Logan, call us to order here for the board of trustees meeting
for, uh, tuesday, february 24th. It is now 10 15.
so I want to welcome, uh, board members, wanna welcome staff and welcome the
folks in the room and the folks watching us on, uh, on tv here.
uh, angie, can I have a roll call, please? Yes, sir. Chairman, jeff patterson.
here, vice chairman willie gonzalez. Here. Trustee mayor craig brown. Here.
trustee sheila lit stone here. Trustee richard moore. Here. Trustee v pearson?
here. Trustee eric stromberg here. And re brown.
thank you. So I declare that we have a quorum and di, seeing as how we did
the pledge of allegiance for the finance committee meeting. I'm gonna
skip it here. Um, declaration of conflicts of interest by
a trustee or any conflicts to declare,
um,
andrew's topic. Yeah. Okay. Trustee gonzalez.
a moment. Okay. Any others? Hearing
none. Move on the see. No, we don't have, like, we any presentations or announcements. So
gonna move into general business. So, approval of the minutes.
can I get a motion to approve eric second. Richard second.
any corrections updates? All in favor
of approving the minutes. Aye. Any opposed? So motion carries unanimously.
uh, and I, we've got on the agenda, I'm gonna move the, if, if it's okay to move
the public comments up before the port director's report. And we have
one for ms. Mr. Ted o'rourke.
different subject, different meetings. Thank you for tolerating me. Uh,
pleasure. One of the last things that y'all just brought up in the meeting was the, uh, shore side
power. I think it's really important that y'all realize that this is
inevitable. That either you're gonna have to have shore side power or all lng ships
because, you know, the environment is super important. Even though the trump administration is
just about throwing the epa out, you're still gonna have citizens that
are deeply concerned about having four or five cruise ships tied
up and the admissions from that going straight across to one block
to downtown through the neighborhoods. So I think the main thing that
you should actually consider is requiring any new terminals. If you
do build a new terminal, come with short power, you can put that in your
contract. Require them to, as part of a, an agreement that you, you
know, you've got to, you guys are basically in control. The second thing
that I wanted to kind of mention to you, if you didn't see it yesterday, that you should really, I feel
as the port should get out in front of, is the world news tonight last
night with this blast that went out that says, is it safer
to cruise in mexico right now? What, what those sailing outta galveston
should know? And actually the governor, and he put a whole,
and it's really kind of completely degrading to us, I think, and I
know the cruise lines should address it, basically, but as the port, I
think you share a responsibility to make sure that the public knows that
that's the, the, uh, western riviera that's been
under attack with port of val and ports like that has nothing to
do with the ports that our ships are, are currently going to.
and I think it'd be really important to, from the port, y'all always do
these things where you put these blasts out and these are able to get the, the media
to understand that the greater houston area and the, and the people
that are booked for these cruises don't cancel. Because, I mean, literally it
lists all the ships from the february of 2026 through march.
that's a big season for us with the, with spring break. I mean,
at carnival seven nights, missed all the ports. And this went out
from kt k-h-u-t-v to channel 11. And, uh, the
governor was on there. And I think that the governor, I think it's a lot of it's political from
white house down. I don't really care about the cruise business 'cause they
don't pay taxes. And I think it's a, a direct attack
on us. I really do believe that we need to defend that and make sure that our cruise
business sustains. Thank you. Thank you.
who next we're gonna move into the important directors for court. Mr.
righty.
good morning everyone.
this is for the month of january, february meeting.
um, you know, look, you know, as usual, you know, I
mean obviously right now we're, we're in transition so, um,
you know, we're, uh, kind of down in certain areas. I mean, we're,
we're still meeting and we're still talking. Uh, we had meetings yesterday with
a couple of our, our, uh, attendance, um, and, you know,
moving towards the future. I mean, obviously we're looking at
where, where we are in terms of filling slips and, uh,
how that fits in with our future plans. So I think we have some good meetings. Yesterday, brett
and I did, uh, with some of our steve doors and stuff talking about where
we're heading and, and when we, and what we've done to this point.
so you can see the, the numbers there we're still pretty ha doing really well on robo
cargo. Nothing yet this month in, in wind. Um, liquid bulk
is up. Um, you know, there's the quantities. Yes, sir. Just gonna have the wind.
do we have some ships projected in over the next quarter? Have a large project,
uh, expected to start in late may, early june 300
pieces. Okay. Um, they're still waiting to hear on one of the other larger
manufacturers in remain of the year as well. We're expected to really pick up,
uh, late first quarter into the second
quarter. Okay. Alright, thanks. On
the cruising, you can see, uh, passenger turns. I mean,
we're a little bit below budget. Um, right now about 3% below,
um, revenues are still up. So I think there's just a inverse relationship
sometimes that we get with, uh, the prices changing and
things like that with new tariffs going into play and escalations,
uh, which moves the revenues up. And, uh, you know, so we're, we're, uh,
we pretty enthusiastic of what's happening this year. I think what's gonna happen this
year should be a banner year for us in terms of passenger counts.
um, you know, the wind components as, as, as, uh, brett just mentioned
will be picking up. And you can see the cruise ships were a couple, couple
of ships over where we were last year. And that's only gonna increase
because, you know, obviously we've got a new terminal open up for a
full year. Um, we went over this this morning, obviously
year to date in january, the same thing. So a three and a half million in
cash flow from operations, uh, which is a good number to start the year off with.
um, the grant plans, uh, the grants that we've got out there right now, uh,
poor infrastructure development grant, uh, we're, we have put in
for sure power on that one, um, to, to see, uh, you know, 'cause
it, it is a, uh, uh, a big point right now with the administration
of this, this kind of, uh, item. So we, we try to follow the
direction that we receive from the no fos on these.
um, and, and there's, there's, they lean certain into certain areas
on these, and so we try to satisfy what, what they're doing and, and make sure
it works for us. Um, this is the, uh, this other
one, uh, the innovative finance and asset concession grant,
um, that's been submitted. Um, and then the eda, we, we, right
now we've had some conversations about some eda projects.
um, eda is, is open-ended, so they're, they're moving. Uh, I mean those, those
are always open. Um, there's a couple of things we're looking at
on, uh, mostly birth type,
uh, grants mostly that would benefit us from a, from
building new births or, uh, you know, uh, continuing to work on
our old ones. Uh, the grants we've already received. Uh,
you can see those. Uh, were under construction under the, uh, rehabil rehabilitation
of 38 39. I mean, we'll talk about that in a few minutes. I think we're,
it's very exciting about where we've gone on that. Um, we're now in the process
of under the federal highway, which is the 408,000 for the
building. Uh, the rate, what's called, we call the raise grant. Uh, we did
receive 408 8,000 on that. And, and so what we're doing right now
is going through the actual agreement process and the
seaport connectivity. Um, you know, we've, we've met
a couple of weeks ago with txdot, and as we move forward to the next session
of the legislature, um, we'll be looking at, uh, we we're
submitting projects into the port master plan, um,
which then will be put together by the, uh, texas
support association in conjunction with the, with, uh, tdot,
the pac. And, you know, we come out with, what we've done in the past is
a, a, a major plan that shows all the projects that the ports are looking
to do, um, and, and get funded for,
uh, from the state legislature. Seaport connectivity, uh, has always been
good to us. We've gotten anywhere from a million to 2 million
almost, excuse me, almost every time out of that particular grant. And so
we're, we're procuring the, uh, on the seaport connectivity.
um, you know, we're procuring some of those services at this, at
this stage. Uh, the federal highway administration, um,
was a comprehensive safety action plan. It's complete. And so that's,
that's gone in and, and that's one of the things we've gotten some, uh, feedback and
received some money. The next step, that's safe, safe streets, that's a state street. Right.
and this is, uh, you know, we received the $2.88 million from
the state on that. So we're beginning the, uh, the kickoff
meeting that, you know, you get the grant and then there's a, there's a couple of months where
everybody tries to get on the same page. And we get the grievance done before
you can really even start, uh, really before you can even start letting contracts on those.
yes. I hadn't noticed before, but on, on that, uh, the tdo
grand on the safe streets, that portion, there's a traffic state, a new traffic light
at 29th, and harborside included in that. So that, I guess based
on that, that's gonna be installed, right? Correct. Which help we help manage
traffic there. Could I ? Yeah,
it takes time. You know, traffic lights, this , richard, um, s
speaking of that and, and what your comment earlier about
the, uh, projects that, that are gonna go down, the harborside,
et cetera, um, have, have we worked
with the city now. I know we have, but my question is, in
executing the construction on that, how is that
right now? How is that court gonna work? Is it, is it thinking that
the court's gonna do the construction or the city's gonna do the construction?
