by Caroline Gabsewics
Staff Writer
U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw’s passport had a good workout recently.
Crenshaw admitted at Monday’s Downtown Rotary Club of Jacksonville meeting that his voice was a little hoarse and he’s fighting a cold after traveling a good portion of the world a few weeks ago.
The week after Thanksgiving, Crenshaw traveled to 10 different countries on four continents over the span of eight days.
“The trip was for part military reasons and part foreign assistance,” said Crenshaw. “We covered our 40,000 square miles of military bases.”
Four of the countries he visited were in Africa including Ethiopia. He was also in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Warsaw, Poland and Prague in the Czech Republic.
Crenshaw also made it to New York City for Saturday’s Heisman Trophy Ceremony where he saw Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow become the first sophomore to ever win the award. Crenshaw attended the ceremony with Tebow’s family.
Monday marked Crenshaw’s annual visit to the Downtown Rotary where he likes to give its members a little taste of what is going on in Washington, D.C.
“There wasn’t a whole lot going on this year,” he said. “Over this past year not a great deal has been accomplished.
“Part of it has to do with the new agenda.”
He said 106 bills became new laws before Thanksgiving and Congress has been in session five days a week.
“We’ll be in session for one or two more weeks leading up to Christmas,” he said. “We are trying to finish by the end of this week, but there are a lot of things we need to do, so I don’t know how we will do it in one week.”
Crenshaw also updated Rotary members on a few projects he has been working on specifically for Northeast Florida including the veteran’s clinic building and Northeast Florida’s national cemetery.
Crenshaw also spoke about the progress on making Naval Station Mayport nuclear capable. Crenshaw said the non-nuclear upgrades are complete, but Congress needs to spend $150 million to make Mayport nuclear capable which will allow Mayport to support a nuclear aircraft carrier.
Right now the port in Norfolk, Va. is nuclear capable and houses four nuclear carriers. Jacksonville and Norfolk are the only two ports on the East Coast that are home port to carriers.
“We need to disperse our assets,” said Crenshaw.
Mayport is currently undergoing an environmental impact study that will take up to a year to complete.
“This is not an if, it’s just when,” Crenshaw said about making Mayport nuclear capable.
• Rotary Assistant Governor Percy Rosenbloom has already been awarded five Paul Harris Fellowship Awards. At Monday’s meeting, he was awarded three more Paul Harris Fellowship Awards and was surprised to see his whole family at the meeting.
• Rotarians voted on the next board of directors for 2008-10 at the meeting. Steve Bacalis was voted as president-elect and the five board members are Hugh Greene, Jim Bailey, Michael Boylan, Bill Bainbridge and Mark Mullins.
• The next Rotary meeting is Dec. 17 and it is Rotary’s annual Christmas Family Luncheon. If you plan to attend, please call Miriam Funchess at 353-6789 to RSVP. There will be no meetings on Dec. 24 and 31.