Prayers Answered for Port Wentworth Mayor

Port Wentworth, Georgia, is a quiet, working class community north of Savannah with a population of about 4,200 people. Streets are lined with modest homes and well-kept lawns. The Baptist and Catholic churches are a block from each other.

The town’s biggest employer is Imperial Sugar Company’s century old sugar refinery, located along the shore of the Savannah River. When a series of tragic explosions shut the refinery in February 2008, there were two main concerns – first, for welfare and safety of the workers; and second, for the future of the refinery … would it be rebuilt.

“Imperial Sugar has done an outstanding job of doing whatever can be done to help these families,” says Port Wentworth mayor Glenn Jones these days.

“A lot of those fellows, those workers are my friends, and when the refinery was shut down, Imperial Sugar never laid anybody off … they never stopped getting a paycheck. And, I thought that was outstanding,” the mayor says.

Looking back over the last year and a half since the tragedy, mayor Jones say, “What I’ve gotten out of this is that life is too short. Everyone has come together in this community, in every community. You have that feeling that people are brought together. People tend to want to volunteer more, in the community, in churches and with our volunteer fire department. People want to help out … to help each other.”

“My prayers have been answered with Imperial Sugar rebuilding the refinery. There are a lot of families in this area who need those jobs, to keep on going with their families.”