well, we're, we're getting crowded with grants, right? I mean, but there are several grants
and I, I can let jeff talk a little bit more about that. We are meeting now with
the city, trying to get in coordination of, of the timing because
we need the traffic lights, you know, now. And,
you know, the city has projects too that they're doing, right. So we're trying to coordinate that.
jeff, you have anything to add to that? I don't, you know no, I, I I think the
question was like, who will be doing the transportation alternatives actual, like the
managing projects? Correct. Correct. Right now, I think the plan is, is for the court to
manage those projects, but there's gonna be a lot of coordination with the city where
they're, alright, thanks. Um,
you know, here's, here's some of the grants you see we're working on. These are, these are nothing
new that the cable management systems, obviously, uh, we
have to get the shore power there first before we execute on this grant. There's
no match on this. And this is each one of the, we have two pieces of equipment that are valued
about a million dollars each. That is how we handle the cables for
the shore power. Um, the micro grid is, uh, you
know, it, it seems to be slow in execution, but there's, there's a lot
of parties involved. And this is the on on dock
battery system that we're working in conjunction with, uh, texas a and m on.
and then the, uh, the flyovers and, and that
we've talked about many times, 2.2 and a quarter million on
that. And, and we've combined that with the, uh, surface,
with the, uh, the feasibility study of the, the last phase of our
internal road network. 'cause they're tying together. So those are, both of those grants
will be kind of put out there together on 33rd street.
um, we just, and going through a memorandum of understanding of the city
on that and, and who's gonna do what because the city actually
received the money, but we're doing, we manage the project.
um, then here again, the, the, the, uh, improvement,
that's the safe streets right there. Uh, I think that's the, uh, the,
um, that's 408 is raised. That's on there twice. Yeah. And
then the textile transportation alternative is on there again too. So on this,
these are, we've received them. Go ahead. So on the raise grant, what, what is, what's
the, I'm trying to remember the scope of that. Um, this is the 408,000.
what's, what's, what , it's back here. It is the, uh, it's
the discretionary investments and surface transportation infrastructure that will have significant
local regional impact. And the intermodal mobility
plan and intermodal is, you know, uh, kind of a
key word where you're, you're talking about tying in,
uh, traffic, uh, people and pedestrian,
I mean, and, uh, bicycle paths. This is what this is, is,
uh, is really an overall. And so this is where
you have to have these meetings because you have to, you're, you're in a process of determining
scope. Scope. Yeah. 'cause there could be some overlap here with
some other things we have. Right. And that's what we, you know, we've been talking about internally
is just looking at all these grants that we've got and making sure that
we don't overlap too much and do the same thing twice. And this
is a little bit what I'm concerned about this mobility stuff. 'cause we've got mobility
done, and then now the city has grants that are almost in
the same area. So that's where it's really important we coordinate, um,
together that we aren't doing the same thing twice. Jeffrey, did you have anything
to add? Or you, you were just ready for any questions? Like the, the, the target area for that is
really kind of between, uh, 51st street bridge and 25th street for
that intermodal study. So this is, this is really looking
more kind of west. Yeah. Westport, uh, cargo,
uh, vehicle, pedestrian and bike, you know, kind of all
in that west, which we really have none. Some of these other areas, we've really been looking more
east on some of these other things. So this, so that's kind of how you're
segregating this, which makes sense there. Yeah. I appreciate you making my bike
ride out to the west, a little safe road. There's some bumpy railroad tracks.
have, uh, port users have actually commute to the west end, not biking.
so well, we're trying to combine mountain biking
part of the, uh, fitness, fitness program. I'd be going over the bridge. ,
poor security grants. Uh, you can see, uh, this is the 22
and 24 grants. I mean, it takes two to three years to get those done. And so
one of 'em was, one of 'em was a training grant that we received. Um,
and so there's been some plans for some tabletop, uh,
discussions and, and exercises. And then, you know, here again,
mostly what we're we end up doing with a lot of these security grants is, is the
camera systems, because they change all the time. And then the operating
systems change. So, you know, we end up replacing a lot of cameras,
uh, through these security grants. This is the, the, the
latest that we've been, um, and you can read those. I mean,
this is the latest we have on the 25 grants and the 24 grants.
uh, you know, and the amounts that we have for those that are allocated to
particular areas, we, we can get a grant and then it's broken down into two
or three different areas. What you're seeing there is that,
um, under the procurement front, uh, you can see what we're,
uh, you know, we did receive, um, uh, bids back from
the pedestrian bridge improvements and it's just getting worse
and, uh, you know, so we have to, you know, we're, we're dropping back here again
and trying to figure out how we make this happen. Um, and,
and I, I believe it's gotta happen. Uh, we just need to, you know, to figure
out what we can do to, uh, make it more palatable from
our standpoint in terms of the cost. Yeah, we've talked about, I mean, we've had a lot
of discussion about that and, you know, we, we've all experienced the frustrations
and as you guys have a back and forth, but I, in my mind,
we committed to addressing that intersection. And this,
this may be kind of an expensive solution, but I guess my mind is, unless we have a
another solution of how we separate people in traffic, then
we need to figure out a way to get, get the walkway refurb. And, you know, here again, I mean, we're
looking at the variations of that, right? I mean, can we self
perform anything? Things like that, that can bring the cost down.
the, I mean, this is, this has always been, this is, I mean, it's been
out there since I got here. So it's been out there, you know, 10 years before I got
here. So it's one of these things that we, I'd love to just be able to say, we're getting this thing going
and getting, getting it done. And, uh, we do that one way or
another this year, the way I look at it or, or officially cut it loose.
well, which, which means we gotta come up with another way to address that intersection.
right. Okay. So the, uh,
oral port industrial, um, you know, we're, I, we're on, this is the, uh, the
seaport connectivity and solicitations. You can see we've been busy with solicitations.
you can see every one of the procurement processes on all these grants and projects
have, have been solicited. And we're under evaluation on some of 'em.
some of 'em were still inside the, the period, the downtown mobility study is,
is scheduled, uh, to be looked at on the, on the 17th
or closed on the 17th. And then, you know, we're, we're looking at janitorial
services, which is turning out to be a, a big contract when you start adding
terminals and, and different areas. And so, you know, that that's, we've gone out for
solicitation on that. Um, the, the, uh, safety
committee, I think we have our, our new, uh, safety
manager who is now an employee of the court, introduced
you to her morning. Good morning everyone. Uh, as you know, we, uh, started to focus on
safety two years ago, bringing in a contractor. Uh, we've got to the point to where the growth that
we needed to bring someone in house. And after long drawn out search, we've just,
um, selected angie warren, who's coming to us from lionel scent marathon,
also has a paramedic background. So because of that diverse, um, career, we believe
she'll be a great fit. And, uh, alex, miss angie warren, how
are you guys? Doing great, alex. I got a couple years at marathon and then
like three years at, lined up the cell doing safety. Uh, first 20 years of
my career was a firefighter paramedic, so, um, it's pretty diverse,
but as we get older, we need to slow our roll down. So I'm now safety
and, uh, yeah, it seems to, I like it. Glad to be here. Welcome,
welcome. Thanks so much. Thanks. Say, angie, we, we've gone, I
used to work at dow chemical for 36 years. I heard lot of drilled
into my head on the eh s part, and I think the port has come a long way in,
in my six years on the board as far as really kind of adopting,
adopting that safety culture and saying, we really need to, to drive that into
everything that we do out here. And so you just, charles described
that we've had a journey of the, uh, mr. Cherry and, and kind of getting some stuff
in place, and now we're really excited to have you on board. But I, I guess I
would say, you know, feel like you have a, this board really cares about what
you are doing out there and it's important. So, you know, we really support the efforts
and we really want to make it such that everybody gets to go home in the same condition
they came to work in. You've probably heard that absolutely. Before marathon and other places.
