Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. has announced that the Gulfstream G500 has completed five test flights since it first took to the skies May 18.

During more than 15 hours of flying, the aircraft achieved a top speed of Mach 0.80 and a maximum altitude of 38,500 feet. The aircraft’s longest flight was more than four hours.

Over the past several weeks, the aircraft has been undergoing modifications to prepare for returning to flight later this month, the company said.

“The first five flights exceeded our expectations,” said Dan Nale, senior vice president or Programs, Engineering and Test with Gulfstream. “And they demonstrated that our testing facilities on the ground are having very real benefits in the air, allowing us to identify and address issues before they’re ever seen in flight.”

Gulfstream announced the G500 and G600 family of aircraft on Oct. 14, 2014, and officials said programs for both aircraft are progressing well.

As the first G500 flight-test plane undergoes modification, two more are preparing for flight, and a fourth is in production. Additionally, the first G600 flight-test aircraft has begun the initial stages of production.

Together, the two programs have completed more than 36,000 hours of lab testing, and both the G600 integration test facility and the G600 Iron Bird are now operational. The engines for the G500 and G600 were certified by Transport Canada in February.

The G500 has a range of 5,000 nautical miles at Mach 0.85 or while the G600 can carry passengers 6,200 nautical miles at Mach 0.85. The maximum operating speed for both aircraft is Mach 0.925, the same maximum speed as Gulfstream’s G650 and G650ER.

Gulfstream anticipates certification of the G500 in 2017, with entry into service in 2018. The

G600 certification is slated to follow in 2018, with entry into service in 2019.

For more information, go to www.gulfstreamnews.com.

In today’s economy, developing and retaining successful employees is more critical than ever, according to leadership development expert Ned Ellington and former Southern Company executive Anthony James.

The duo addressed nearly 40 community business leaders Wednesday at the Georgia Tech-Savannah Learning Series about how leaders can develop top talent, plan for succession and identify problem solvers and innovators.

The speech was part of the Georgia Tech-Savannah Learning Series, an initiative launched last October to help companies in the coastal region stay up to speed on new technology, leadership issues and more.

“When we talk about multi-generational issues in the workforce, what we really mean is how

companies should handle millennials,” Ellington said. “In reality, though, there is not much difference in workplace outcomes between baby boomers, Gen X-ers and millennials. The key is to harness what motivates each generation, especially the up-and-coming one, since that is where our next generation of leaders will originate.”

Ellington also noted that company leaders must be honest during recruiting to recruit and retain talented millennials. They must also provide training and development opportunities, have regular performance reviews that feature honest discussion and ensure employees’ values fit with the culture of the organization.

“Millennials value purpose more than money,” Ellington said. “In fact, the vast majority — 85 percent — believe success is measured by more than the bottom line.”

James, who served as president and CEO of Savannah Electric and Power Company from 2001 through 2005, discussed the importance of succession by identifying and developing leaders within the company.

“The most important thing in your business is your employees. They are the backbone of your business,” he said. “Treat them with the utmost respect and understand how important they are. After all, your best employees are the most desirable to other companies.”

James said company leaders must understand generational differences, provide regular feedback, allow employees to grow and advance faster, welcome flexibility in work schedules and let employees learn if they want to keep employees happy.

“Companies spend anywhere between $25,000 to $50,000 recruiting, training and retaining a new employee,” he said. “They can’t afford to make a bad decision.”

BREAKOUT

A session of the learning series scheduled for Sept. 17 will focus on how leaders can create employee ownership, embrace responsibilities and celebrate success. For more information, go to http://pe.gatech.edu/savannah-campus/courses/learning-series.

ATLANTA — The fastest and least-expensive way to address the need for cyber-security graduates is for the University System of Georgia to take a multi-campus approach, the Board of Regents learned Wednesday.

A task force of administrators from eight schools made that recommendation based on its research showing the state isn’t graduating enough students in the field to meet industry demand in Georgia.

Last year, the Peach State had 8,000 cyber-security job openings but just 46 graduates from the state’s public colleges to fill them, the task force found.

Many of the state’s 30 public universities are already offering pieces of the puzzle.

Georgia Regents University launched a cyber institute in June, for example. Armstrong State University recently opened its Center for Applied Cyber Education in Hinesville. And Georgia Tech houses several programs that deal with cyber security and professors conducting research into the field.

“The system is not inclined to have everyone ramp up programs that duplicate each other. Rather, we want to leverage the strengths of the area institutions,” said Gretchen Coughman, GRU’s provost and chair of the task force.

The consortium approach would tie all of the pieces together with a common curriculum and courses offered online.

If the regents agree, the task force will come up with a detailed plan — and budget — for hiring faculty, creating online courses and developing internships for students. The plan will include ways to get students interested in taking the cyber security courses once they exist.

“Part of the pipeline approach … is to get students at the middle- and high-school levels engaged,” Coughman said.

The board didn’t formally take action, but members expressed support for the initiative.

Regent Paul Bowers, who is president of Georgia Power, said every major U.S. corporation is focused on cyber security.

“There is a huge demand,” said Bowers, chairman of the regents’ Economic Development Committee. “…This is a growing opportunity for students to get engaged in, and everybody is looking for these resources. This is a great path for us to be on from an economic-development standpoint.”

That committee also heard from Marc Miller, newly appointed director of economic development at GRU, who outlined that school’s approach to turning academic discoveries into commercial operations.

The university has long been involved in research for private companies, such as drug makers, but in recent months it has stepped up efforts to encourage professors to commercially develop their own ideas.

“People say, ‘Aren’t you just paying them to create their own company?’ Yeah, sort of, but we’ll still have a stake in them, and we’ll keep a portion of them in this area,” he said

Among his goals for the job are including innovations in the evaluation of tenure-track faculty, fostering closer relations with the community and adding entrepreneurial segments to the curriculum of nearly every major on campus.

“This is not limited to B-school students,” he said.

Regent Jim Hull of Augusta, applauded GRU for its efforts.

“It really is the way of the future,” he said.

Bowers agreed.

“This is absolutely the model for what we’re trying to achieve at all of our institutions,” he said.

New property transfers in Chatham, Bryan and Effingham counties have been added to our database. 

Search here by buyer, seller, address, city, zip or month of sale for 2015 property transfers. 

All data are public records and are obtained from each county or municipality, unless otherwise sourced. Information fields may vary. 

