Okaloosa County BOCC — November 4, 2012 — reading text

located in would be a real financial hardship for the company," said Assistant City Manager Chris Morrill. In fact, in its 30-year existence on the island, the multi-national corporation has never paid for fire protection. It never has paid for the eight calls to which Savannah Fire & Emergency Services has responded since 2001. But the city still covered the plant, including a freebie on Sept. 24, 2001, to rescue four people working at the site who got trapped in a basket 80 feet in the air. Now, the plant is in the middle of a fire protection controversy. After the city went to the company about the past due bill, El Paso decided to sign a contract with Southside Fire & Emergency Services. "I'm not sure what their thinking is, but I can tell you if they want real fire protection for an industry, the city of Savannah is the only entity that can provide that level of service," Morrill said. "So it must be about money." El Paso spokesman Bill Baerg would only say that Southside is a better fit, although city officials say Southside doesn't have the same capabilities. Fire aside, the plant and others like it are concerns for environmental activists and politicians alike. Area activists argue that the plant poses a serious fire and explosion threat. Liquefied natural gas is a natural gas cooled to minus- 260 degrees, but it won't burn in its liquid state. Industry officials say that means it won't explode and level houses for miles as opponents claim. The Elba Island facility opened in 1978 but closed two years later. It re-opened in 2001 and has never had any incident with the 200 ships that have delivered cargo there since. The U.S. Congress is worried about terrorists attacking liquefied natural gas ships. Last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill requiring the Coast Guard to enforce security zones around arriving tankers. El Paso's Savannah site is approved to nearly double to 15.7 billion cubic feet by 2012. -42- Packet Pg. 311  6.1.a.b Internet Research Morrill, Christopher Note: This research will be presented in reverse chronological order Savannah Morning News (GA) March 26, 2008 LOGO UNITES CITY SERVICES LOCAL DESIGN FIRM CREATES UPDATED BRANDING FOR CITY ON MODEST BUDGET Attachment: Colin Baenziger (1222 : Search Firm for Position of County Administrator) Author: EMILY GREEN, For the Savannah Morning News You've probably seen it around town. The subtly scripted "Savannah" prominently placed in black beside a tilted, abstract version of the city's historic green squares. The city of Savannah's new logo is gradually showing up on everything from maintenance vehicles and parking meter receipts to letterhead and envelopes. "It was important that the design be timeless, not trendy, so it would not go out of style," Morrill said. "This should be a viable design for decades." Don't let the simplicity of the logo fool you into thinking it is just another pretty design. Months of research and proposed sketches by local design firm brightwhitespace, partnered with an identity design committee made up of city employees, went into the production and implementation of the updated logo, now visible all around Savannah. IDENTITY CRISIS The plan for rebranding the city of Savannah's image began during a conversation concerning the more than 40 individual logos that represented various service departments. Film Commissioner Jay Self and Assistant City Manager Chris Morrill discussed a need for one unifying look to represent the city as a single entity and thus began the initial stages of rebranding. The many existing department logos were not coherent or recognizable as part of the city of Savannah. Some didn't even represent the intended service to the public, creating potential confusion for citizens wondering which services their tax dollars supported. "We have thousands of employees, thousands of vehicles out there doing work all day and people don't think about them all being the city of Savannah," Self said. THEY GET SAVANNAH The city hired Ariel Janzen and Rigel Crockett of brightwhitespace to work on the project in stages. Their previous experience with identities for the Liberty Parking Shuttle and Tourism and Film Department provided some established trust, but more importantly, the committee chose the local firm because they "get" Savannah. "There's so much about Savannah that's so subtle," Morrill said. "You really have to live here to get it. Having a local company rather than some big national firm come in was important to the process." -43- Packet Pg. 312  6.1.a.b Internet Research Morrill, Christopher Note: This research will be presented in reverse chronological order From studies and surveys to sketches with various colors, typography and imagery, the two teams collaborated throughout the process. PLACE BRANDING "With so much competition for businesses, for visitors, you have to put out a positive image," Morrill said. "You have to put out an image that says 'we have our act