absolutely. But you know what, what we found from the statistics, I think a lot of the injuries we have out here
are not our employees, right? They're contractors or they're
passengers. Passengers. And so to me, we've gotta feel, and
I, and I think we do an obligation to look at that whole population and say, how can
we not only, you know, keep our employees safe, but, and we talked about the boarding,
the bridge over 2050, walk into the trunk. How do we keep our
passengers and customers safe as well? So we we're looking forward to
what you're gonna bring to the table and keep that, keep that energy going. Appreciate it. Alright. And also, as
you can see, we've started a new year, 2026. So we've reset our numbers.
uh, and again, it addresses exactly what you stated that, uh, the injuries that we do have, they
come a lot from our passengers. Uh, and then with our safety guard, uh,
terrell weatherspoon from cnm, he found some damage, uh, uh, post and, um,
put in the work order and got that all repaired. And, and that's what we all safety this month. And thank you
for your time. Appreciate it. Alright. Thank you guys. Forward. Thank you. And don't
make yourself a stranger, angie. You're welcome. Yeah, we'd welcome to come to all, we'd like to have, yeah. We'd
like to have you back talking to us and not just when something bad happens,
right. Tell us all the good stuff. I remember those days. You only get to talk when something
bad happens. Yeah. It's telling us the good things and success stories.
um, parking's doing well. I mean, you know, uh, and you notice that we've
got a really strong online presence and, uh, you know, our, our passenger reservations
are still growing. Um, you know, and as we move more
and more closer to the terminals, I think these numbers will getting more and more, uh, or go
higher and higher. So it's, it's all, it's a good story. Um,
and then, you know, we, we have set a schedule here for
the rollout, the official rollout of the, of the master plan. Um, you
know, obviously, uh, last we had a special meeting, which you adopted it. And
then, uh, you know, we're, we had the, the document is basically finalized.
there was some question, I mean, there was suggestions to move some language
forward, which that has been, that has been done. Uh, nothing, nothing
really major in it other than these little cleanups and stuff like
that. So you'll, you should see here relatively shortly, we'll
send everybody a copy of the final return, the final plan, which has some
language moved around that we wanted to move towards the front, if you remember. Yes. Um,
and so, uh, that will be on the website. And then, uh, there'll
be a subsequent press release that's going out, um, about, about
the master plan. And then we scheduled a public meeting, uh,
for the march the 25th at cruise terminal 16,
which we will, we'll do very similar, we'll, we will invite the public to come in.
we will have a, a series of, uh, stations
where we will talk about the different parts of the master plan, give
people the opportunity to comment. So this will be, you know, our,
this will be, this is not really in ba's scope.
I mean, we've already done the master plan a public meeting once,
and I requested that we, I felt like now we finalize this,
that we do another one just to let everybody see what, what the master plan looks
like. Final roger, I, I think that the, the, uh, the format
that you described, I think works good
initially when, when we're doing this. And I think it'll work good for
this. But I would also suggest that we have at least
one, uh, lecture type thing where, where the
whole group, here's a present, here's the presentation
on, uh, here's the presentation on the plan, basically.
and, and it has the opportunity to ask the questions. Yeah. And we, we will have that, we, one of the stations
will have that presentation running on,
on the screen. Um, I hear what you're saying and we can, we
can look into that too. I mean, 'cause we're just, this is, this is wide open and this is just
a, you know, here's what we, here's what the board passed, here's a step, and, and we will, and
we will have three representatives from ba there. Uh, you know, louis
will be there, and then we'll have leah there, who is the, who is the numbers person on this. And
then they, then their planner person who at the last, uh,
public meeting got a lot of questions and stuff. So we're gonna bring him back here.
I'm guessing kathy is doing the, the, the web stuff and all that. Yeah,
well, in conjunction with pa. Yeah, I was gonna suggest that, that you also put
in there that I, I'm guessing free parking will be available at
the ct 16 free parking ,
steady big fellow. Of course, you can say it some other way. Yeah.
parking without cost. Complimentary parking. Yeah. No, it
will have that. We'll have it well section, uh, you know, special section. Of
course. We didn't have a big garage now, right. There, we have some places.
and so, you know, I think, we'll, we have a, uh, a joint meeting scheduled with
the city. Um, you know, when is that coming up? Do we have a date on
that? We don't, we don't have a date yet. No, we do not. I'll be glad
to get on your, uh, agenda if you want. And we can go over, we can put that you want
it on the march agenda? That'd be good. Okay.
but, but that'll be, I think our march meeting is after
your public meeting. It would be, does that matter? No, I don't, I don't think that matters.
I just wanted to be able to answer questions and stuff. Maybe city council, I'll make
sure we get it on there. Shirley. Just,
richard, I think that's a good idea. Um, because it's, it's gonna also open up
for questions, right? Easier. They're, they're more apt to have questions in a setting like
that, and you're not answering it to 15 different people. You're, and everybody's
hearing the, the question. Everybody's hearing that same time. Yeah. So,
okay. Um, you know, we're, we're having a maritime day. Uh,
you know, we, we really got a lot of positive feedback
from the last maritime day. I know it was in conjunction with the 200th anniversary,
but, you know, we we're gonna kind of step up our, uh,
our maritime day celebration, so to speak, with, you know, remember we
brought a bunch of ships in and stuff and come have an opportunity to go on
'em. There'll be, there'll be, uh, school kids coming to, uh,
maritime day. And so we're gonna, we'll have a little, we're we're looking
for one sponsor to help us with the cost of that. So, um, you know,
and we have some interest in that too, from other people just to, just to, you
know, put more emphasis on maritime day. And, uh, you know, I,
I don't know that, I mean, how much, uh, the cost would be, but any,
and we do any of these things now, I think we've set the precedence that this,
any additional money that we have after off of cost will go to scholarships,
because I think we've kind of established that. And then one of the other things
that we've been talking, I think willie would like to do is we move down the road,
maybe sometime this fall or this summer, um, we'll have a little golf
tournament or something that we can raise some additional capital. I mean, we'll never, I
mean, it's at the stage, I don't think we'll have a chance to bill to put up $300,000 like
we've done in the past. But, you know, I think this is one of these things we've seen
how the scholarships break down and, and what, uh, certainly
what texas a and m is gonna do. You know, so there'll be funding at 4,000 scholarships
a year, four of 'em. And, uh, you know, that way
e every little bit's gonna help as we continue, uh, because
these are scholarships that will be paid out every year until the individual,
uh, graduates. And roger at the latest, a, uh, a and m function I went to,
they had pictures of the recipients of the scholarships at the function. Perfect. Congrats
judge. Um, dredging
harbor, this has been a lot of conversation going on about this,
uh, this and the, the bridge and, and, uh, I kind of talk about that
a little bit later, but, um, uh, brett, you wanna bring us up to speed on where we are
here? Yeah, so just, uh, update for this month. I'm happy to announce that, uh, mike oaks,
llc is out here dredging for the, uh, the federal harbor. Um, if you're able to look
right across, uh, uh, behind terminal 25, you'll see missouri h
in a couple weeks, we're gonna have the second dredge boat coming in, and they're gonna start on the channel
extension project, which is the far, uh, west end to deepen that down to 46
feet. Um, last friday, we had a really good meeting with the new colonel,
uh, with the galveston district, uh, colonel date. And, uh, I, I have
a lot of, lot of high hopes working with him and thinking outside the box. They have new, new
directives, uh, coming from dc and I, I think that, uh, everything
seems very promising. Yeah. Yeah. And there's, there's some moves, uh, that we're hearing
and actually seeing some where there's a, uh, a move to
kind of make it more efficient. The, the process,
um, as you deal with army corps and, uh, you know, and, and,
and washington trying to make that process a little bit more
easier to follow. I mean, there's, there is some conversations about,
uh, a reimbursement program which would allow, uh, the
ports to dredge themselves before,
um, with the reimbursement plan in place, because, you
know, this is one of the, you know, to get some dredging done. It's a long drawn out process,
and, you know, and lots of times we don't have that time, you know, so one of
the things, and it is been proven in a couple of parts already, where, you know, they
let the port go ahead and do their dredging when they need
it, and then there's a reimbursement agreement in place, so they could come back later on
and reimburse you for that. So it, it is gonna, it would, I, I'm hopeful that it
will make it, I mean, there is, uh, several congressmen up there,
uh, john collins who's been down here, um, he is leading the charge
on that out of georgia. And so we're hopeful to see some amendments,
and, and I, and and I, we met, like, as we said, we met with the colonel, and
he's, they want that too. I mean, the army corps wants that. They want the ability to be able to respond
quicker. So I think it's, it's all, it's all positive stuff.