Pooler pet day care gets initial OK

The Pooler Planning Commission this week gave preliminary approval to a request to rezone property to house a pet day care facility in the city.

Planning commissioners on Monday voted to recommend approval of the request from Cory and Chelsea Henneman to rezone more than 17 acres on South Rogers Street from single-family residential to residential-agricultural zoning. The facility will encompass indoor boarding kennels, according to the letter sent to adjacent property owners late last month.

Also approved Monday was a request to amend the zoning map for 16 acres of property on Pine Barren Road to construct 69 multi-family residential units, a performance bond for Phase 6A of the Westbrook subdivision and the construction plan for Phase 5 of the Hunt Club community.

Tybee Island gets TripAdvisor nod

TripAdvisor.com has named Tybee Island as one of the “10 East Coast beach vacations that stand — or float — above the rest. Known for their family friendliness, natural beauty and attractions, these sandy getaways are perfect for the summer, fall or beyond.”

“Each of these coastal gems has affordable vacation homes for rent, with the amenities you’re used to at home, and then some! Large living spaces, private outdoor areas, a full chef’s kitchen, swimming pool or game room; and often located directly on the beach. When the sun-drenched day comes to an end, the family fun is just beginning,” the site says.

Southern beaches get the most mentions, but beaches in Massachusetts, Delaware and New Jersey also make the list.

Kayak outing to raise money to fight diabetes

The 8th annual Kayak for a Kure will be Saturday, Aug. 29, and will include a paddle from Butterbean Beach to the UGA Marine Extension Service Aquarium to benefit the American Diabetes Association.

The event will begin at Butterbean Beach with registration at 8 a.m. with the three-mile paddle kicking off at 9 a.m. Participants will arrive at the UGA Extension Service Aquarium about 10:30 a.m. and be treated to live music and a lunch catered by Chipotle Mexican Grill.

Old Town Trolleys will transport participants back to Butterbean Beach to pick up their cars.

Tickets for the event are $50 and include entry, lunch and music. They’re available at www.eventbrite.com. All proceeds benefit the 2015 Step Out: Walk To Stop Diabetes on Saturday, Oct. 10.

For more information or to register, contact Chris Carpentino at 912-353-8110 ext. 3094 or ccarpentino@diabetes.org.

It’s almost impossible to travel in downtown Savannah without sitting in traffic behind a carriage or trolley packed with tourists. In 2014, 7.6 million people stayed overnight in Savannah, filling up the nearly 15,000 hotel rooms the city has to offer.

And business will continue to grow into 2016, according to Mark Woodworth, president of Atlanta-based PKF Hospitality Research, who spoke to hotel professionals Thursday at the Embassy Suites in Downtown for the Georgia Hotel and Lodging Association’s annual Savannah forecast.

“The overall health of the lodging market here is extraordinarily good. We’re seeing new supply come in to the market and developers planning more and more projects, which shows that they’re recognizing just how strong the fundamentals are here in Savannah,” Woodworth said.

“We’re not concerned about there being too many rooms too soon here in Savannah.”

Occupancy rates for all hotels in Savannah should end the year at 72.2 percent, up from 69.8 percent last year, Woodworth said, adding that modest growth is also expected in 2016 at 72.9 percent occupancy.

Woodworth said that despite the growth of the shareconomy and such websites as Airbnb, which allows homeowners to rent out spare bedrooms to travelers, the Savannah market has experienced positive performance levels.

Another concern to those in attendance is the new $5 per night state hotel-motel fee, which took effect July 1. Woodworth said hotels with lower rates continue to get hit the hardest when it comes to absorbing the increased cost. Because that consumers often react negatively to increased costs and demand decreases, Woodworth said the estimated lost room revenue for all hotels in Savannah is just more than $17 million and $130 million statewide.

But so far locally, Savannah hasn’t had a lot of negative feedback from the fee, according to Joe Marinielli, president of Visit Savannah. So far only one convention group expressed concern when setting up its stay, but it didn’t prevent the group from booking the 2018 event, he said.

The full effect of the new tax remains to be seen, but state Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, announced Thursday that he is currently working on a bill that would propose cutting the fee to $2 per night.

“The proposed bill would also help spread the burden of the tax across more people so that hotels alone aren’t singled out, said Jim Sprouse, executive director of GHLA.

“Because of the way (the shareconomy) operates right now through the internet they aren’t paying taxes and they aren’t subject to the same regulations as the rest of the industry.”

In light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision about same-sex marriage, couples in the LGBT community may want to review their estate plans.

When Georgia law forbade same-sex marriage or recognition of the same when the ceremony was performed out of state, some LGBT couples chose to forego estate planning that could have been undone by family members or chose estate planning options that are no longer necessary now that same-sex marriage is legal in Georgia.

One thing to consider before getting started is that civil unions or domestic partnership agreements are not equal to marriage for estate planning. Whereas a domestic partnership offered more protection before, a marriage might offer more opportunities now.

Married couples are not subject to gift taxes for transfers between spouses or to estate tax at the death of one of the spouses. Additionally, portability laws allow the surviving spouse to make additional gifts without being subject to the gift tax for any unused portion of the deceased spouse’s applicable exclusion amount, which for this year is $5.43 million. The amount is adjusted annually for inflation.

Before the Supreme Court decision, an LGBT couple may have limited a bequest to a spouse to the applicable exclusion amount to prevent the spouse from having to pay estate taxes (currently 40 percent) on any amount above d $5.43 million. If so, these documents can now be amended to bequeath the entire estate to the surviving spouse.

Also, same-sex spouses previously were limited to the individual annual exclusion amount of $14,000 for both gifts and generational-skipping transfers without being taxed or dipping into their applicable exclusion amount.

But now same-sex spouses can combine their gifts or transfers for a total $28,000 a year per recipient.

For same-sex spouses who previously avoided estate planning, a will is a good place to start.

Now that same-sex marriages are legal nationwide, there is no longer a concern that a will bequeathing assets to a same-sex spouse could be contested by the deceased’s biological family members.

An estate planning attorney also may recommend any number of trusts appropriate to a couple’s situation in life, including a joint marital trust, which would not have been available to a same-sex couple in Georgia before.

A thorough estate plan also may include a health care directive and durable power of attorney. A health care directive designates which life-prolonging treatments one approves, if any, should a person be incapacitated because of a terminal illness or a permanent vegetative state. Durable powers of attorney can give a spouse the right to make financial decisions if someone is unable to speak for themselves.