together.' " Attachment: Colin Baenziger (1222 : Search Firm for Position of County Administrator) Janzen and Crockett researched other cities with successful rebranding and conducted surveys with Savannah residents, which they used to help compile a list of identity requirements, design specifications and branding goals with the committee. "As with any identity problem, the challenge was one of perception," Crockett said. "Many city employees did not feel good about their outdated 1950s-style, institutional business cards. Additionally, because each of the city's departments had a unique logo, citizens were not always able to identify which services the city was actually delivering." WHAT'S IN A NAME "We realized that the word 'Savannah' itself has a very positive message in it," Self said. "It's a beautiful name to visitors and to locals alike. Instead of minimizing that, the word 'Savannah' is in the center of the logo." Deciding on an accompanying icon proved more taxing than choosing the main part of the logo. After considering numerous icons, the committee selected one of the city squares tipped on point because of its messages. The committee realized Savannah means different things to different people, however, the one thing unique to the city when compared to others is the public city squares. "The central core of the Oglethorpe plan and the ward is the square, the open space, the green space, the sense of public," Morrill said. "For us it's the simplicity of the symbol and the allusion to the public city squares," Crockett said. "This is important because the square not only represents Savannah's beauty and livability, but it reminds us that the city has always been responsible for their care." The official design brief explained that the shading of the city square "creates a positive forward motion." The use of green does justice to the countless parks and trees while emphasizing an environmental focus, and the feminine serif font of "Savannah" captures the welcoming spirit. "Even though the symbol is kind of a downtown symbol, those values radiate throughout our community," Self said, "not only in public land planning and public spacing but also with access and involvement." -44- Packet Pg. 313  6.1.a.b Internet Research Morrill, Christopher Note: This research will be presented in reverse chronological order A SOFT ROLLOUT The city purposely did not plan an official unveiling of the new logo mainly with the taxpayers' best interest in mind. Instead, it opted for a soft rollout, which means using up supplies that contained the old logos and waiting until vehicles are replaced. From start to finish the rebranding cost totaled just less than $25,000, a cost virtually unheard of in most rebranding projects. Attachment: Colin Baenziger (1222 : Search Firm for Position of County Administrator) "We wanted to roll it out more organically so that people would subtly discover it," Morrill said. "Externally, the whole rebranding as an organization shows that we're one organization, we have core values that we work toward." Public safety services such as the police and fire departments were not required to switch to the new logo because of their widely recognized existing logos. Appointed city officials such as the mayor and legal counsel will continue to use the more formal historic seal. Brightwhitespace created a 42-page stylebook with specific guidelines for city employees to use in order to avoid relying on outside vendors for printing. The stylebook contains color variations of the logo in files formatted for Web and print and lists suggestions on how to use the graphics. With city employees having access to the files, they can print on an as-need basis instead of having to order in bulk. "We thought there would be a lot of push back (internally) because it's difficult to implement change in any organization," Self said. "But to my knowledge it has been universally accepted because we rolled it out in a way for our people that made it as easy as possible for them to embrace it." -45- Packet Pg. 314  6.1.a.b Internet Research Morrill, Christopher Note: This research will be presented in reverse chronological order Augusta Chronicle, The (GA) August 20, 2004 PROPOSAL BENEFITS TOURISM GATEWAY Author: Scott M. Larson and Mary Carr Mayle, Morris News Service Attachment: Colin Baenziger (1222 : Search Firm for Position of County Administrator) SAVANNAH, Ga. - The tourist boulevard along Savannah's quaint River Street will expand soon with the construction of a $570 million mixed-use development that city officials say will transform a chunk of land - next door to downtown Savannah - that resembles a wasteland. "If you look at it right now as you drive in, it's one of the gateways to Savannah, and it's ugly looking," said Assistant City Manager Chris Morrill. "There are not many large sites in the city so close to downtown where you could really do a quality development that could extend the Historic District." In the past, the site has scared off developers because of extremely poor