um, I'm gonna turn this over to jeff now. Here he comes. He's got a,
a, a master plan capital project worksheet. Thank you, roger. Sure.
uh, yeah, you see on the screen, no real change, uh, on this
from, from last meeting, but, but as we move into next meeting, the things
to see change is, uh, we did receive bids on the walkway and
opi, so we have better durations for those projects and,
um, estimates on when they will start. Um, but those are the,
the main items, uh, the main projects we have going right now, uh,
terminal 25 walkway improvements. Uh, we've talked about this a little bit earlier,
but yeah, we did receive, uh, two bids. Again, same
two contractors that bid on this previously, uh, uh, a year ago,
the bids were 10 and 12 million respectively.
um, now those are 11 five and 11 four respectively.
um, the third party, uh, estimate we had on
this was $10 million. And so, kind of what the trend we saw was,
um, the high bid, the $12 million bid came
down by, uh, $5 million, and the $10 million bid
went up by $1.5 million. Um, and I think
that what, what happened there is, is we did see savings. We just saw savings from the
wrong point. We were, we were going off of the third party engineers estimate, um,
which was up $10 million in projecting a savings of five, 500,000
to a million dollars. And really what happened was that engineers, uh, third party
estimate we, we did not see was reflective of, of what the bidders
are, because the bidders kind of honed in on price here with the, the, the two bids
we received at 11 and a half. So really what I think the $12 million
bid we had before was probably the, the, the closer or the more reflective
bid, the 10 million likely had stuff that was not reflective in it. And,
and so we did see movement, not necessarily the movement
we wanted, but I think ultimately, you know, we're, we're looking at a more realistic price
here. Um, and as roger said, we're gonna, um, go
to the, uh, the round table and, and bring it back a couple options on, on
what we can do with this project.
and the, and the project continues, and the project, uh,
continues. Yes. Uh, wharf road, uh, uh,
right at 37 wharf road from 20th to 23rd street, um, you
can see we, uh, completed a phase. So we have half of, uh, 22nd
street there. Uh, the west half, um, it's not open for traffic yet,
but that's mainly because of the way that we're operating. We could open it for
traffic. Uh, but, but we feel like the way that things have been going, it's been pretty smooth. So
we're keeping that, uh, as it is, uh, it is open for traffic into the,
in and out of the parking, uh, lot right now. Moving on construction.
and the thing I really like about this is you got the, the new, the in progress and
the old infrastructure as you kind of look into the background of the picture. So definitely
shows the progress we're making. Um, the
stuff we just completed from 22nd street to 23rd street, there's a
lot of small phases in there because of the cruise operations, we, we had to keep that open.
um, and as you look down at the financial update and you see
the 44% on construction materials testing while the, the,
uh, construction contracts at 30%. I think that's kind of the reason that the
trend we've been seeing is because of a lot of those small phases we had
to do with concrete pores and geotech, we had to have, uh, a lot more iterations
of testing coming out. So we're keeping an eye on that, but ultimately we see
larger phases as we move into these, uh, blocks from 22nd street
down to 20th street. We'll continue to track those percentage. Uh,
jeff, is, is the rail coming out? Are you taking that rail out? So,
uh, yes. The, the old abandoned, uh, like class
one rail is coming out. Yeah, the rail for the city trolley system
is staying in place. Okay. Yeah.
so, and that trolley rail is that serviceable?
it, it will be serviceable. They have taken this loop out of service for
right now, so, uh, but, but, but it's remaining intact and will be opened
again once, uh, the project is completed. Yeah.
uh, the adm grain tower demolition just working, you know, the, uh, working on
closing out the punch list, we have, uh, and, and project close out.
um, as you can see right now, there's, uh, um, a hundred
or 200 and, uh, I'm sorry, $120,000
worth of, uh, contingency, not 220, I'm sorry, my, uh, that we,
it is gonna remain unused on this project. Okay. What, what's the condition
on this, uh, p or, yeah, pier. Um,
uh, so, so that, that pier was constructed in the seventies,
1970s, so it has already seen, uh, 50 years of life.
it's a reinforced concrete cast in place structure. Um, there
are damages that kind of exist throughout, but nothing that's, uh,
prohibiting the kind of the service life of it at this point. Uh, definitely needs to see
some tlc, uh, some, some, uh, kind of general concrete repairs,
uh, throughout. Um, but, but, uh, I, I don't see
another 30 years in its future without some kind
of major upgrades, uh, to it. Uh, uh, but
yeah, that, that's, we have that in our project. It, it is in that project. Yeah.
project list, we have that, but it have to be pressed in the service. Sorry,
it could be pressed in the service, or it already is. It is in service. It continues to be in service right
now. It's probably one of the most heavily used earth. That's the one
we built the heavy road out to. Yeah, that 34.
yeah. This, this pier has a, a lower service capacity than pier
34. So right now with the roll on, the log on cargo that's happening,
um, uh, there, the heavier cargo has to be discharged at 34,
whereas lighter cargo would be discharged at this per, so jeff,
this was constructed in the seventies at some point.
and would you say it's, or is it fair to say that until we started doing
a big project with tex stock dollars and our fema project
on the west end, there's really been no other significant
work on the dock here, correct. For
like 50 years? Oh, yes. On the west end, that's for sure. Yeah. The only new project
we did for peers was back in 2012, and that was at 1618.
thank you. She .
oh, I was just gonna ask the work that, um, that you're saying needs,
needs to be done, sort of the basics. Is that something that we can do in house? Uh,
no. Like some of it, some of it we might like, probably smaller
concrete repairs we can do in house, but some of it's gonna be like vertical overhead, concrete repair
under the dock, and that's something we wouldn't be able to probably for
the railing, the rail that's supposed, that is rail that's posted to the dock, right? Mm-hmm .
is that staying out or is that just pulled up? No, that's, that's staying out. We utilize that.
and then one of the things we'll be coming to you to talk about is once that, uh,
this is, once this project's done is, uh, is some development
or some really upgrades to that area, you know,
paving, you know, and those kind of things, so they can be more usable for lay
down at the cargo. And uh, you know, obviously there's, there's cruise parking
just to the south of it on the, on the, near the
terminals. So, you know, we coming back to you with, uh, you know, some thoughts
about how we pave that, grade it and, and get, get it more usable,
which is the whole reason is we took it down here, 39,
uh, 38, 39 project. Uh, very, uh, yeah,
no, I mean this, this, we've done a lot of work for a very long time, and you're really seeing, uh,
this is really, that's a great photo. Yeah, it's, I mean, honestly like for,
for land reclamation, this really looks like a beach nourishment project with the quality
of material we're getting, uh, and where we're, so we're very excited about that,
um, changing daily. I mean, this, this is, this picture's probably about a week
old, so it, there's more sand in the slip, uh, now than there was when this was
taking place. So, uh, that's after about just about a month's worth of,
of pumping into the slip. This is looking, uh, the, the status. And so
I'd say no more than a month will get us to where we're full, but there's still,
you know, uh, where we are right now is we're kind of at,
we're close to future grade right now at this northern
end of the slip, but they're going to start stockpiling this material because the
contract has them putting in this surcharge about five foot of surcharge over
the whole slip. So we'll hopefully accelerate that settlement consolidation
process. This won't re, this won't, this won't
require mechanical dewatering. Uh, so, so right now,
uh, uh, we, we are doing, uh, hydraulic dewatering of this
slip. Uh, what, what you see at the, the north end, the very far end of the slip, there's
a little barge that's still floating up here. And so what the
process is happening is, is, uh, west bay, the, the, the,
the material is borrowed, is the term, but I know it's kind of quirky. We're not giving
it back. We're not giving it back. Yeah. Uh, that's the borrow area. We're pumping it into
here. Then at the other end of the process, there is a pump here,
ah, uh, that is returning water either to, right here, you see the
valve, it's either returning it directly into the channel if it's clean. If it's not, it sends
it over to our placement area where it cool further settles out. And
we haven't used the placement area yet. Uh, we haven't had to yet.
so everything's clean enough to go back into the, into the channel right at this stage, which, which shows the
quality of the material, like we're getting, I mean, greater than 95%
good sand. Right? It's falling out quicker. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Very
granular material. It's really, uh, rewarding to see
this happening. 'cause, you know, we've only been talking about this for a long time, ,
and, and now it's happening. So I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's rewarding to see new
land being created for the port, and I think new revenues will come from this.