Finally, same-sex spouses who did estate planning before the Supreme Court decision may find that they can dispense of certain documents. For instance, same-sex couples no longer need to make sure the warranty deed on their house lists both partners as joint tenants with right of survivorship to ensure that the surviving spouse will inherit the home.

Also, same-sex spouses with children will automatically become guardians of their non-biological or adopted children if something should happen to the biological parent.

Each couple’s financial and lifestyle situation is different, and the Supreme Court decision has changed the estate planning options available to same-sex couples. A trusted estate planning attorney can discuss which options are best for your family and help you choose a plan that works for you.

Michael Smith and Richard Barid are co-founders of Savannah-based Smith Barid LLC, which specializes in estate planning and special needs planning. They can be reached at 912-352-3999 or richard@smithbarid.com or msmith@smithbarid.com.

By Michael Smith and Richard Barid

SAVANNAH PORT’S SHIPPING SCHEDULE FOR THE COMING WEEK

Following are the ships expected to call on Georgia Ports Authority’s Garden City and Ocean terminals this week. Schedules are supplied by GPA and are subject to change.

TERMINAL VESSEL ETA

GPA BUDAPEST EXPRESS Friday

GPA MAERSK DETROIT Friday

GPA ZIM MONACO Friday

GPA CONTI CANBERRA Friday

GPA ANTARES J Friday

GPA MOL ENDURANCE Friday

GPA MAERSK WAKAYAMA Friday

GPA OCTAVIA Friday

GPA MSC ILONA Friday

GPA HANJIN DURBAN Friday

OT GRANDE GUINEA Friday

OT STAR LOUISIANA Friday

OT GANT MUSE Friday

GPA CMA CGM AUCKLAND Saturday

GPA PHILADELPHIA EXPRESS Saturday

GPA ITAL MASSIMA Saturday

GPA CMA CGM ALMAVIVA Saturday

GPA SEALAND ILLINOIS Saturday

GPA IBRAHIM DEDE Saturday

GPA HATTA Saturday

GPA NYK RIGEL Saturday

GPA NYK FURANO Sunday

GPA EVER LEGACY Sunday

GPA AL FARAHIDI Sunday

GPA NYK ORION Sunday

GPA OOCL HALIFAX Sunday

OT OBERON Sunday

OT BBC CONGO Sunday

TERMINAL VESSEL ETA

GPA MAERSK KENSINGTON Monday

GPA HONGKONG BRIDGE Monday

GPA SEA LAND MERCURY Monday

GPA HYUNDAI GOODWILL Monday

GPA CMA CGM JAMAICA Monday

OT PALEMBANG Monday

OT EOS VICTORY Monday

GPA BENEDICT SCHULTE Tuesday

GPA NAGOYA EXPRESS Tuesday

GPA HH EMILIA Tuesday

GPA HANJIN KINGSTON Wednesday

GPA CONRAD S Wednesday

GPA MARTHA SCHULTE Wednesday

GPA

HANGZHOU BAY BRIDGE Wednesday

OT ENDURANCE Wednesday

OT TORONTO Thursday

OT TALISMAN Thursday

OT SARATOV Thursday

GPA MOL MISSION Thursday

GPA HYUNDAI UNITY Thursday

GPA ROSSINI Thursday

GPA SC MARA Thursday

GPA CUCKOO HUNTER Thursday

GPA ZIM HAIFA Thursday

GPA ZIM TEXAS Thursday

GPA MSC PAMELA Thursday

GPA MSC ROMANOS Thursday

Armstrong State University officials have signed a memorandum of understanding with Yichun University, which is located in Yichun City, China, to make it easier for faculty and students from both institutions to exchange teaching and learning opportunities.

The memorandum states that each university will aim for cooperative projects that include the mutual exchange of students and faculty for program development, research and teaching.

With a full-time student body of 20,000 and more than 1,000 faculty members, Yichun University is home to 19 colleges, which include liberal arts, economics, management, law, science, engineering, agriculture, medicine and art and education, as well as six university-level research centers.

Armstrong President Linda Bleicken and Yichun University President Xiao Huayin signed the memorandum.

Hinesville Mayor James Thomas attended the ceremony because the city of Hinesville won the Sister Cities International’s 2014 Innovation Award for Economic Development for its sister-city program with the city of Yichun.

“This partnership with Yichun University is important to Armstrong faculty and students,” said Bleicken. “People-to-people exchanges promote mutual respect, understanding and cooperation. We look forward to expanding Armstrong’s horizons.”

The Yichun group also met with Armstrong administrators, department heads and professors to learn more about each other’s programs and explore the best ways to interact.

Liberty County agency recognized for marketing effort

HINESVILLE — The Liberty County Development Authority recently received an award for a marketing initiative that invited prospects to savor a sip of Liberty County.

The Southern Economic Development Council Communication Awards, a competition open to 17 states in the South, recognized the authority’s submission of an Advent calendar produced by Florapharm Tea, a German tea producer with a North American distribution facility in Hinesville Technology Park.

The calendar is part of Florapharm Tea’s annual product catalog, and it contained 14 tea varieties sourced in 33 countries.

“The Advent calendar enhances relationship-building potential by giving the recipient 25 different occasions to interact with the gift, while also allowing us to showcase the success story of an existing global industry,” said Ronald E. Tolley, Liberty County Development Authority CEO.

Savannah Lodging introduces ‘local lobby’

Two down historic district hotels that are part of Savannah Lodging, the Hampton by Hilton Savannah Historic District and the Holiday Inn Express Savannah Historic District, have announced the creation of “The Local Lobby.”

The program gives local businesses an opportunity to showcase their products twice a week in what the hotels call their living rooms.

“Our fellow local businesses mean a lot to Savannah, and we want to support those businesses in our community,” says Mark Dana, managing partner of Savannah Lodging. “We’re proud to offer up our living rooms to help local businesses showcase their products to an audience who may not get the opportunity to visit their shops and stores.”

The Local Lobby will be every Wednesday at the Hampton by Hilton and every Thursday at the Holiday Inn Express, both at Bay and Abercorn streets.

For more information or to sign up as a featured business, contact Jan Finnegan at janet.finnegan@savannahlodging.com or 912-657-6403 or Krista Boyette at krista.boyette@savannahlodging.com or 912-321-9700 x 232.

