Wednesday, April 20, 2011

GOP congressional candidate Tim Wilkes: Does the NCIT Port Study hold water?

A good business owner prepares before making an investment; the smart investor studies the market, the feasibility of the idea and the need for the product or service and now we hear people say that we should cancel the study for a deep water port in our district.

Our district and our state needs jobs and we owe it to the people that live in the seventh district; at a minimum we need to look into this possibility of new jobs and a possibly helping our area move out of a recession.

In the past we have heard some reasons why we should not build a deep water port but now I would like to give you some good reasons why it should be treated as a serious way to bring jobs, travel and make it lucrative to import and export goods out of North Carolina.

The negative points were that it would be in between a nuclear power plant and an ammo depot and transition point and as such would open us up to a terrorist attack. I would like to suggest to you that we are already a target, any Nuclear power plant, major military base, and plants which attribute to military grade steel or products supporting military gear will be a target. I would not support the port opening until proper security measures were in place and we are prepared to do this right the first time.


Maybe that is not enough for you to say Yes! But let us consider the travel industry and cruise lines, the car carriers used to bring in and out vacationers leaving or arriving on a cruise.

The port could act as a closer import/export point for businesses and farmers in NC. Jobs could range from security, dock jobs, travel agencies, transition points, new business opportunities and all the supporting service industries such as engine, hull and component repairs, cleaning services to increase turn around rates and resupply of food staples before heading back out to sea. 

Yes, we owe it to our district, state and its citizens to complete a study for the port and then like a wise business investor weigh the pros and cons and make an informed decision.

Tim Wilkes, Supply NC 
Candidate for U.S. Congress 7th District  

20 April 2011  

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