and, and then we got our, uh, steve and other
partners who are really excited about this and, and about, you know, already talking about
what, what else they can do now with more land. And so I think it's really a
positive, uh, development.
uh, and then the next project, uh, 39 41, um,
what they're moving towards, you know, they've completed all their fender and
mooring, uh, bollard blocks. Those are the white blocks you kind of
see every so often down, uh, the pier face. Now
they're starting at the far end, and they're gonna be filling the, the concrete
cap, uh, which is a little less substantial, uh, starting at the west
end of the project, coming, coming to the east end. And then finally, they'll, they'll, uh, do
pavement. This, this project's looking, uh, completion sometime around the end of may,
whereas the, the previous project is looking like, uh, sometime later
in the summer. But, but we're still tracking, I think right now for
kind of a july timeframe to open up the birth, even though we might still be working on the slip
fill portion, but the birth will, uh, likely be able to be open
at that point in time.
uh, old for industrial road, 33rd to 41st street.
uh, this project, we received the bids, uh, just a few days ago on friday.
um, and the bids of the, the low bid, I believe was somewhere right
around 7 million, which, um, if you looked at the capital
plan sheet, uh, earlier today, I think there's about 7.7 million
on that project sheet for, for the project. So, um, we'll,
we'll look, review that, uh, and, and look to bring you all a recommendation on that
project. Uh, next month,
uh, cruise terminal 16, uh, uh, basically
still, uh, mark was mentioning still kind of going through. We still have a few punch list
items open on the actual cmar project and, and, uh, we'll
have to bring an item back to y'all next month for, for, uh,
closing out that project. A few, few additional kind of last costs
on that project. But, um, that's where we are with, uh,
the term 16 project, uh, jeff design photograph,
photographs of this, uh, this one was done by our no, john lewis in the
back of the room. These are always so informative.
thank you for whoever do, whoever does that stand up. John. John,
stand up. Stand up. This
is one of my seven jobs, .
he's a drone operator and a, um, technical
operator equipment, many talents.
thank you, john. And you've seen that the pictures improve over time. We give him some
feedback and the vantage point looks good. He's getting a minor in
photography with us right now. You just have to watch the pelicans,
right? You had, uh, yeah, you had at least one incident where you lost the two
acids of yesterday. Two. Wow. Pelicans are drums.
birds are vicious. No, this one, I think it looks like yesterday looked
like a malfunction. Color loss yesterday.
we'll, we'll get it in. We upstairs,
uh, the passenger boarding bridges still have, uh, some remaining punch
list items open on, on the, the port, the boarding bridges.
uh, so they're, they're planning a trip to return in march to close out those open
items. What are those, jeff? Is it just little, little
things or, yeah, I mean, right now there, there's been, um,
some kind of, uh, issues with, with generator
power on those. So those, those do have onboard generators, but whenever the, the,
uh, uh, passenger boarding bridges operate on generator powers,
there's been some kind of electrical harmonics issues, if
that, um, kind of a technical look at what, what, that's the biggest thing
we have open right now. Everything else is just like minor kind of aesthetic
items, but, but that's the main, main issue right now. Nothing affecting the
operation, but, but it, it just makes it, you know, the, the generators
in here are two part one is for emergencies, which they can still be used for
emergencies right now. But the bigger thing for us is operationally staff have
to, um, continue to plug the generators in or plug the
pbs in as they move down the dock base, uh, because of that one
electrical issue, their troubleshooting,
uh, the cruise terminal 16th p project, uh, we, uh, y'all
approved, uh, agenda item last, uh, week to come close on
this project. We are processing the payment of that final work, and we'll be releasing
retainage. So I think we've received everything on this project, uh, that we receive
from orion. So this project will be coming off the list.
uh, then construction and maintenance, uh, 205 work
orders, uh, open today, everyone closed. Um,
I see the statistics on those. And then,
so real odd, that's one month. That's, uh, or two,
you're right.
well, honestly, it is really like a month and a half because this report was put together,
you know, about a week. So,
yeah. And then, uh, on the next slide, we've got some pictures
of just what the guys have been doing, bedliners, building out some, uh,
kind of, uh, office spaces and landscaping.
uh, and then, uh, uh, pest, uh, this was, uh, actually an
herbicide. Uh, they're spraying on tracks, building new water boxes,
and, um, at lot b we're doing some, uh, improvements
to the existing driveway on 33rd street to make it so we can
have more, uh, throughput into the lot off of the street.
so having the construction maintenance group continues to generate value for the port.
absolutely.
um, you, you can see this is our, uh, this, this is through the end of
january. And, uh, you know, again, you
see the different types of, I just, what this
does, it shows that our police department's pretty busy. Um, you know, especially with this
new terminal opening and, uh, you know, having to service that terminal
also. Uh, you know, so they're doing a good job and, and you see the different types
of things that they're having to deal with. I like it more
horizontal. This way it's easier to read, it's easier.
um, this is just, just gives you an idea of the, of the, uh, port
id cards and that the access, um, that, you
know, are, uh, we track, um, just in, in closing, you know, just,
uh, we always like to show, and here again, a lot of drone pictures, but it just kinda
shows you if you don't see it every day, you know, there's a lot of
activity going on and, and you can see what, uh, what's happening out there.
um, the events, uh, you know, we did have a port mission plan meeting
here, uh, that I talked about earlier. Um, getting ready for the next
legislature. Um, the annual meetings we have, we're going
through our annual meetings with our, with our tenants as well as our, our
customer and our, our partners. Um, so we met with
the galveston railroad and metro ports. Um, we had the real estate committee meeting,
which was, was, uh, right before our special meeting, uh, about the master
plan. Um, we did have our annual, uh, staff
retreat, um, which we get together off site and, and
go over, uh, the, our swot analysis that we do
every year, challenges and opportunities. And,
and then we, we revisit our goals and our, our purpose
and all those kind of things. Um, uh, at a day, um,
offsite. And there was a big meeting, uh, that I attended, uh,
on the 17th with randy weber about the future of pelican
island bridge. Um, there is, uh, some differing of opinions
on what that should look like. And so there's a,
there is a movement. Um, I attended another meeting yesterday about this.
um, there is a group that wants to change the character of that bridge.
um, and, and what, what's happening now is they're analyzing
if they do change the character of the bridge, what does it do, um,
to the existing bridge? Do you know, where does it, where, how does it affect
the progress that's already been made on the existing bridge? And I think eric,
eric attended that, uh, yesterday with, with me. Um, and
we had, we as, as brett said, we met with colonel day day. Seems like, you
know, he's a, he's the newest colonel here in, in town. He brought his staff
in, so he had a good meeting. Um, you know, he seems to be a, a proactive
hands-on type of colonel. So that's, that's really, uh,
benefits us quite a bit. Um, and we had a, you know, yesterday we had a meeting with ports
of america. Um, we've got an engagement coming up this week to talk
to o'connell high school about the mayor tommy economy.
what time is that gonna be? Nine
or 10:00 am 9:00 am and
then today's board meeting. Uh, just a couple of things. Uh, you know, this was our
service award from last week. Um, I was fortunate to, as you know, we
got the rudy typing award, uh, from the chamber.
and then here's a picture of our staff retreat. We have this over at the tremont, and we, we
talk about a lot of various things, and then here's
a group of, uh, characters at
the, uh, at the chamber meeting. Okay,
cool. Alright. Any other questions for roger?
I didn't mention? I guess everybody knows that vic was the gal
of the year, allstone
year to us every year. Yeah.
why honor, I guess it's, it's worth mentioning, since we're just talking about the
bridge and the meetings that are going on, is, is that the efforts
in, in looking at an alternative design for this bridge and are in no
way impeding or slowing down the progress that's being made on the existing bridge
may not to slow anything down maybe
yeah. Correct. I mean, if, if
will, will we have a time to talk about that or is I thought yeah, we've got some time to talk about
it. Going to do that now. You want to do it?
it's probably a good, we can good time. Yeah. It's probably a good time to you. Yeah, go ahead, craig.
yeah, I, I, I think, you know, I think all of us, I,
I can't speak for council because we, I have
it on the agenda for council for thursday for way
in on this, but I think I can speak for myself
in an ideal situation. We'd love to have rail on that.
and that's, and I think that's what a land bridge gives us.
if we can move forward with the land bridge and, and
move that in a efficient manner where it's not taking us
10 years down the line to get this thing done, I think that
would be everybody's best interest to do that.
um, as we know, uh, txdot has
led the charge on this current bridge. They're the ones that came up with
the design on that bridge. The engineering the city
work had no input to that. Uh,
tdot is, is ling swords that if we
move to a land bridge, they're fine with that, but they're out of it
and they're pulling all their money outta it, which is 77 5
something million dollars right now. So
I'm not sure where tdot is exactly on this. We've got
another meeting coming up the, uh, this coming monday
that, uh, I think we're gonna talk that out. I don't know where
tdot is on that. I'm not sure where tdot is.