Armstrong introduce online B.A. in French

Armstrong State University will offer a fully online Bachelor of Arts in French, as well as a French minor, starting in the Fall 2015 semester. The program is available through eMajor, a consortium of University System of Georgia schools that partner with one another to deliver online bachelor’s degree programs.

The eMajor is delivered in virtual classrooms, with students electing to take core courses on campus or online. The French track emphasizes knowledge of modern foreign cultures and enables students to focus on one modern language while achieving speaking facility in one or two others.

For more information, go to Armstrong.edu/french, email dorothee.mertz-weigel@armstrong.edu.com or call 912-344-2804.

Leadership matters.

Businesses that lead by example and promote community and social responsibility in the workplace help create a culture of volunteerism that is important to the professional and personal growth of the next generation of leaders.

Many young professionals do not truly understand the value of civic duty and community service early in their careers. However, as time goes on, they soon learn exactly how critical community and social responsibility is for all businesses, small and large.

For better or worse, we are all irrevocably tied to the overall health of the community that we live and work in. This means we have an interconnected, communal responsibility to one another.

However, leadership starts at the top. Senior executives must be prepared to lead by example and make a personal commitment to the community. Whether that includes volunteering their time raising money for a local nonprofit or offering their services pro bono, senior leaders must be tapped into the community before expecting to inspire the same commitment from their workforce.

By setting a positive example from the top down, senior executives demonstrate key characteristics of true leadership including a strong work ethic, self-motivation and sacrifice while encouraging an authentic desire among our young professionals to seek out

their own community projects to get involved in.

There is no better way to learn more about your community than getting out from behind the desk and finding an organization or cause where your skills are desperately needed and appreciated. Knowing the different groups that make up your community, especially the under served, will make you a more effective and informed business leader.

In addition, let’s not forgot the power of word-of-mouth marketing. Often times, the investment of your time and resources in being a good corporate citizen and neighbor also builds good will and positive conversation about your brand, products and services, which is simply icing on the cake.

The real reward comes from seeing your efforts actually make a difference in people’s lives. Get out there, get involved and help make a difference.

Kay Ford is the advisory board chairman of BankSouth in the Savannah Market. She can be reached at 912-200-9420 or kford@banksouth.com.

By Kay Ford

Herty Advanced Materials Development Center, an applied research center of Georgia Southern University, has launched a new advanced chemical processing pilot facility.

Officials said the new facility, which opened Thursday, allows Herty to expand its research programs and client services to companies trying to develop and test materials needed in international and competitive markets.

Applications include the development of active fibers for water filtration and nutritional supplements as well as the production of biomaterials for automotive and aerospace parts.

“We listened to our industrial partners and engineered this new pilot facility to meet their future needs for material and chemical processing,” said Alexander A. Koukoulas, Herty’s president and CEO.

“The scale and flexibility of this system is second to none, and it integrates well with our extensive in-house capabilities. It provides our partners and clients with a unique platform for accelerating the pace of new product development in a number of growing industrial sectors, including biomaterials and discrete manufacturing.”

The new pilot facility allows the development, testing and production of a wide range of specialty and high performance materials such as a strong, low-cost, renewable composite material that has multiple applications for the automotive and aerospace industries.

It also enables Herty to process materials from minerals to polymers for industrial, nutritional and pharmaceutical applications as well as for pulp bleaching.

“With our newly designed facility and our expertise in processing this renewable material for multiple purposes, we are poised to help industry partners produce these advanced materials for a variety of current and next generation industrial needs,” said Omar F. Ali, director of bioproducts.

The versatility of the pilot area will allow Herty to process anything from minerals to polymers and to modify those materials. One example of transformation is the production of bio-based polymers, such as lignin, which can be used to produce low-cost carbon fiber.

In addition, the pilot area will allow Herty to provide more traditional chemical processes, such as pulp bleaching, as a part of its pulp and paper services.

The pilot area will also prepare advanced polymer systems that can be used in 3-D printing applications.

“More and more American industry is competing on razor thin differences — a lighter case or more break-resistant glass for a mobile phone, a lighter car body with an improved mpg or lower-cost materials for manufacturing medicines,” said Walter Chappas, director of Herty’s advanced materials group.

“This new reactor system offers a powerful platform for giving U.S. industry new and innovative materials, from plastics to specialized coatings.”

Instead of “snakes on a plane,” think “bees on a plane.” In fact, think of 12 boxes of bees on a plane, one headed to a remote corner of The Bahamas.

In this instance, a group of people from Savannah took time from their business lives a few weeks ago to fly with the hives to Exuma, a district of the Bahamas that consists of more than 365 islands. The largest of the islands, Great Exuma, is about 37 miles long.

The Savannahians were there to set up a bee colony where none exist. Their goal is to educate people on the importance of bees and stir the economy on the remote island.

“Honeybees are the unsung heroes,” said Ted Dennard, the founder of The Savannah Bee Company and the nonprofit The Bee Cause Project, who spearheaded the Exuma mission. “We want to create a generation that loves and wants to protect honeybees … if you raise the bees in the right way, you can’t help but want to love and support them.”

Dennard has been interested in bees since he was 12 years old, growing up on St. Simons Island. He launched The Bee Cause Project in 2013 to ignite curiosity in young people about the importance of honeybees. Its mission is to install beehives in 1,000 schools.

So far, The Bee Cause Project has put hives in cities such as Savannah, Charleston and Atlanta, with the 66th hive in Exuma.

“The Exuma trip came about when I connected with my friend, Catherine Booker, a Savannah native who now lives in Exuma. She works there at The Exuma Foundation as a marine biologist,” Dennard said. Knowing there were no honeybee hives on the island, Dennard began preparing the delivery of honeybees to the island.

“There are Africanized bees on the island, which can be dangerous, so there’s a little bit of fear to overcome,” Booker said. “We wanted to host a safe place for people to come and view the honeybees and get used to the idea that not all bees are bad. They’re great for the environment and can create a lot of different things.”

After completing the intricate process of getting necessary paperwork approved, Dennard and his team prepared 12 boxes of bees, each box containing about 20,000 bees, including the crucial queen bees.

But the mission suffered a setback when, at the last minute, the pilot who was supposed to fly the bees from Savannah to the Bahamas said he would not fly an airplane filled with bees.

