in stronger nonprofits.

Georgia nonprofits responding to the survey reported their top challenges were raising funding that covers full cost of programs, diversifying funding sources, achieving long-term financial sustainability and not having enough staff.

The mere 35 percent of nonprofits that place measuring impact in their 10 highest priorities reflects another disconnect between Georgia nonprofits and foundations. With foundations visibly and increasingly seeking documented proof of program impact, its lower ranking by Georgia nonprofits is perhaps analogous to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs — not unimportant, but with nonprofits’ limited staff resources, simply far less critical than sustaining the operation.

The Taking Measure report contains additional, revealing information about how nonprofits view their efforts at communication with foundations, a list of the largest Georgia foundations and those nonprofit subsectors that receive the greatest Georgia foundation giving.

The report is free and can be found on the websites of the three organizations that undertook the research.

Sarah Todd Clark is founder of Calhoun Enterprises, a resource for positive social change encompassing fundraising and organization development consulting. She can be reached at calhounent@gmail.com or (912) 224-2120.

By Sarah Todd Clark

If you’re blessed to still have your father or a father figure in your life, then you’ve probably been trying to figure out what gift to get him for Father’s Day. There are ties, fishing trips, brunch at the beach and tons of cool gadgets.

But if your father is getting up there age-wise, then maybe it’s time to think outside the box and get your dad something he really needs — like peace of mind or extra help.

Richard Barid, a local attorney who specializes in estate planning and elder law, said it’s his job to help people find the right tools to deal with the uncomfortable things we don’t like to talk about that come with getting older.

“So we’re talking about wills, powers of attorney, trusts, health care directives, HIPPA authorizations,” he said.

Sure, no one wants to think about those kinds of things on Father’s Day, but Barid says most people don’t think about those things until they are in crisis mode.

“I would say about 85 percent of what we do is crisis planning, so people come to us, and they already know there is a problem. … It’s usually a situation where dad fell and now he’s in the nursing home or he’s at home and needs care and … (they) aren’t sure where the money is coming from.”

When looking at elder law cases, he helps families find ways to pay for long-term care, which often ends up being public assistance such as Medicaid or veterans benefits through the VA, he said.

But most people don’t know where to start to help their fathers. Barid’s advice is to start with simple tasks and then build to more personal, legal matters.

Don’t be a stranger

Barid says information and awareness are the first step to planning for your father’s future.

“Do the things your mom always told you to do: call, visit, check in,” he said. “If you are calling on a regular basis, it will help you to detect changes in your father’s behavior.”

Perhaps you’ve noticed dad’s memory isn’t what it used to be or his attention to detail is a little off. Barid says close family is usually best in spotting those changes, but you will want to proceed gently with how you address them.

“Dad is the leader and takes care of the business, and now he feels that he can’t. That’s a huge identity crisis, and he may not want to let on or tell you about it.”

Barid says it’s important to help by finding little things to do.

Maybe you notice your father is having trouble keeping up with housework, the yard or jobs around the house. Think about paying someone to do those things for a Father’s Day present.

“Just say, ‘Dad, we always get busy and we have a lady who comes in and cleans up around the house and she’s great. If it’s OK, I’m going to send her over to your house as my present to you.’”

Other helpful gifts include lawn services, laundry services, dinner or meal delivery or coupons from children or grandchildren to help do these services personally. This extra help may be a lifesaver for an aging father who is secretly struggling to maintain control of his life.

“If dad will start accepting help like that, he might start slowly accepting help in more significant areas like adjusting legal documents or setting up new powers of attorney,” Barid said.

From a legal perspective, Barid said it’s important for adult children to legally help manage his affairs when they get to be too much, and it’s important to remind dad that the documents will only be used when needed, which can help avoid embarrassment.

“ … You can then say, ‘Dad, you have a power of attorney and you put mom in charge and mom passed away four years ago, and now no one is in charge and God forbid something bad happens and you’re in the hospital and you can’t pay the bills, and I can’t deal with the insurance company or your bank on your behalf,’” he said.

Barid says other options are guardianship or conservatorship, but those are a public court process.

“It’s an open courtroom and someone is being declared incompetent,” he said. “That can be a really emotionally difficult thing, and while it may be ultimately be necessary, a simple power of attorney might help you avoid that route.”

He adds that a health care directive is also a good idea to go along with the power of attorney.

A health care directive details health-related decisions that dad would make for himself, but he just puts someone in charge of making sure those decisions are carried out.

Debunk misconceptions

“A common misconception is that someone else has to make those decisions, but they are just executing your decisions,” Barid said. “Like taking someone off life support — dad made that decision, not the kids. They can execute it and know that they are just doing what dad wanted. A good elder law attorney can help with that.”

There were major changes in the trust and probate code in 2010, so it may be time for your father to take a look at his will and make sure it is up to date.

Another incentive for planning is making sure your father is qualified for the right benefits before he needs them. Veterans of World War II or the Korean War most likely need those benefits now, especially if they don’t have long-term health insurance.

Barid said many veterans qualify for VA benefits that could give them about $1,000 to $2,000 a month, tax free, but they may not even know that option is out there.

Children can help their fathers get connected to these benefits by having a good elder law attorney get the proper documentation in place.

Track down benefits

A good attorney can also help link veterans to programs the VA doesn’t advertise.

“Those kinds of things may be as simple as just getting dad to come in and talk … and do a simple review of legal documents,” he said. “And then at end of discussion, a good elder law attorney would know the right questions to ask. … Bring your son and daughter if that makes you more comfortable — a lot of people do that.”

Barid said most half-hour reviews are free.

Reviews can also help educate your father and the rest of the family.

“One of the most common misconceptions is people think if they apply for Medicaid, then Medicaid is going to come in and take their house,” he said. “That is not true. … Or they believe Medicaid will take all their money. There are income and eligibility requirements, but they don’t take homes.”

He said he sees many people who also believe a power of attorney is lock solid. That’s also not true.

“There are different types of powers of attorney,” he said. “If you have one that was done 10 years ago, the odds of it doing what you wanted it to do are pretty slim. The more detailed it is, the more likely you are to have success with it. The age of the power of attorney also has an impact.”

Barid suggests looking into a trust instead. A trust is enforceable, and a bank can’t refuse to let the trustee have access to those funds.

Advice to approach dad

With hope, your father has everything in order, and you can avoid having this conversation with him. But if you have to approach the issue, Barid has some advice.

“Sure, some people are afraid to approach their fathers,” he said. “I’ve seen different reactions. Some dads are really controlling and are clearly the patriarch of the family, especially when we start to see problems.

“…Use this article as the impetus. Say, ‘Dad, I saw this article in the paper, and I don’t think anything is wrong with you, but it struck me that I never ask you these questions, so how about it? Let’s talk. What’s going on? How’s everything going? Could you use help? I’d like help you if you need help.’

“Take the softer approach. Communication is the key. … You don’t want to create the wrong impression, so start with the regular contact. It’s just a nice thing to do any way.

“If you can’t — maybe it’s not that kind of relationship — then you have to ask the harder questions and say, ‘Let’s talk about this, but you can push the responsibility on an attorney or say you read the article.’

“Just don’t be judgmental. Just say, ‘You always took care of me, so if I can help you, then let’s do that.’”

For more information on Father’s Day gift ideas for aging dads, contact Barid at 912-352-3999 or go to www.smithbarid.com.