I think the concept of moving forward with the current
bridge as well as moving forward with,
you know, running all the traps on the, on the land bridge,
I think that's a good approach. Personally, I'm not sure tdo
is gonna go for that. Tdo may say, guys,
look, we're gonna put things on pause until we, you guys, tell
us what you want to do. 'cause I'm not sure if textile wants to move forward
and spend a lot of time at more expense moving
towards a current bridge. If this land bridge is really,
uh, could be a viable alternative here. And
I don't know where we are time-wise on that. I think that's
kind of where we are at the city on this right now. Uh, we don't,
we're in the middle. We're in, we're in the middle of this, you know, with you and the city. And, and, and
I know I was a meeting yesterday. Brian was there, and, and you know, that I, I think
the consensus is, is what you're saying is, is we don't want to impair
what's already being done, but we don't, we want to have the discussion
simultaneously if there is a different alternative. I mean, I, I,
I thought from the meeting the other day that, that glen albert and with, with
tdo made it pretty clear that he's got his marching orders, he's going forward
with this bridge. And he said that at the meeting, um, we're going forward
with this bridge. Um, there's just a, uh, a group that's
saying, well, if, if there's an alternative, we don't wanna stop the bridge going
forward, but if there's an alternative, um, let's
have a discussion. And I think that that's really where it's
at. And that's what I'm seeing. I mean, more and more is don't stop the old
bridge. But if there comes a time when it makes sense that we
would do something like that, then, um, you know, and, and I,
I don't, I mean, what I understand is the only money that tdot having
is, has in this is the design. And they've sent
about about $7 million. I think you told us on the design work
and, and that kind of stuff, but they have no money
in it as far as construction is concerned. Correct. And
so that's all falling. And, and the latest, uh, numbers that were brought forward in
that meeting was that there are somewhere around 300 million
for the bridge and there's a shortfall of 145 million
that no one knows where it's coming from. 205 million.
see, it just go, it just keeps going up and up and, you know, so it, it's a
land bridge, a land bridge. The little do I
know about it, but the land bridge, first of all, would be less to
construct. Second of all, maintenance wise, looking into the future,
the land bridge would be so much easier to manage
than this giant bridge that they've designed the tech stock has
and, and doesn't a land bridge help with our dredging
here? Yes. There's significant mayor mentioned it. A land bridge
in a sense is, is is everlasting. Yeah. And any bridge that's,
you know, a span, a span has a lifespan, 50, 80 years,
whatever, you're gonna have to replace it and you're gonna have to spend money to maintain it over that time spent.
but a land bridge is relatively low maintenance. It it,
in the concepts of the land bridge, is there a
pleasure boat conduit or something through it, or to be
determined way, way ahead of, of everything right now, because
you, you have to first get it in the application process
of, of got it. Will, will the army corps entertain the
study? Will they entertain it first? Got it. And then once they entertain it, then you're talking about the environmental
studies. Got it. Okay. And the army corps was at these meetings also. And,
and one thing I would point out is, is I, I think that, you
know, technically it's not a bridge, right? I mean, technically, um,
it's, it's like a causeway. I mean, it's not really, if
you, if you cut it off, you know, it becomes a yeah. It becomes a causeway
over to the over pelican island and does not have the character
or the name of the bridge associated with it. 61st street, which kind
of changes who does it too. I mean, yeah. Yeah. It's,
and it goes, I'm sorry, roger. No, go ahead. Ahead. Bridge. But
in that, that's an interesting concept to me. I'm being told
that if it turns into a land bridge, it may be that
road project would then come to play and it would be
a farm market road. It's possibly the county could, could
own that and so forth. And, you know, one of the questions
I have is, let's say we move in the direction of landbridge
and tdot is not involved. And I still think that's
not a mixed in stone that they won't be involved if it's a
land bridge. But if they're not, we need to get a champion that's
going to manage this whole project of the
construction and all of that, and who that champion will be.
we need to look at that and, and see, I, I don't,
you know, the county's a possibility the city is,
I'm hearing port of galveston is a possibility on that to,
to manage that whole project. So, uh,
what I'm excited about is, is that I think it's an alternative
that has a lot of merit. And, um,
if we can work out the logistics and the timeline,
uh, I think we can, a land bridge would be, looking
down the line would be far better for economic development.
I think that's the key is e economic development is the key
of this, you know, conversation. You know, it's not
just access to the, to the, to the pelican island, but it's the
development of pelican island and, and its future. And to vic's point
earlier, you know, between the army corps and the port,
having to maintain the federal channel and births, you're talking $30 million
a year cost to maintain water deaths. And
with a structure like that, um, could, could reduce it significantly.
so you're, when you're out looking for funding and you say,
well, over the course of the next five, 10 years, you're saving this much. Exactly.
would you consider putting that money in advance into this, this piece of infrastructure
that could save you money down the road? And I wasn't there. But the other angle
is it's a national security issue with our icebreaker factory. Well,
that's right. I mean, that's a, a new game changer
all the way around. I keep bringing that up because that is a possible
way to get funding federal, federal funding.
you're exactly right. And, and you know, as we know, there's other
interests on other companies have interests now in pelican
island, and I think rail is, is important
to these other countries. We hear that davy is fine without
rail, even though they'd love to have it over there. But
I think to expand the rest of that acreage over there,
possibly in a partnership before we used it, um, requires
rail. We need to have rail. Sheila. Yeah, just
building on what you said, I, I hate to sound like a complete moron,
but why would we build a bridge to pelican
island doesn't have rail. 'cause
everything we talk about in terms of pelican island on this
board for numerous years now,
it, it is essential, it is pivotal to have rail.
and so, um, you know, I don't know what we can do as a board. I don't know that we should
step out, um, and take a leadership role on this. But
what is, what is a pelican island bridge without rail really
gonna do for us, especially at $300 million?
yeah. That's, that's what on earth. Well, and I, I
think that that is, you know, the general consensus is what, what you just stated,
that's the general consensus is why would we spend $300 million
and, you know, when there's another way to save a lot of money,
um, you know, environmentally, you know, that's, that's the, that's the big question. Mm-hmm
. And whether or not, you know, if you were to close that off or even
keep it partially open, um, you know, um,
what does that do to, to the silting and what does that do to the current,
uh, that's carrying that silt? And I, I do believe that one of the parties
at the meeting yesterday was talking about they've done a preliminary study
themselves. They paid for it. And their indications are that it doesn't
really, um, cause 'cause one of the, one of the problems or
one of the issues is, is the concern that the silt has now
stopped it at, at the edge of the west part of our
channel and then gets funneled north and then it ends up in the channel
where in, in the houston ship channel. And the, the early results
on this hydrology study is that it does not.
and so that would, that would trigger I think, more support from other
parties that were, are interested. If that doesn't happen, then
you might have a, you know, maybe the port of houston or somebody might be more interested. Their, their
concern is what I just stated. Their, their concern is, um, do,
do we start, um, silting up the ship channel
now just move the problem to another area there,
you know, in my mind too, and I'm saying this, I,
you know, we need to, we need to determine all the details
of this, but they, said on the current bridge, if they
can get funding, they were prepared to let this bridge 29
was or something like that. Even if this bridge,
we moved to a land bridge and it wouldn't let until, or one,
it would be worth it. Mm-hmm . It would be worth it to, to do
something that will be sustainable and
resilient, uh, out there and in really a
public. And then you were there. That's the appeal that I made in the group the
other day was let's, let's think about the future here. Yeah.