Dennard then turned to his neighbor and fellow honeybee owner, David Paddison, who’s a founding partner of Seacrest Partners Insurance Brokerage, a company that happens to share a plane with other businesses and, as Paddison puts it, “just so happens to be the perfect Bahamas bee delivery platform.”

Paddison recruited pilot Chip Griewahn, founder of Fly Corps Aviation, who agreed to volunteer his time to fly the honeybees to Exuma. Paddison’s son, Mason, co-piloted the flight.

Henry Monsees of Savannah Distributing and Jim Mercer of Colonial Group did the heavy lifting by helping to move the bees and set up the hives in the tropical heat.

The observation hives and beehives were set up via The Exuma Foundation, where Booker works in environmental education.

“The foundation wants to enhance the quality of life with people in Exuma,” Booker said. “We try and stimulate small business opportunities. This is a project that is near and dear to the founder’s heart. So we linked up with The Bee Cause Project and The Savannah Bee Company. It’s going really well so far.”

She said the goal is to create a cottage industry in Exuma that people can get involved with and earn an income.

“It’s an awesome teaching tool to have observation hives,” Booker said. “We’ve been working on this process for about a year. It came together how it should.”

From an educational perspective, Booker said, it’s a great way to educate children by bringing the hive into the classroom.

“Students come in all the time and watch the bees,” she said.

The Exuma Foundation has a campus called The Resource Center where the observation hive is installed.

“Everyone is invited to observe the bees,” Booker said.

Four people on the island now have hives of their own and are learning to become beekeepers.

“In the future, we hope there will be enough honey for us to take and sell on the island and perhaps elsewhere,” Booker said.

Paddison said the project involved an interesting group of people and just came together randomly.

“If it’s meant to be, resources just seem to come together magically,” he said.

The Bee Cause Project

To make a donation:

Contact executive director Tami Enright at tami.enright@gmail.com or 703-400-4473.

For more information:

Go to http://www.thebeecause.org/

We’re a little late to the game, but the city of Savannah is finally crafting an ordinance that should foster a more vibrant culture of food trucks.

Back in 2011, when we saw the first public push for a more liberal food truck ordinance, I was relatively pessimistic about the demand for food trucks, especially if they tried to do the bulk of their business downtown.

In 2011, we were still in the immediate aftermath of a deep recession. In 2015, we still have some slow days and nights in the Historic District, but general activity is much higher than it was four years ago, primarily thanks to surging tourism.

Culinary tourism is also a growing trend, and there are established restaurants interested in diversifying into food trucks, as Savannah’s Citizen Office director Susan Broker noted at a recent city council workshop session.

Interestingly, city staffers have created a draft map that would allow food trucks in much of the city but have decided they would not be allowed in most of the Landmark Historic District.

There will surely be pushback from food truck entrepreneurs about that restriction, but city staffers are trying to ensure that food trucks don’t set up shop too close to existing restaurants.

But shouldn’t there be some exceptions? As Alderman Tony Thomas correctly observed at the city council workshop, few Historic District restaurants stay open late enough to capture business after midnight. If you’re looking for food after a late night downtown, you won’t find any more options than there were 20 years ago.

Also, during the St. Patrick’s Day festival period, we allow all sorts of temporary food vendors, including some from out of state. So why shouldn’t locally owned food trucks be allowed to tap into that market?

It’s worth noting, however, that the draft map presented to city council would allow food trucks in the MLK/Montgomery corridor south of Oglethorpe Avenue. That’s close to government offices, SCAD dorms and hotels.

I don’t know whether food trucks will be able to attract sufficient business in some of Savannah’s designated redevelopment corridors like Pennsylvania and Augusta avenues, but I think they’d be a big hit along key stretches of Montgomery Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.

Of course, a new ordinance could allow organizations promoting community health to establish a food truck foothold in struggling neighborhoods and identified “food deserts.”

At the workshop, zoning administrator Geoff Goins said food trucks might be an intermediary step for entrepreneurs who want to transition into brick and mortar establishments.

Alderman-at-Large Carol Bell seemed especially enthusiastic about the movement toward a new ordinance. She noted that she expressed interest in food trucks when she first came on council three and a half years ago.

Bell also took a moment to welcome all the citizens who attended the workshop session, including Bishop Kevin Boland, and applauded these “first steps in joining an industry that is prevalent across the country.”

City staff plan to bring a food truck ordinance to city council for a vote in the fall, but that seems unlikely. Council members raised some good questions about the concepts presented by Broker, and there will be multiple public meetings before the final language is drafted.

Consider the pace of the revised alcohol ordinance.

A team of city officials began working in 2013, released a problematic draft in 2014, backtracked on several key elements, planned to bring a new draft to council in the spring 2015 but ultimately waited until summer.

At a workshop session, city council members raised serious questions, and now it’s possible the new alcohol ordinance will not be approved by January 1. That means key provisions can’t go into effect until 2017 because of the timetable for state alcohol licenses.

So it’s hard to imagine city staffers will be able to move so quickly from this conceptual phase for food trucks to a final product in three months.

Also, if the usual patterns hold, individual members of the public will strenuously object to food trucks even though they have never patronized them in other cities. Such squelchers (to borrow a term from Jane Jacobs) are given an inordinate amount of power here.

Perhaps it’s worth noting that the current council shoots for consensus on most issues. That’s an admirable goal, but when an ordinance has as many moving parts as the draft alcohol ordinance and the proposed food truck ordinance, there might be no way to please all nine council members, much less everyone else in the city.

City Talk appears every Tuesday and Sunday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 East 32nd St., Savannah, Ga. 31401.

International Paper recognizes grant recipients

International Paper’s Savannah Containerboard Mill recently awarded more than $65,000 to nonprofit organizations in the surrounding communities with grant funding through the International Paper Company Foundation.

“These International Paper Foundation grants represent just one way our Savannah Mill continues to work to be a great neighbor,” said Dave Castro, mill manager. “Our Savannah team’s support of schools and other nonprofit organizations reaches beyond dollars. We also recognize the need to volunteer in our community to help make a difference throughout the area.”

