by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
The description of the financial outlook for most governments these days uses the terms “not enough” or “too little” when describing its funding status. But the City recently found out it received more federal funding than it had expected.
The Seaport-Airport Special Committee hosted members of the Jacksonville Port Authority at the committee’s regular meeting Tuesday, and the bonus funding was reported when Port Authority representatives revealed what it had received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (AARA) of 2009.
“I’m pleased to report the (AARA approved Civil Works Project) was released this morning and we received more funds than we were actually asking for,” said Tim Murphy, senior director of engineering and construction for the Jacksonville Port Authority. “We were requesting $14.8 million for the river deepening project, we picked up an additional $1.235 million for our deepening study (investigating the impacts of deepening the river to 45 feet) and in addition to that we picked up $150,000 to continue our Mile Point study.”
The Mile Point study is examining the section of the St. Johns River where it meets the Intracoastal Waterway. Because the two waterways flow in opposite directions, the St. Johns flowing north, some boats are spun by the resulting current depending on the tide. This presents two four-hour windows for some ships to make it into port.
The $14.8 million will be used to pay for the federal portion of the contract to deepen Jacksonville Harbor’s shipping channel from 38 feet to 40 feet. The project has deepened the shipping lane from the mouth of the river to the Port Authority’s Talleyrand Marine Terminal.
Murphy’s surprise was understandable, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is charged with conducting the deepening and Mile Point studies.
“There was a lot of discussions about projects, there were thousands,” said Mike Ornella, of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “At the start, it looked like there were going to be mainly construction projects funded through AARA, but the investigative project funding opened up after the projects were properly vetted.”
Florida will receive $250.1 million in funding from AARA for civil works projects. These projects met the five criteria that all were judged on, and they needed to: Be obligated/executed quickly; result in high, immediate employment; have little scheduled risk; be executed by contract or direct hire of temporary labor; and complete a project phase, a project, an element, or provide a useful service that does not require additional funding.
Information on the contracts advertised in support of AARA projects will be available on the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) Web site, https://www.fbo.gov.
After receiving some good news about the additional funding awarded to the Port Authority, the Seaport-Airport Committee could not escape without some bad news.
“Alenia has placed its ground breaking on hold until the Department of Defense budget is released,” said Michael Stewart, director of external affairs for the Jacksonville Aviation Authority. “Alenia had some concerns whether the Defense Department’s budget was going to be sufficient enough to provide funding for all 78 units. We are optimistic, but we are marshaling all of our efforts to push this budget to where we can get this project back on track.”
The Department of Defense should have its budget finalized by the end of the second week in May, Stewart said.
Alenia North America is building a C-27J Spartan production facility at Cecil Field Commerce Center
356-2466