20 November 2020 SE Indiana Regional Port Authority Meeting Notes
Present: Jim Thatcher, Chairman, EG McLaughlin, Terri Randall (Secretary), Tom Palmer (Treasurer)
Mike Perleberg, Andy Baudendistel (Attorney), Susan Greco
9 on zoom call
Alan Miller, Scott Greeners, John De Devisio, Libby ?last name, Mark Drury, Derek Walker, Benny Turner, Al Abdon, and Lennie Fryman
ABSENT- Alan Weiss, Kelly Mollaun, Sarah Jordan
Sept 18 minutes approved
State Board of Accounts Portal Entry input- Tom Palmer- SBOA contacted them to update the Gateway from when they had started the Port meetings. They are now going through an audit.
They hadn’t uploaded their bank statements, updates, and reconciliations.
Crowe is doing the list of things they needed for the audit per Benny Turner. The audit will probably come back with suggestions etc to get their forms etc. Tom Palmer is owner of the Gateway contacts and updates per Benny- and Benny is doing 90% of the work per Tom Palmer. The treasurer is the one in charge of this for the future.
Proposal for Beam Longest and Neff- John and Libby presenting over the phone. with Perleberg manning the slide presentation here.
Port Authority Action Proposal:
There will be changes now that the Port Authority said they were not using the Port site here at Lawrenceburg
Libby presented these changes from last July
AEP Closure and clean up process is 2-10 years away.
What is the Plan B for the AEP site. How to grow economically and the powers that are available to you.
5 tasks- Port Workshops- with key stakeholders and board members.
Data Driven Commodity Flow Analysis and Business Plan Options. Problems with gathering with COVID issues. Then educational and collaborative workshops. Wanted to see if Ports would share the data they have for us and OKI data. What are the commodities that would most benefit from this port jurisdiction.
Also the competition in the area - are they able to grow or are they at capacity? Are there any niches we could fill?Also are they looking for additional land areas that need to expand into.
There needs to be some sort of Port Authority over the property and some financing and a clear line of asset control. Also need a Section10 Permit that is desirable but difficult to get.
Workshop on late Feb or early March to get a vision process with up t 3 business models.
Potential Revenue Streams for Port Authority.
Leases- Throughputs fees, dockage fees, storage and material volume fees, billboards, cruise line operations, tourism and recreational models
Data Driven Business Plan Proposal
Identity, Problem, Solution, Target Market, Competition, Revenue streams.
Derek asked if BLN ( Beam Longest and Neff) has previous experience on Port Authorities. John answered that they have an employee that used to work on these and did he and Libby in other parts of the Ohio River system. Libby has most recently worked on a Port Dev grant connection Baton Rouge to Helena on the Mississippi. They were making hand sanitizer products and it is considered a hazardous material so they were able go move them in containers and avoid the truck issues. Also worked for the Port at Evansville. Looking at a terminal on the west side and finished it just before recession of 2009. It did not move forward due to recession. Also had one in Milwaukee terminal study. Another one up there is a designated maritime…..
Closed down the generation facility in GreenBay that is no longer using coal there. She has worked on a lot of freight plans in many states.
What can a Port Authority DO???? That is where the revenue stream comes up. You need to decide what you want to be? Is it truck parking that is the highest and best use of your port?
Can you share an action plan that you have done in the past ( Derek)?
Libby- in the Helena Harbor situation. Their sanitizer goes to meat processing plants. They needed sufficient transportation to get all this product. The plan was to expand the transportation possibilities.
John and Libby of BLN signed off so the Board can discuss them after the next presenter.
New Business:
TSPC Truck Parking Pilot Program Boone County and OKI are looking for partners to help with this Scott Grenerth runs TSPC- trucking specialized parking services. He used to be a truck driver for many years.
Connecting Truck Parking. This is important with the truck issues in Northern KY and airport. They need a SAFE place to park at night. You don’t want to drive around a lot as they are regulated by hours driven also. Safety is an issue- he cited someone he knew who had been shot. So safety is an important Need a truck parking a staging facility. Want to be out of the congestion to get back on the interstate. Parking is for longer overnight times or staging is for shorter term stops. Truckers want it fenced off, safe with lighting. Caro can be taken out of the trailer while they are sleeping- needs to be secure. They also need restrooms. It does not need to be a truck stop- there are loads of places they can get fuel. They just need a safe place to park. You have local drivers needing it, fleets need it to drop the trailers when they pick up a new contract.Short term over the road truckers also need it.
A product like UBER or Air B&B is what they provide- they have reservations and the owner can see all this. Port could own and TSPC can set this up and manage it for them.
Drury asked what the per truck revenue is for this. $15-16/night is being charged over at one in northern KY. The rate goes up to $20/nite or later in the day to book raises the fee- This is for unsecured lot.
If secure you start at $20/night per truck. You can get long term contracts for fleets.
a TA Travel America Truck stop is the one he was citing in N KY. They were the first one to offer reserved spaces. There is a severe shortage of parking in your area. No decision.
Treasurers report
$743.75- to Baudendistel for legal services.
$615,125.73 is the account balance for the port
Baudendistel- $215,000 grant for a revolving loan fund was set up and which was to be matched by Port donating $5,000. This is to help with SEI Chamber Foundation. The money is to loan existing or new businesses. Small business focused loan program. EG McLaughlin is head of this. He said it has worked out well- they have had 5-6 applications for this. This is to help for COVID affected businesses. It is a one time commitment of $5000 from Port. Approved for a one time $5000 donation to this Chamber Foundation. EG and Tom Palmer both abstained as they are on this foundation. Eric Krantz should send an invoice for this donation per EG McLaughlin.
Discussion of Beam Longest and Neff proposal earlier in this meeting. Thatcher said this 2nd one is $59,000. First proposal was about $25,000. EG and Thatcher both thought this was pretty expensive for what we were needing. Decision was to form a committee to study this further. They are taking a step back for the time being from this to see what it is they want them to actually do for us. The committee is to get each city and the county represented. They want to take some small steps forward to see what they can do.
PUBLIC COMMENT- Chris Mueller asked if the Port of SE Indiana ( SIRPA) ( the R stands for REGIONAL) is just for Dearborn County. The answer was yes for them to do anything here in the county. I asked- But if it were more regional could they do more? Not at this time apparently. [NOTE: This might benefit from further research]
Next meeting is Jan 15, 2021 at Lawrenceburg City Hall.
Meeting adjourned at 2:20 PM
Christine Brauer Mueller
Lawrenceburg Township