This year’s IP Foundation grant recipients include:

• Ossabaw Island Foundation, $3,500

• Memorial Day School, $3,876

• Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, $5,000

• Junior Achievement of Georgia, $6,000

• DEEP Center, $5,500

• Coastal Center for Developmental Services, $1,104

• Build a Bridge Foundation, $3,000

• Savannah Early Childhood Foundation, $7,000

• Youth For A Cleaner Environment, $2,500

• Wilderness Southeast, $7,500

• Wesley Community Centers of Savannah, 1,500

• Savannah Tree Foundation, $2,350

• Savannah Speech & Hearing Center, $5,000

• Park Place Outreach, $2,200

• Association for the Blind, $5,000

• America’s Second Harvest of Coastal Georgia, $5,000

Savannah State to offer business prep program

Savannah State University’s College of Business Administration will offer a preparation program for anyone interested in pursuing a Master of Business Administration degree.

Seven sessions will take place throughout the monthlong program that starts Oct. 20. Sessions last two to three hours each and are taught by SSU professors in the college of business administration.

Students in their final year or semester of their undergraduate program or college graduates with any type of bachelor’s degree are encouraged to apply.

The course is $275, and no textbooks are required. Applications close Oct. 19.

Contact Edward Hood at 912-358-3393 or mba@savannahstate.edu.

Coldwell Banker Platinum Partners opens new location

The Richmond Hill/Bryan County Chamber of Commerce, Richmond Hill Mayor Harold Fowler and other guests will join Coldwell Banker Platinum Partners for a ribbon-cutting and open house at their new location, 10384 Ford Ave., from 4 to 6 p.m Thursday, Aug. 27.

The ribbon-cutting will be at 5:30 p.m.

Connie Farmer Ray will continue as the company’s president and owner, Tom Woiwode will continue as the sales manager and Kelli Weis will serve as team leader.

Contact the office at 912-756-9727 or www.mycbpp.com.

Small businesses in Savannah will soon have a new resource when it comes to growing thanks to a newly formed partnership between Armstrong State University and the Small Business Institute.

Starting in the spring, students working toward a business economics degree will have the opportunity to perform free consulting work for area businesses as their course requirement.

Dennis Barber III, assistant professor of economics and the SBI director at ASU, said the partnership will allow students to gain real-world experience while working within the local community.

“I talked with one of my mentors at SBI about having it in an economics department because most of the time these institutes are housed within business schools, and we thought it would be a great idea because the students would be more quantitatively trained than a lot of business school students,” Barber said.

Students will be put into groups of three to four and given a small-business client — working one on one with the business for three months to provide them with recommendations on how to improve and grow their business. For the first couple of years, Barber plans to work with about five businesses a semester.

“It’s an experiential learning experience for the students. It’s a field-based course. Plus it engages students with the community,” Barber said, meaning he won’t be lecturing but will be overseeing each project.

The students will perform work based on each business’s needs. Projects will range from marketing plans and budget statements to helping businesses build their brand and make a name for themselves, Barber said.

“A lot of times the business owner will have one idea of what the project is going to be, and then the students come in and see something completely different,” he said.

The students, at the end of the semester, will present an extensive report of their work to the business, which Barber said will mostly be recommendations and a perspective they wouldn’t otherwise get.

“Each of the students is from different backgrounds... So (businesses) are going to benefit from receiving a variety of advice from students. It’s also a good marketing tool for businesses because students might be paired up with a business they know nothing about, and after learning about the company, they’re going to tell their friend about it. So in the long run the networking and relationship building is a big part of it,” Barber said.

The program also serves as a good way for businesses to recruit young talent, he said.

Barber has been involved in the SBI since 2011, attending conferences and reviewing journals for the national organization that was formed in 1972 as a pilot venture between the U.S. Small Business Administration and Texas Tech University.

About 20 schools joined after the first year. Since then hundreds of colleges and universities around the country have offered the program to thousands of students.

“This is a very good way for the university and students to interact with the community and not just be in the classroom. One of the most important parts for me as a professor is the engagement of the community — everything they’ve been studying and learning about they can actually go see it happening in a business,” Barber said.

Armstrong began offering a Bachelor of Science degree in business economics in 2014, and the number of economic students involved in the program has grown by about 60 percent since then. The SBI class will be offered as a special topics course beginning in the spring, and Barber plans to get the program into the school’s catalog of classes in the following semesters.

So far, Barber said, the biggest challenge is finding businesses to participate. He said clients must be willing to spend time working with the students, and the business must be established enough to provide adequate data for students to work with.

“If you’re just a start up with an idea, it makes it more difficult. Those things are possible where students develop a business plan, but normally it’s a business that is operating so that the students know how to help them out by having some data or processes in place that the students can work on,” he said.

“It’s important that there’s enough there that it’s a good learning experience and we meet the objectives for the course, but on the other hand I want to make sure the business can benefit from the students participating. They might be facing issues that students are qualified to address, so making that match is an important part of the process.”

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about participating in the Small Business Institute, contact Dennis Barber at dennis.barber@armstrong.edu.

Savannah Logistics Lunch

Date:

Aug. 18

Time:

11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Location: Embassy Suites, Savannah Airport, 145 W. Mulberry Blvd.

Subject: Presented by the Center of Innovation for Logistics and HunterMaclean, this event will offer regional, in depth focus from the Georgia Logistics Summit and will include a panel of experts from throughout the state of Georgia. Go to huntermaclean.com/forums-events/

Cost: $15. Space limited.

Register:

http://bit.ly/LogisticsLunch

RHBC Chamber Coastal Region Commission Lunch & Learn

Date:

Aug. 18

Time:

1:30 p.m.

Location:

Chamber office, 2591 Hwy 17, Suite. 100 in the Crossroads Center

Subject: Forum on Coastal Region Planning

Cost:

Free to RHBC Chamber members; $15 for non-members.

Register:

Advance reservations are required and seating is limited. Reserve your space by Aug. 14 by calling 912-756-3444 or e-mail info@RHBCchamber.org. Drinks provided; bring your own lunch.

NAWIC Wine Social

Date:

Aug. 19

Time:

5:30-7:30 p.m.

Location:

Savannah Wine Cellar, Twelve Oaks Plaza, 5500 Abercorn St.

Subject: The Coastal Georgia Chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) invite guests (women and men) to join us as we sample wines, enjoy complimentary finger foods and build valuable business relationships.

Cost: Guests are responsible for purchasing a wine tasting card. Go to savannahwinecellar.com for more information.

Register:

RSVP to cforkner@pioneersavannah.com

RHBC Chamber Business After Hours

Date:

Aug. 20

Time:

5:30-7 p.m.

Location:

Robin Lance Realty, 3766 Hwy. 17, Suite 105-106

Cost: Free to Chamber members. Business professionals that are interested in joining the Chamber or learning more about the Chamber are also welcome.

