22 April 2022 SE Indiana Regional Port Authority Meeting
- ROLL CALL:
- Aurora: Mark Drury, Benjamin Turner (Treasurer), Derek Walker
- Dearborn County: Jim Thatcher (Chairman), Tom Palmer (Secretary), Eric Kranz
- Greendale: Alan Weiss (vice Chair), Al Abdon, Angela Walters
- Lawrenceburg: Kelly Mollaun, Lenny Fryman, Sarah Jordan
ABSENT: Kelly Mollaun, Lenny Fryman, Sarah Jordan
Also present- Andy Baudendistel, Attorney.
EG McLaughlin resigned from the board and Angela Walters is finishing out his term which is over at the end of this year. Baudendistel reminded them to get a written resignation from McLaughlin
- ANNOUNCEMENTS
- APPROVAL OF MINUTES: February 21st Meeting- approved.
- FINANCIAL REPORT/INVOICES:
i. Votaw and Schwarz- Andy Baudendistel legal fees- approved.$579,942.97 is they balance that remind in the account .per Turner
- GUEST SPEAKERS:
- NEW BUSINESS:
- BLN Comp Plan Proposal- John presented G&W and CSX are 2 railroads in the county. G&W is very interested in doing trainload. Fertilizer, lumber, building products, steel products, etc can go thru a trainload site. They have tracking rights to serve Lawrenceburg on CSX rails at the Tanners Creek site. That’s important and an extraordinary thing- this is a significant issue that works in our favor. There will be great programs available in the future. They need a landing spot for commodities coming in to the area. They will need other site potentially. INDOT industrial rail service funds (RSF grant) will become available in the fall. Olivia attended a trainload conference in Denver and received more information we can use for our plans here. OKI has about $300,000 available. Weiss noted that Indiana didn’t have much available thru that per the conference at OKI March 8 that he attended.
FUND OPTIONS- RAISE ( Multi functional and multimodal) MARAD (Marine projects) CRISI ( Safety, Planning and Construction and they have increased this funding) IN Industrial rail service OKI Infra Grant
American Marine Hwy Process. - there is a process for seeking the funds.
EV Charging station- rev, blink, electrode - invites 3 to present eventually
Strong Ports - for Port Planning and Investment toolkit. Under the US Debt of Transportation under Maritime Adm.
John Berry works with John in the BLN Indianapolis Office. He introduced himself and gave. Brief resume. He says the Tanners Creek site is important. He talked about Hoosier Heritage Authority has train excursions as part of their rail usage. They operate along old rail lines and have trail connectivity up in the Noblesville, Hamilton County IN and Fishers. This could be something to consider here. They plan to engage private partners, trainload, present needs and discuss action items and revenue sources and other funding opportunities. Much emphasis on funding applications for this opportunities. $15-20 million funding in his previous client thru the MPO. They have $30,000 already here from our February meeting . Still have to do $253,000 to complete the comprehensive plan. Abdon said he saw one grant that was state based. Berry said yes- the others were federal based. Olivia unfortunately was not able to be here today- but she is well versed on federal opportunities. Weiss wanted to know when they need an answer. We have to decide if we are all in or not. And this would cost more than half of what is in our account. Economic Development Organization can have some planning grants as a focus on one site. Drury- have we looked at developing a master plan from other sources. Walker thought this was high number for a 10 month plan. He would like to see the scope and master plans for others they have done so they can see what to expect. Berry said they have returned 20-25 times what their clients spent. Berry talked about the 25 years it took to get the Kokoma Steel site refurbished. They lacked a master plan- but had piecemeal approach.
Our board decided to meet on May 6th at 10 AM to discuss their options.
OKI Discussion- Mark Polinsky and David Shuey ( sp?)- Mark Polinsky- presented that June 1st is when applications are due. They can help with projects and they can help with those applications. They take 3 months to evaluate and give awards in Oct. Jurisdiction form West VA to the Mississippi. OKI was the first MPO in the country to take advantage of CRISI. We want to help - Robin Bancroft in his office is incredible at finding dollars.
He was noticing the stock prices of EV companies are taking over. Markets move the economy and they need to think about EV charging stations. The workshop on these has about 100 attendees now- people are interested in this. They have been following this, $7.5 billion was dropped into the pool of EV charging stations. That is a bunch of money that has to be spent.
Dave continued the talk on EV charging. - formula funding ( NEVI)- 5 billion over 5 years and divide up among the states and the 2.5 billion is on competitive grants. Each state has to come up with them plan before they get to use the money. EV fuel corridors are mapped. There are some that are in existence and some are just in planned phase. 150 kW with 4 ports and within one mile of the EV corridor is what is required. OKI looked at tag region as a whole and where do we need additional investment in this. US50 and I74 are in the mapped corridor for OKI plan. They have mapped transportation disadvantaged tracts, economic tracts, and persistent poverty tracts. They also looked at job hubs- with trading sector jobs. SE end of Dearborn is on this map.
Level 1 120 volts- regular house- charges in a day or so if at zero.$100-200 to install
Level 2 240 volts- dryer and range size- cost $1-2,000 to install
Level 3 400-800 volts- charges in minutes- $75-150,000 per port to install.
Polinsky stressed that there is a great push to get this money out (the $7.5 billion) OKI is going to get $3 million out of this. The corridors are obvious. Where to put things there is where we need input. Located on a private sector piece of land- The land can be used as match for the grant. Maintenance agreement with the charging station installers costs a lot too. Maintenance can be included for up to 5 years in then grant. Electrada is a private company that helps determine where one should locate.
Berry said they have worked wit Duke Energy to site where Level 3 charges can be set up. 30-40 cents per KW hour. These can work with solar and electrical and battery backup.
CORBA membership discussion- costs about $500. Agreed to become affiliate members. We do not vote. They can participate in all meetings and activities.
- OLD BUSINESS: none
- PUBLIC COMMENT none
- CONFIRMATION OF NEXT MEETING May 20, 2022. But also a Special meeting May 6 at 10 AM.
- ADJOURNMENT 11:25 AM
