The meeting of the Savannah City Council to discuss proposals for use of federal stimulus money couldn't have come at a better time.
Held March 6, the meeting followed the announcement that Gulfstream is laying off 1,200 employees - 600 of them locally - and putting 1,500 more on five-week furloughs. "This is very timely," City Manager Michael Brown said. "As we work on the stimulus, more news comes in every day."

As the federal government provides definite numbers, the city's priorities will reflect that, Brown said. Some priorities are obvious already.

"Our homelessness has been chronic," Brown said. "We all know the issues we've faced. Homelessness is a very difficult but hopefully not intractable problem.

"With the foreclosure issue, it is possible we'll have individuals and families ending up in either temporary or long-term distress," he said. "There's the issue of people living under the bridge. Some are by choice, others are not. I'm not trying to light the fire, but as we receive homelessness money, we need to use it for our most urgent issues."

Brown suggested that the council hold a workshop to discuss the issues, which include changes in mental health care. "There are very difficult issues with the state tending to cut long-term care and going to crisis care," he said. "As we evaluate this funding, we need to put it into perspective."

"We need more vigorous discussion led by the homeless authority," Mayor Otis Johnson said. "It is their responsibility. We've got to make sure they do what they were created to do - be an advocate for the homeless.

"The emphasis has been after people are homeless, what do you do," Johnson said. "Well, let's focus on preventing it. That has never been a priority. Why do we have a homelessness problem and why is it so much more visible than in the past?"

The city hopes to seek stimulus funding to enhance job training. "We're very hopeful it's not always going to be like this," Alderman Tony Thomas said. "Wouldn't it be great to have people who are our own (doing construction jobs) rather than have people coming in to do it? We have to hire bricklayers to come in. Why can't we train them?"

The city is seeking $1 million to establish a kitchen incubator as part of a state program. The money would be used to build a facility for the program next to the Savannah Entrepreneurial Center.

"They called and asked if we wanted to be part of that program," Assistant City Manager Rochelle Small-Toney said. "That's an opportunity."

Establishing job training programs is a way to respond to layoffs, now that major layoffs have been announced by Gulfstream and Tronox. Johnson noted that bad times provide opportunities for the good times that will surely return.

People who are laid off or on furlough both can apply for unemployment benefits. The most they can receive is $330 per week, but the economic stimulus should add another $25 a week, Small-Toney said.

"This will devastate some of these folks," Thomas said. "It may just be a month, but some folks are living paycheck to paycheck."

"The message we are sending to people is to get ready for a rainy day, even if it doesn't come," Johnson said. "Your day may come. We don't know when this thing may come or when it when it might turn around. When businesses like Gulfstream start laying off, you know it's serious."

The proposed expansion at Gulfstream has been put on hold, although research and development will continue, Johnson said. "The development of engineering pieces will continue, but the production pieces will be cut back.

"This whole economy is being restructured," he said. "I don't think the economy will ever be the same again. It will be prosperous again, but in a different way than it has been.

"The middle class has shrunk while the rich have gotten richer," Johnson said. "As part of the re-calibration, we will have a new system. The rich will always be rich, that's just the way it's going to be. In terms of the middle class, who will be in it, the number in the working class and poor people will be unknown. A lot will never get back from this."

Although many Gulfstream employees live outside of Savannah, they still impact the economy. "That why I keep pushing a regional dialogue," Johnson said.

The President Street Extension project to raise the roadway and build an overpass over the railroad crossing still reamins the city's top priority. But the stimulus discussion has brought out additional projects that will be addressed, even though the city isn't applying for stimulus money for them.

The council added the bridge to Coffee Bluff on its capital improvement list, and put construction of the Central City Fire Department on a faster track. The council also told Brown to come up with a plan on managing the stimulus money and the many projects that will come about because of it.

"Do you realize how many people in the city can be employed with the money that is there?" Jackson asked. "We need to do that."