Register: For more information, go to www.RHBCchamber.org or contact the Chamber at 756-3444 or info@rhbcchamber.org.

Sandfly Women Business Owners Coalition

Date: Aug. 20

Time:

8 a.m.

Location:

Sandfly bakery

Subject:

The group plans on creating 50 goodie bags for the teachers at the new Isle of Hope school, comprised of items from Sandfly businesses.

Register:

The event is open to any female business owner in the Sandfly, Isle of Hope, Dutch Island, Landings or Southside area. RSVP to Cynthia Wright at cynthia.wright@carriagetradepr.com by Aug. 18.

Coldwell Banker Platinum Partners

Date:

Aug. 27

Time:

4-6 p.m.

Location: 10384 Ford Avenue, Richmond Hill

Subject:

Ribbon cutting and open house celebration.

RHBC Chamber of Commerce

Date:

Sept. 3

Time:

6-9 p.m.

Location: Fish Tales, 3203 Ft. McAllister Road, Richmond Hill

Subject:

30th Anniversary Party

Cost: RHBC Chamber members receive one complimentary ticket; additional guest tickets are $25 and RSVP’s are required by August 28.

Register: 912-756-3444 or via e-mail at Info@RHBCchamber.org

ONGOING

Castle Toastmaster Club

When:

First and Third Thursdays

Where:

124 Barnard Street, GSA Building #2, 3rd Floor, Conference Room 2

Time:

11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

BNI – Business Network International

Local chapters:

• Referrals Have Power: 8:30-10 a.m. Tuesdays, GoodWill Industries, Richmond Hill

• Savannah Business Connections: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesdays, Hilton Garden Inn Southside, off Abercorn

• Crosstown Connections: 8-9:30 a.m. Wednesdays, Hampton Inn Southside off Abercorn

• Island Business Networkers: 8-9:30 a.m. Thursdays, Johnny Harris Banquet Hall, Victory Drive

• True Givers Increase Financially: 8-9:30 a.m. Fridays, Troy University, Hodgson Memorial Drive.

Information: Sarah Westcott, sarah@bni-scga.com.

Toastmasters Club

When: Noon each Tuesday

Where: Saint Leo University, Room 3, 7426 Hodgson Memorial Drive, Suite A

Info: Call 912-844-9139 or go to www.toastmastersclub.org.

Toastmasters Club of Richmond Hill

Date: First and third Friday of the month

Time: 8-9 a.m.

Location: Magnolia Manor, 141 Timber Trail, Richmond Hill.

Information: For more information, call 912-927-4607 or email 1168191@toastmastersclubs.org.

Pooler Business Network

When: 11:15 a.m. to 1 p.m. every first and third Thursday

Where: Western Sizzlin, U.S. 80 in Pooler

Information: RSVP to Jason Torres at jasonjtorres@gmail.com

CHELSEA BREMER

New Job Title:

Account Executive

Company:

Lesley Francis PR

Duties:

Bremer will work for a number of the agency’s clients including the Savannah Voice Festival, Ogeechee Riverkeeper and The Whitman Hospitality Group.

Related Work Experience:

Bremer previously worked as a marketing coordinator for South Magazine.

Education: Bremer is a graduate of the University of Georgia, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and advertising.

DR. DAVID “DREW” HUNTER

New Job Title:

Ophthalmologist

Company:

SunGate Medical Group

Related Work Experience: He has undergone extensive volunteer hours at eye clinics serving low-income residents as well as a children’s hospital. Hunter has served as an adaptive ski-coach, assisting physically and mentally handicapped children, and took a mission to West Africa, where he treated patients in a primary-care facility and educated local residents on public-health issues.

Education:

Hunter received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina, where he also completed his ophthalmology residency. He earned his doctorate in 2011 from the Medical University of South Carolina.

CONWAY SMITH

New Job Title:

Historical Interpreter

Company:

Telfair Museums

Duties:

Historical Interpreters present educational and informative guided tours of the Owens-Thomas House and Telfair Academy. They also conduct research projects on all aspects of the history of the Owens-Thomas House, including 19th century social history, regency architecture and fine and decorative arts.

Related Work Experience:

Smith was a tour guide and office manager for the Dahlonega Gold Museum and a history and arabic tutor at the University of North Georgia Office of Academic Support.

Education:

Smith holds a Bachelor of Arts with a history major and Arabic language minor from the University of North Georgia, and an associate degree in history from Georgia Perimeter College.

GARRETT LITTON

New Job Title:

Historical Interpreter

Company:

Telfair Museums

Duties:

Historical Interpreters conduct educational and informative guided tours of the Owens-Thomas House and Telfair Academy. They also perform research projects on all aspects of the history of the Owens-Thomas House, including 19th century social history, regency architecture and fine and decorative arts.

Related Work Experience:

Litton was a graduate intern at Fort Pulaski National Monument, a graduate teaching assistant at the history department, Georgia Southern University, and a certified interpretive guide at National Association of Interpretation with the Stone Mountain Memorial Association. She was also a park ranger with the Department of Public Safety at Stone Mountain.

Education: Litton earned her Bachelor of Arts in history with a minor in anthropology at Georgia Southern University. She also has a Master of Arts in history, graduate certificate in public history from Georgia Southern University.

DREW L. CLARK

New Job Title:

Historical Interpreter

Company:

Telfair Museums

Duties:

Historical Interpreters conduct educational and informative guided tours of the Owens-Thomas House and Telfair Academy. They also perform research projects on all aspects of the history of the Owens-Thomas House, including 19th century social history, regency architecture and fine and decorative arts.

Related Work Experience: Clark was a docent at the SCAD Museum of Art. He was also an art instructor at SCAD, leading classes and tours for the West Broad Street YMCA Enrichment Program.

Education:

Clark has a Bachelor of Arts in visual communications with an emphasis on sequential art from Savannah College of Art and Design.

LAUREN FLOTTE

New Job Title:

Development Affairs and External Relations Coordinator

Company:

Telfair Museums

Duties:

Flotte serves as a project coordinator for various development activities and coordinates administrative/research projects for the director of development and other department team members.

Related Work Experience:

Flotte is the co-founder of Art Rise, and she is a contributing columnist for Connect Savannah and a freelance graphic designer, photographer and artist. She was the gallery manager at the Indigo Sky Community Gallery and developed and taught a photography course for the City of Savannah’s Department of Cultural Affairs.

