Statesboro's mayor and council took a look Tuesday afternoon at two scenarios for the possible expansion of the city's natural gas system to serve industrial customers along I-16 in the direction of Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America.

A single high-pressure, six-inch diameter pipeline built from a connection in Screven County still supplies all of Statesboro's city-operated natural gas service, noted Public Utilities Director Matt Aycock.

"That was put in in the 1950s, so 70 years later we're finally running out of gas," he said.

The central part of the system was built along U.S. Highway 301 through town by the 1970s. In the 1990s, a southward extension reached Gateway Industrial Park, where the Walmart Distribution Center and Briggs & Stratton are located. In the early 2000s, anoth

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