Thursday, July 31, 2008 was a Red Letter Day for Bamberg and Barnwell Counties.

Thursday morning, dozens of city, county, and state officials converged at the site of the former Nibco Company on Locust Street in Denmark, S.C. to welcome the county’s latest high tech business.

Government Training Institute (GTI), with its corporate headquarters located in Boise, Idaho opened up its second training facility on the east coast with classroom and training facilities in Denmark and Snelling. “This is huge for us, we’ve come a long way,” said Chad Harbaugh GTI’s president, who started the company in 2003 in response to the terrorist attacks on the country on September 11, 2001.

“September 11 taught us the importance of having first responders trained to the same level,” he said. Harbaugh, who has 14 years of experience in law enforcement and spent all of his adult life in law enforcement or the military, stated that state and local government is the first line of defense in the war on terrorism.

GTI offers a 30 course cooperative curriculum based on on-going research with a staff with over 400 years of operational military and law enforcement experience. The mission of GTI has expanded to include specialized training in the field of Special Weapons, And Tactics, Anti-Terrorism and Terrorism Countermeasures, Police, and Sniper Operations. The company works with first responders, federal, state, local, private, Department of Defense, and universities to provide researched based training. “We want to give our nations’ finest the tools they need to succeed,” Harbaugh said.

The new business has already proven to be a boon to the area’s economy. As of Friday August 1, 2008, the graduation date for the first class of trainees, the $2 million dollar capital investment in Bamberg and Barnwell counties has brought in over $ 20,000 in food and catering expenses, $26,000 on lodging, and thousands of dollars in fuel and miscellaneous expenses. According to Harbaugh, the area will see a steady influx of over 3,000 visitors annually.

Harbaugh thanked Danny Black of the Southern Carolina Regional Development Alliance and his team for their work in getting his firm to Bamberg and Barnwell County and stated “We probably wouldn’t be in South Carolina if not for Danny Black and his team.” Harbaugh, also thanked Bamberg County Council Chairman Chris Wilson, who presided over the meeting, and the Bamberg County Council, Mayor Carrie Simmons of Denmark, who welcomed the attendees to the “City of Pride” and Denmark City Council for “ making the process a lot more pleasurable, believe it or not some people don’t want a law enforcement training facility in their backyard, it may have to do with helicopters flying around,” he said, in-reference to the training facility located at the abandoned nuclear processing plant at the Advance Technology Institute in Snelling.

Bamberg County Sheriff Ed Darnell, who was recently elected to another term as sheriff introduced the quest speaker Reginald Lloyd, who in January was appointed by Governor Mark Sanford to become the first African American Director of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED). Lloyd told the large gathering of civilian and law enforcement, “this really is about homeland security this is about protecting our neighbors, friends, and families and preserving the future of this country and life as we know it.” Lloyd said that opening the GTI office shows confidence in the men and women who protect this great state.

“This employment opportunity improves the quality of life in this area and throughout South Carolina,” he said. Lloyd thanked the people of Bamberg and Barnwell Counties for their dream of putting something together that benefits all of South Carolina.