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Group Hopes to Create Plan for Future Maritime Commerce Port Authority Looks Ahead

Posted on: Thursday, 19 January 2006, 00:00 CST

By BYRON ROHRIG, Courier & Press staff writer 464-7426 or blrohrig@evansville.net

If you're looking for clues about future new directions of city government, the resurrected Port Authority of Evansville might be a good place to start.

A master plan for future maritime commerce in Evansville will be a major goal for Port Authority members Tuesday when they are scheduled to be briefed on a company that wants a contract to help with the job. Port Authority Chairman Mike Whicker and city Corporation Counsel David Jones were among those who met in December with Don Miller, president of TPG Marine Enterprises of Indianapolis, which is interested in an agreement with the city.

TPG describes itself as a specialist in assisting inland ports to market and operate their docks. One of its current projects, described on its company Web site, is developing and marketing a port under contract with local government along the Mississippi River in Lee County, Iowa.

The state statute enabling the port authority requires the body to devise for its maritime operations the equivalent of a land- based master plan. Jones said Friday a key need for a consultant's expertise is the development of that plan, and that talks with TPG were part of a expected series of meetings "where we will be looking to see who all is out there and what works for us." State law does not place a deadline on development of the port plan, Jones said.

Evansville's seven-member port authority may be one to watch carefully for signals on the future of city government. Though the administration resurrected it last year to oversee the municipal dock at Marina Pointe, where LST 325 is moored, state law gives the authority wide-ranging oversight of leisure and commercial activity along the river. Jones, in an organizational meeting in late fall, told newly appointed members they should look well beyond the World War II ship. Their job, he said, would be "creating more commerce, creating more jobs and improving the quality of life of the city."

The city's Port Authority was founded in 1982, but Mayor Frank McDonald II, reluctant to make appointments to do-nothing agencies, allowed it to go dormant after a late-1980s study declared Evansville had no need for a port body.

Also on Tuesday, the Port authority is scheduled to accept assignment to it of a license agreement with USS LST Memorial Inc. and a dock lease agreement with Inland Marina Inc. Both had been assigned temporarily to the Works Board. The Port Authority will meet at 3:45 p.m. Tuesday in Room 307 of the Civic Center.

Source: Evansville Courier & Press

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