by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Billy Allen will mark 30 years with the Jacksonville Port Authority next week. Tuesday, he helped serve lunch at the Port Authority’s 27th annual holiday barbecue at its cruise terminal facility. Allen, who has seen the Port Authority and the barbecue grow over three decades, has only missed two barbecues.
“I had an operation during one and I can’t remember why I missed the other,” said Allen, who spent over 17 years as a cargo foreman and is now a maintenance technician. “We fix things and tear things up, which is more fun. We do landscaping, plumbing, just about everything.”
For years, the Port Authority included both the port and airport authorities and its barbecues were social affairs that served as quasi-business meetings. Employees, tenants, business partners, area business leaders and City officials all gathered for lunch. The coats and ties mixed with the jeans and T-shirts while elected officials — and aspiring elected officials — worked the room.
Oct. 1, 2001, the Port Authority split into two separate entities. Now, both have a holiday gathering — the Aviation Authority’s annual fish fry is Friday — and many of the same folks attend both. Aside from being just a few miles apart, many of the employees at both worked together for years.
“Every year this seems to get a little bigger,” said Allen, who is 55 years old and plans to work another five years before retiring. “We had the first one over at Talleyrand, but everybody likes this facility.”