by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
The contentious issue of giving preference to local bidders on private service contracts has been handed off to an advisory committee for the next 60 days.
The Seaport-Airport Special Committee met on Tuesday and provided an update on proposed ordinance 2008-1055 which would provide a weighted system for awarding private service contracts that would value locally headquartered businesses higher than out of county bidders.
“We asked for an advisory committee to come together and bring some recommendations back to the (Seaport-Airport Special) committee,” said City Council member Daniel Davis, chair of the Seaport-Airport Special Committee. “The advisory committee has had an initial meeting and they have set some ground rules and goals they want to accomplish. They should be reporting back to us within 60 days.”
The advisory committee includes co-chairs Sam Mousa of J.B. Coxwell Planning and Engineering and Mike Holcomb of PBS&J, Doug Miller of England-Thims & Miller, Tom Atkins of HDR, Greg Edmonds of Ellis & Associates and David Kemp of Ayers and Associates. Alan Mosley, the City’s Chief Administrative Officer, represents the City’s administration on the committee.
“We’ve met twice so far and we are trying to meet once a week,” said Miller. “We’ve had some good discussion and we have a good mix of folks.”
In other news, Council and Committee member Stephen Joost will accompany representatives of the Jacksonville Port Authority to lobby federal officials for funding needed for the port’s dredging projects. The group will meet with the Secretary of the Army Corps of Engineers Tuesday morning and with other federal and Congressional officials later that day.
“The Secretary of the Army Corps of Engineers speaks to all the dredging projects in the United States,” said Eric Green, of the Port Authority.
The Committee received some good news regarding infrastructure. John Davis of JTA reported that the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization has listed the Alta Drive improvement project as its number one priority for funding under the federal stimulus package. The project will help improve the port-area roadway to handle increased traffic by repaving the road with a thicker asphalt surface, widening the travel lanes and making intersection improvements.
The two near container terminals — Mitsui opened in January and the Hanjin terminal is expected to open in 2012 — will triple the number of containers coming in and out of the port of Jacksonville. The Alta Road improvements are needed to accommodate the increase in trucks that will move those containers.
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