Education:

She has a Bachelor or Fine Arts with a major in photography and minors in printmaking and graphic design from Savannah College of Art and Design.

JONATHAN WILSON

New Job Title:

Loss Prevention Manager

Company: Parker’s

Duties:

Wilson is responsible for protecting assets at all Parker’s locations by the use of safety, inventory recovery and theft-reduction programs.

Related Work Experience: Wilson worked as a loss prevention manager at Kmart and Belk for five years.

Education:

Wilson earned a Bachelor of Business in Information Systems from Georgia Southern University.

MINDY SHEPARD

New Job Title:

Tourism Relations and Sales Manager

Company:

Telfair Museums

Duties:

Shepard is responsible for creating partnerships within the hospitality/tourism community in Savannah and travel/tourism vendors to engage new and existing museum members and visitors to Savannah based on Telfair Museums’ sites, exhibitions and educational opportunities.

Related Work Experience:

Shepard was sales manager for five years at the Embassy Suites and Hampton Inn and Suites in Savannah. She was also an account manager for WilloStaff Wordwide in Pooler and a district sales manager for International Greetings in Midway.

Education: Shepard has an associate degree in business administration from Tacoma Community College, Tacoma, Wash.

LONNIE F. GRIFFIN, III,

New Job Title:

Dean, Liberty Campus

Company:

Savannah Technical College

Duties: Griffin is responsible for administration and operation of the STC Liberty Campus in Hinesville, Ga.

Related Work Experience:

Griffin was the division chair for social sciences and humanities for Fayetteville Technical Community College. He taught sociology at Fayetteville Technical Community College for a decade. He was a hospital corpsman in the U.S. Navy.

Education: Griffin has a master’s degree in sociology from the University of South Florida, a bachelor’s from the University of North Florida and an associate degree from Florida State College. He is a doctoral education student at Wingate University.

MANDY LIVINGSTON

New Job Title: Director of Sales & Marketing

Company:

River Street Inn

Duties:

She is responsible for sales, marketing and public relations as well as generating revenue for the hotel.

Related Work Experience: Livingston worked as sales and marketing manager for Paula Deen’s The Lady & Sons and retail store as well as director of marketing & public relations for the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force.

Education: She attended Georgia Southern University.

JEANNE MCGOWAN

New Job Title:

Director of the Counseling Center

Company:

Armstrong State University

Related Work Experience:

For the past six years, she served as the director of counseling services at Gwynedd Mercy University in Pennsylvania.

Education: A graduate of Marywood University and Widener University, McGowan received a M.S.W. and certification in school social work. Since becoming a licensed clinical social worker in 2001, she has worked in both private and public settings as a clinician and administrator.

Ruffians celebrate labor award for member

Philly Meyers, RUFF (Retirees Unite for the Future) president, announced that Sandra Crewe, a longtime local activist, received the 2015 Friend of Labor Award at the Georgia AFL-CIO Awards and Banquet on July 25, at the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel in Atlanta.

Jolley elected honorary life member of SEDC

The Southern Economic Development Council (SEDC), the oldest and largest regional economic development association in North America, announced Peggy Jolley as the newest Honorary Life Member (HLM) of the association. She was recognized recently at the association’s annual conference in Savannah.

Rotary South inducts new board members

Rotary Savannah South inducted the following new board members on July 28: Anne Cordeiro, president; Byron Loomis, president-elect; Gerald Thomas, treasurer; Gary Rabold, secretary; Rebecca Page, membership director, Morgan McAlpin, Sgt. At Arms; Francine Wright, president nominee; and Steve Pound and Rob Sales, Directors.

Broderick named President Of State Dental Association

Savannah orthodontist Dr. Thomas Broderick has been named president of the Georgia Dental Association, the state’s leading professional organization representing dentists in Georgia. He succeeds Dr. Doug Torbush, who served as president for the 2014-2015 term. Broderick took office during the association’s annual meeting in Amelia Island, Fla. on July 26.

Dish Network and Sinclair Broadcast Group have reached an agreement extending their contract, enabling the satellite TV provider to broadcast Sinclair's local channels and averting a possible blackout.

Dish announced Sunday the eleventh-hour agreement on a short-term extension. The contract was set to expire at midnight Eastern time Saturday. Dish said the agreement saved millions of customers from losing access to 153 local channels in 79 markets across the country.

The extension allows Dish Network Corp. and Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. to continue negotiating a new retransmission agreement. Hunt Valley, Maryland-based Sinclair is one of the largest TV broadcasting companies in the U.S., owning local stations affiliated with all the major networks.

Englewood, Colorado-based Dish, which has nearly 14 million subscribers, didn't specify the term of the extension.

Average retail gasoline prices in the Savannah area have fallen 0.7 cents per gallon in the past week to $2.41 a gallon on Sunday, according to GasBuddy’s daily survey of 262 gas outlets in metro Savannah.

The national average has increased 8.5 cents a gallon in the last week to $2.68, according to gasoline price website GasBuddy.com.

Prices Sunday were 91.1 cents a gallon lower than the same day one year ago and are 18.8 cents a gallon lower than a month ago. The national average has decreased 9.0 cents a gallon during the last month and stands 77.5 cents lower than a year ago.

“Obviously, the story about fuel prices last week was all about a massive spike in gasoline prices throughout the Midwest,” said Patrick DeHaan, GasBuddy senior petroleum analyst. “Prices have risen in Great Lakes states at paces rivaling and exceeding prior records, which I would pin on an unexpected emergency shutdown of a unit at BP’s Whiting, Ind., refinery.

“In addition, there have been other scheduled outages in the Midwest that may be leading to gasoline demand outpacing supply in the region, essentially causing panic on gasoline markets.”

DeHaan said hikes were witnessed across many states, though the epicenter of big hikes was centered in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois, where prices raced up by over 50 cents a gallon. Also seeing spikes over 25 cents: Ohio, Wisconsin and Kentucky, while Minnesota, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and Iowa saw prices jump over 10 cents a gallon,

“At this point, it does appear that most of the price shocks are behind us, though if there are any curve balls that hit the market, all bets are off,” DeHaan said. “Outside the Great Lakes, most regions are seeing gasoline prices decline. Leading decliners are New Jersey and Oregon, with Washington coming in third.”

For a complete listing of current averages and other fuel price data, visit http://media.gasbuddy.com.