Local board launches port authority

INVERNESS — Citrus County officials are awash in enthusiasm for the potential of a port on the Cross Florida Barge Canal.

Commissioners met Tuesday morning for the first time as the Citrus County Port Authority, the first step in the county’s plan to develop a shipping port.

“This is a very exciting day for the board of county commissioners,” Chairman Dennis Damato said.

Commissioners appointed County Administrator Brad Thorpe as the port director and he will sit on the Florida Seaports Transportation and Economic Development Council. Thorpe’s backup is projects and operations manager Gary Maidhof.

Commissioners also appointed County Attorney Richard Wesch as the port attorney. Appointments do not come with additional pay.

Legislation adds Citrus as the 15th established port in the state and gives it a seat at the seaports council.

The law also requires the county to conduct a feasibility study before July 2014 and removes Citrus from the council if the study does not support a port on the barge canal.

Citrus needs backing from the seaports council to ask the Department of Transportation to approve the study.

To help prepare for that study, the county will apply to join a nonprofit Florida Ports Council, comprised of officials and experts who serve as advisers to the seaports council. The fee to join the ports council is $11,260.

Commissioners said the fee is a small price to pay for help in developing a feasibility study.

“This is good seed money,” Commissioner Winn Webb said. “We’ll learn from these people.”

Damato agreed.

“You can’t move further down the trail without some kind of investment,” he said.

The board also voted to join the Gulf Ports Association of the Americas, comprised of Gulf Coast ports from Texas to Florida. That annual fee is $400 and Maidhof likened it to joining the “Gulf of Mexico Chamber of Commerce.”

While commissioners Webb, Rebecca Bays and Joe Meek discussed generalities in moving forward, Damato brought a list of potential uses at the port. They included:

* A barge port that supports coal, petroleum products, limestone, cement products, steel and other bulk freight.
* Manufacturing on site in areas such as component assembly, marine-based industry and wood products.
* Commercial fishing, seafood processing and cold storage.
* Lodging, restaurant and retail opportunities.

Damato also suggested the Academy of Environmental Sciences could relocate from Crystal River to the barge canal port.

Not everyone backs the project. Chris Lloyd, who lives in Lecanto, said public money should not be used to develop the port and that includes funding for the feasibility study.

“I do not wish to be an investor in Port Citrus,” Lloyd said.

However, Citrus County Chamber of Commerce president Josh Wooten said the port has great potential for job growth.

“We know we’re slowly eking up in the jobs category,” he said. “We need projects like this in the hopper.”

Chronicle reporter Mike Wright can be reached at (352) 563-3228 or mwright@chronicleonline.com.