Savannah attorney appointed to coastal protection boards

The state Board of Natural Resources has appointed Savannah attorney Henry S. Morgan to serve a four-year term on the Coastal Marshlands Protection Committee and Shore Protection Committee.

Morgan was appointed to the position Dec. 4; his term begins Jan. 1.

The two five-member committees, each of identical makeup, shape coastal development by deciding what can and cannot be built in the marsh and at the beach.

The committees decides where bridges, docks and marinas can be erected in the state's marshland and how big those structures can be. They also have veto power over dune crossovers and other beach-front issues, including beach renourishment.

Morgan, 59, is a lifelong Savannah resident. He has a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech, a bachelor's in mathematics from Armstrong Atlantic State University and a law degree from Mercer University. He's worked around the ocean a lot, he noted, including a three-year stint as a pile driver.

"I think I know enough to be a good representative of the coast," he said.

Morgan is the director of the family-owned Samwilka Corp., which was among the dozens of landowners along the Ogeechee that settled out of court with King America Finishing in August in civil suits that alleged illegal discharge of toxic chemicals from the textile processor's Screven County plant damaged their property.

The financial terms of the settlements are sealed.

DNR board member Mark V. Smith of Savannah nominated Morgan. The two met through the Lutheran Church of the Ascension, Smith said. They currently serve together on the board of S Bank, headquartered in Glennville.

Smith was previously the CEO for West Atlantic Investment Group, a now-dissolved corporation for which Morgan was the secretary and chief financial officer.

The DNR board has previously accepted nominations from the public for positions on the Coastal Marshlands and Shore Protection committees but did not this time.

"The bylaws of the Board of Natural Resources allows the chair discretion to request nominees from board, the public and the department," said DNR spokeswoman Nancy Butler. "This year, the chair chose to limit the request for nominees to board members.

"The board was notified by the Coastal Reources Division director on multiple occasions about the forthcoming vacancy with the request to submit nominees by mid-November. Henry S. Morgan was the only nominee received from the Board."

Morgan will fill the vacancy created as Henry Williams, Jr. of St. Marys leaves the committees after 16 years. Williams is the longest-serving member by far, in part because of a board decision in 2006 to rotate members off the committee in alphabetical order if they had been appointed without specific terms. That was the practice prior to 2004 when the committee was expanded from three to five members.

That decision led to the near immediate loss of Skidaway Institute of Oceanography professor Clark Alexander, a coastal geologist. He was the second and last scientist to serve on the committees.

Williams, a retired civilian engineer who was employed at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, was at the end of the alphabet and so automatically served another three and a half years after Alexander.

When that term finished in 2009, he was reappointed for a final four-year term. During his service, Williams participated in more than 90 meetings and was involved in deliberations about 486 permit applications.

The CMPC and SPC are chaired by the commissioner of natural resources, Mark Williams. The other committee members are Sonny Timmerman, an engineer and retired planning director from Liberty County (term 2011-2014); Rick Gardner, owner of an independent aviation consulting company, and former Bryan County Commissioner (term 2010-2015); and Stan Humphries, a retired CPA from St. Simons Island (term: 2013-2016).

The commissioner of natural resources serves as an obligatory member and chair, while three of the remaining four members must live in one of Georgia's six ocean-facing counties.

The board bylaws state that "appointees to the CMPC and SPC, should be individuals who, by reason of their occupational or other experience, scientific expertise, legal expertise, or training, are knowledgeable regarding the conservation, development uses and management of Georgia's coastal environment."

The committees typically meet six times a year in a public forum where permit applications are presented for consideration.

Morgan said he considers it an honor to serve on the board, noting that Georgia has a large chunk of the undeveloped marsh and barrier islands left on the East Coast.

"I love the state of Georgia," he said. "Maybe I can do some good here before we become like Miami."