I mean, let's really pay attention to that because over the past we
haven't had the luxury of doing that. And I think now we might have that time.
so let's, let's pay attention to what this is gonna do in
the next 10 years, next 20 years and, and, and
what it's gonna do to this area and jobs and economic benefits and everything.
yeah. I think it, like vic said, you know, talk about the shift
building and maybe additional, that, that almost becomes kind of a game changer
too, to say there's, there's other, other reasons to, to move forward
with that or change gears and build something to look for the future. So, well,
it is tough when you get 50 people, you 50 people at that meeting, 50 opinions and
there are 50 and, but you know, there is, uh, there is a
compelling issue with what, with what she does said. Well,
the bottom line is I think roger's representing the consensus of the board anyway at this
point. I think we all feel a land bridge is
needed there. Well, it's also I think that you're, there's 49 other people,
right? But as far as the board and board councils is concerned, you're taking care
of this. Well, and the key here I think is, is as craig said, is we've got
parallel paths we gotta run now just so we don't lose what we've got.
and in the event that there is a, uh, a consensus
and there's about $36 million in funding that you guys are holding, but we've
got it on deposit and what, what happens can that, you know, that's gonna be,
um, out there for, if, if the bridge changes, then
the character of that money may change. And we may be all forced with,
okay, do we want to put a co some of our money at risk or do we wanna
put some of our money that was held for this other bridge if the decision
made that it's not run parallel anymore. But right now your,
your money is tied up in with a, uh, specific purpose. Yes,
it is. And the contracts that we have with the participants like ford of galveston
is geared to this bridge of txdot bridge. Right.
but what we might do if it moves to the land bridge, we could go
back to the participants and see about changing the wording of those contracts.
the shortfall would be much less. Right? Oh god, yeah. Yeah.
much less. So. It is somewhat like the walkway here. Stay tuned.
. I was just thinking that, you know, I was thinking across that
bridge and I was looking at this, I was looking at this walkway is
12 million and I'm thinking to myself, no wonder that bridge costs
so much that walkway true. It's $12 million.
my goodness. Well, it's good discussion, I think just doesn't what I, what it used to. So, any other,
any last comments? It's good discussion. Thanks for updating us. So stay
tuned for further detail. So with that, I'm going to announce that
we are moving into executive session section 5 5 1 0 7 1,
consultation with attorney 5 5 1 0 7 2 real estate
5 5 1 0 7 4 personnel 5 5 1 0 7 6 security matters.
and 5 5 1 0 8 7. Economic development
at 1123. Thank you.
john gives thumbs up. So I'm gonna declare us back in session at
2 0 3. So reconvene the regular meeting to e
one is discussed and consider action, if any on specific matters discussed in executive
session, which were listed on the agenda in sufficient detail to provide notice
to the public as required by the texas open meetings act. I do not know why
there were any, so we're gonna move on to business items. Uh, f1
cfo report, consent, agenda as mr. Moore as
yes. Finance chair. So I would, uh, move
approval. We, we went through all of the items on the, uh,
cfo's consent agenda and have had been thoroughly briefed and I
would move, it's not approval. I would move acceptance.
and sheila is being happy enough. Sheila is seconding. So we have a
motion and a second. Any further discussion, comments, questions?
all in favor of accepting the, uh, motion. Raise your hand. Any opposed?
motion carries unanimously. F two, discuss and
consider approval of port property, flood liability, excess liability,
business, auto, public official liability crime, cyber terrorism
and fiduciary liability insurance policy scheduled for renewal for the
policy period. March 1st, 2026 to march 1st, 2027.
ms. Lord, you heard from mcgiff earlier today and had good,
good discussion. I believe the board is recommending to go to
the higher 11th of limits of 75 million
and so we would need a motion.
go ahead. I was going to make a motion to, uh, bind the
policy as presented at the 75
second. Have a motion. We have a second. Mr. Trustee moore, any further discussion?
I'd just like to say thank you for the staffer making our insurance
rates drop and we are gonna have, uh, more of a
discount and I'll send it out to everybody. Great. When we get the number this week
sometime. Alright. Also like to say, while you
people agree they've done this, but they also work on an ongoing
basis to help us on risk management. And so they're
they're very helpful. Yes. They're not just a service
provider, but they good partner with us, so we appreciate they respond to
us. Yes. And respond to us questions on say like battleship in service
or something like that. Yeah, as an example. Alright, so we have
a motion and a second. All in favor? Raise your hand. Any
opposed? So motion carries. Union unanim. Thank you. F
three, discuss and consider approval of purchase and installation of 1 150
ton package hvac unit from trane, us, inc. At
a cost not to exceed $350,000. Thank you, mr.
chairman. Uh, the unit we have in, uh, question here
is at cruise terminal 28. It was installed about 10 years ago when the
facility was expanded. Um, at end of last year, we started seeing issues
with, it's been working on, uh, some of the issues.
uh, the primary issues have to do with the coils. We've done some kind of,
uh, repairs in-house. Uh, however, we don't feel confident
that those repairs may last us through the summer, which this is a kind
of a single point of failure. This unit for conditioning, the first floor of cruise
terminal 28 check-in building. Um, and so, uh, ultimately we're recommending
replacement. Uh, we would be using, uh,
the trane, uh, uh, buyboard for, for, for this purchase.
um, and, uh, through the omnia partners, uh, agreement. And,
uh, the cost would be $342,900 for the unit.
um, and, uh, then cnm would install the unit. Uh, so
I have 7,100 for the cost of ation.
a maintenance program that follows this as well. Keeping it clean and the,
all the yes. Yeah, no, and that's, I would say when this one
was installed, um, we did not have full-time hvac
person on staff. Uh, uh, carlos was, uh,
hired, uh, back maybe eight years ago I think. And
now we actually have a second hvac person on staff. And so, uh,
absolutely we, we do our own pm in house. Um, uh, unfortunately the, the weather,
it's very corrosive. Sure. It's very corrosive down here. So we see challenges with it
still. Just one thing, jeff, I know in, uh, some
residential and, and some commercial applications, there's a, uh, coating.
coating. Yes. Is that something that y'all had, uh, looked into on these? Yeah, both. Both units.
I think. I believe the old one was coded in this new one as coded as well. Still at,
at end. Alright, motion for approval.
brown motion. We have second, second from sheila. Any further discussions?
questions for jeffrey? All in favor of the motion. Raise your hand. Any
opposed? Motion carries unanimously.
f four, consider and approve professional services agreement between
the board of trustees of the galveston wars and stanley sperling and
hamilton inc. For engineering services for repairs to pier 39 40
at an amount not to exceed $65,000. Thank you, mr. Chairman.
uh, the, uh, in in the briefing package, there's a figure showing the,
uh, pier 39 40 cargo area. You can also see it up on,
uh, up on the map here. Um, and so
this is the area we are talking about. Uh, the, the upland area of, of 39 40.
um, back in 23, all had approved a
contract with, uh, stanley sperling hamilton to do engineering, uh, for
the pier 41 pavement replacement. That project we finished about
a year ago. Um, and we, you know, there was definitely some subject soils
there, but ultimately the project was a successful project and we didn't end up
using all of, uh, the approved funds on it. Um, as we get closer
to pier 39 and 40 being opened, um, we
expect that there's probably gonna be higher traffic down there, heavier loads now that we have
a birth that can accommodate heavier loads set up here. And so we wanted to
get ahead of, uh, kind of the existing pavement issues and future pavement
issues by performing a design, uh, of the pavement, uh, and
civil improvements at that site to rehab the pavement structures.
um, ultimately right now, we wanted to do this design so that we
can piecemeal smaller pieces, we can do in-house, uh, as
well as maybe pieces we can do with the r and r budget. But ultimately this would also
allow us to have a shovel ready project for grid dollars we might receive on the west end
to prepare for a larger pavement improvement project. Um, and so,
uh, we've reached out to stanley sperling and hamilton based upon our
experience on past projects where they performed well, uh, for this pavement,
uh, redesign. And, uh, we're recommending a, uh,
professional service agreement for the pier 39 40 cargo area pavement
replacement, uh, out of amount not to exceed 65,000 bucks.
so, dr. Brown, see if I give you the, I'll give you the
second, even though you were first, but that's all I was trying.
that's okay. Dr. Brown made the motion to a second richard.
question. Jeff, I just want to, and this is a stupid question 'cause you keep, it says pavement
everywhere, but this will, this is gonna be pavement and not,
I mean, when it gets redone, it'll be pavement and
not concrete, or it'll be concrete pave. It'll be concrete. Yeah. Right. Right now it is
a mixture of concrete pavement, concrete warehouse lab and brick
warehouse lab. So we, in the end, mine have all concrete, all concrete would be what we
design basically. It, it's what we did here for that's what I bought. We
suppose that six, six acres, six uh, six and a half million dollars.
