by David Ball
Staff Writer
The Jacksonville Port Authority is used to moving thousands of passengers and cargo on any given day through the cruise terminal at Blount Island.
But on Wednesday, some of the Port Authority’s top directors were behind the service lines moving a wholly different, although equally as precious, cargo - more than 750 pounds of pork, 1,200 chicken breasts and 55 gallons of iced tea.
“I love seeing all my tenants, employees and law enforcement officials who work the port,” said Victoria Robas, director of operations for the Blount Island and Dames Point terminals, as she spooned piles of pulled pork onto the plates of hungry port workers in a line that stretched hundreds of feet and out the door of the cruise baggage handling terminal.
“Everybody goes through this line,” she continued. “Even if it’s one time a year, we get to see everybody.”
Although not quite everybody — about 50,000 people work in jobs related to the port — came through the chow line, more than 1,200 showed up for the 28th annual JaxPort Bar-B-Que, which made it one of the biggest crowds in the event’s long history.
“I remember the very first one we did. It was for 12 people in a warehouse at the Talleyrand Terminal,” said David Smolder, a long-time Port Authority employee who is now director of the MOL/TracPac terminal development program.
“It’s been great having it in the cruise terminal these past few years,” he added. “We’ve got plenty of parking, room, bathroom facilities and fans and heaters if the weather doesn’t cooperate.”
The weather definitely wasn’t a problem on Wednesday, as clear sunny skies made waiting in the long food line almost enjoyable as Country Caterers kept four huge mobile barbecue pits cranking out tasty grub.
“The food is real good, but next time they need some banana pudding,” said a worker with stevedoring company Marine Terminals Corp., and his dining mates agreed.
Lack of desert aside, the event, which costs about $9,000 to put on, is always a favorite among Port Authority employees and employees of port vendors, said Authority Executive Director Rick Ferrin.
“We do this around the holidays and invite everybody who works on the docks, and it’s a way for us to say ‘thank you,’” said Ferrin. “You also get to see people you normally don’t get to see, and it’s a good place to network.”
Randy Booker and Ryan Chandler with Tico, a stevedoring supply company that operates in ports along the East Coast, Gulf Coast and in Puerto Rico, used the time to network with other Port officials and vendors. They said they do business at a lot of ports, but Jacksonville is among the best.
“It’s a real community down here, and that’s because Rick (Ferrin) runs it that way,” said Booker. “You can expect that in four or five years, this port will be growing and changing dramatically.”