U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw visited the Blount Island and Dames Point Marine Terminal on Friday to review a special cargo opportunity benefitting Jacksonville and the United States.
The Department of Defense selected the Jacksonville Port Authority to store equipment from its Foreign Military Sales program and the port will receive $750,000 in revenue for leasing the space. The Department of Defense will save about $10 million by utilizing the “strategically located” port.
“The Department of Defense studied other contract ports, but Jacksonville offered a strategic seaport that allows us to have the equipment already in place for immediate export,” said Chris Goss, operations officer for the 832nd Transportation Battalion.
The battalion is the single port manager for Southern Command and coordinates the movement of Department of Defense cargo through all ports in Florida — including Blount Island — and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Crenshaw was able to watch the service operations for the fleet of equipment. As the equipment awaits transport overseas, it is inspected and operated every 30 days.
“It’s good to have a firsthand look from time to time at the operations here at JaxPort. This is a strategic port from a military standpoint and we do everything we can to let people in Washington (D.C.) know how important it is,” said Crenshaw.
The port is currently storing about 3,000 pieces of equipment for the program on about 21 acres at both the cruise and TraPac terminals. The port leases land to TraPac and it was able to work with its tenant to develop an agreement that would allow the FMS equipment to be stored on the property.
The FMS program is the government-to-government method for selling U.S. defense equipment, services and training. The port’s board of directors was notified at its monthly meeting in May that the equipment could be stored at the port for up to a year, according to Roy Schleicher, executive vice president of the port.
Port CEO Paul Anderson said he understands that port has to work hard to maintain and grow opportunities such as the FMS equipment.
“Other ports are aggressively pursuing every piece of cargo that coming through here, so we have to fight to maintain what we have and continue to grow our business,” said Anderson.
Chris May, vice president of Portus, a stevedoring services company, was pleased to see the growth from the FMS program.
“This is an opportunity that wasn’t supposed to be here, but the port was able to bring here,” said May.
Portus was awarded the contract to handle operations for the 832nd in Jacksonville in 2010. The contract has allowed Portus to handle both returning military cargo, export of Brigade movements, as well as the current FMS program.
@photojoe71
356-2466