yeah. So it's a really nice yeah. Area. And, and I think I'd
say this really good thinking to get your engineering done so you've got
it ready. Like say you can self perform, we get grant money. I mean, different ways we
can go implement this over time, but it just, it continues to give us
quality cargo areas to use in the future. Yeah.
it's, it's been a while since I've been down there to do work, but I can remember
when I was down there five, six years ago, it needed it. So
I'm sure it really needs it now. It's a bit of a bumpy ride. That's a field chip right now.
another thing's important about this is we found out in the past if we go tot stock
for money, you know, then we get higher, higher
chances and we got something ready to go. We can go tomorrow. We've started working yet,
we already . Uh, we had a
motion. Do we have a motion? Motion? We had a motion. Motion is second. We've had discussion.
so all the question all, um, um, all in favor raise your hand
like all seven. So six. Congratulations. Six.
sorry. I know, I know victor, his hart would want us do this,
but six, uh, f five discuss board attendance
to sea trade crews global 2025, april 13th,
16th, 2026 and miami beach floor.
this is our annual sea trade. Uh, you know, the biggest, the biggest event
we attend for recruited business. And we always offer, you
know, I think we have one or two. Two, is it two? Two. We have
two in the budget for any trustees that are interested in attending.
question. Roger, is this more of a booth, stand
in a booth and talk to people? Or is it, are there classes, seminars?
yeah, you know, we typically are focused around the exhibit
hall, right? And that's where we put all our energies and all our costs and everything.
there is another portion of this where there's, uh, speakers
from the cruise lines from, you know, this is, is
strictly crews. And so there's speakers there from different aspects.
lots of times you hear they'll have a panel up there with the, the chairmans
of the boards of all the cruise lines, and then they'll have people to talk from the,
uh, course of call, you know, and, and talking about that.
and so it's, it's, there is another program and, and we really
usually don't participate. We usually are there because
of, you know, all the action and with all our customers that
want to meet. And that's really what it is. It's a networking event for us, uh,
to talk to everybody we do business with. And so that's where we, we do most of, we, we
have a nice booth there with a place to sit down and have discussions and stuff like that.
and, and we, we, we spend close to a hundred thousand dollars a year
on this one event, but it is the only event that we really do. And
several of you guys have been there, you know, I didn't know last year, but it's,
it's been, yeah, it's a good, like you said, it's really a networking, I think the way I would,
it's not like a-a-a-p-a conference where there's a, a
lot of seminars and things. It's really more of the networking with the cruise companies, with the service
companies. The ba is there and seeing what other people are doing too. We, we have money
for those meetings if you, if, if you want to go and attend
those meetings, it's really having problem before. It's, it's really interesting. I mean,
I would, I would, if you can, it's a good education of kind of, I know the
first time I went it was, you walk away with the, the breadth and the depth of the
cruise injuries. It's like, wow, this really is a global, uh, thing. And
it's big and there's lots of zeroes after everything that gets done. So if you want
to go, it'd be great if you, and you could go to the meetings and give us 20 page report
when you get back . Sure. Um,
yeah. Um, can I, do we have a day or two to yeah, I,
I think it's just out there and if you've got interest to talk to, talk to angie. Just talk to angie.
maybe a couple. Yeah. So move on to f six
mobility update slash traffic study. Rfq. That's
jeffrey, I guess at the podium. Thank you. Uh, yeah, no, I,
I, uh, two things wanna do with this one.
one is giving an update on the mobility, uh, study, um,
mobility study. After the last real estate committee meeting, we did finalize the
changes that were recommended outta that meeting and put it on the street. Um, currently
it's a open, uh, qualifications package that, uh, we're accepting
through march 17th. We'll close the, the, uh,
the solicitation and then we'll review the packages and ultimately come back to the real
estate committee and reward for, uh, further recommendations,
uh, work on that. Um, and then the, the second item we
had for you was, uh, uh, uh, we did, I think roger mentioned in the special
board meeting that we had received some information back from a traffic
study on, uh, a terminal 14 of post terminal
14. And so just wanted to give you a quick, uh,
quick overview on that. They did provide a few slides based upon,
uh, uh, some traffic studies. They,
and, and really real quick on this, uh, introduction slide,
uh, the purpose was to, uh, analyze the traffic operations for
future cruise terminal 14 and 14th street and ro caribbean way and ro caribbean
way for, uh, is the street, not, not the harborside, but the street immediately
north of harborside and north of what we call south lot goes east from
cruise criminal, um, right here street. So
yeah, 14th street east is road caribbean lane, 14th street west is war
road. Um, from star trek. From star trek
wharf. Yes. Yeah, that I, I I didn't see that
h uh, terminal, uh,
14 along with, uh, terminal 16. And, uh, uh,
ultimately all five in this case, uh, cruise terminals
were, were subject of this, uh, kind of traffic study. If you go to the next slide,
john, uh,
so the, the, the, the work here ultimately was done by gft,
which is ga fleming trans systems. Um, and, uh,
trans systems was the company that did the port's,
uh, traffic study back in, uh, 2020. And so it talks
about, uh, there, there were new risk streets kind of up and down harborside
and broadway, which they had data from, from that study. And to
supplement that data, they collected traffic, uh, in december
of last year at, uh, five intersections, 14th street, harborside,
14th street, broadway, 25th street, and harborside 25th street and
broadway, and, uh, rural caribbean way and circle, which rural
caribbean way and circle that. So, so go east from 14th street,
that's rural caribbean way. Then you take a left off of that to head up to the front
of the terminal. That's the rural caribbean circle. So that, that second light traffic
signal just east of 14th and wharf road is, is where they took the, the fifth,
uh, traffic counts. Next slide. Um,
the, the models that they, uh, assessed were the 2025 base model.
uh, this was basically to kind of look at the growth from that
emission, uh, 2020, uh, traffic study and all, all of,
uh, those items. Uh, one of the things that they did to get the
full effect of, uh, kind of what the cruise
terminal was while harmony of the seas was at cruise terminal 10,
they collected traffic at 14th street and harborside and rural caribbean
way and rural caribbean circle. And so they attributed the traffic that was
all entering that facility to, um, equal, uh,
the, uh, to, to equal the kind of the effects of, uh, terminal
tens traffic on, on that intersection. Because from 2020,
there was no cruise terminal at that location to 2025. Now, where we had the
cruise terminal in operation, um, they then added that
additional load to the system for, uh,
crews from one 14. Um, so, so in 2030, what they did,
one, they did two different models. They did a no build model, uh, where
it was just looking at, uh, increases in traffic volumes where they
looked at a 5% rate, which was a pretty conservative rate, greater
than what was actually seen, um, with the data they
reviewed. Um, and they looked at 2030 with the no build and then
2030 with, uh, the, the, the build model.
um, and so build model added in those additional traffic counts that were
coming from the data they selected off of, uh, the cruise terminal 10,
uh, impacts to the 14th street harborside intersection.
and so out of that, they, they did some traffic simulations. And on
the next slide, what they show is this is how the,
the, uh, the intersection performed in a build
situation with no mitigation improvements. And what you see is,
uh, um, a additional, uh, backup in the left turn
lane of harborside drive eastbound and, uh, southbound
out of 14th street. Um, the other thing that you can see is that, uh, there
is some minor impacts on the westbound traffic at harborside
drive at the signal. Um, and so, so this is kind of, I'm, I'm trying to
do the overall, you know, high, high level here, um, of, of all the intersections
up and down harborside drive that they looked at. This was the one intersection
that was really impacted, uh, significantly from
the, uh, the, the additional cruise traffic at, uh, cruise
terminal 14 added. And so based upon what
they see here and the effects they saw of, uh, the crews
from a 14 additional traffic at this intersection, they recommended some improvements. And that's on
the next slide. Um, there is one was extending the left turn storage
capacity, uh, which would allow for more of those, uh, vehicles that
you saw kind of queuing in the main lanes of harborside to be able to get off into a center lane,
a dedicated center lane, um, uh, to, to kind of store off the
main lanes. Second improvement was, uh, at that intersection
right now, east and westbound traffic have to wait for a dedicated, uh, turn
signal to turn, uh, they recommended, uh, adding in
the flashing yellow light so that they could turn when clear, um,
to go. And then the third improvement that they suggested,
uh, to mitigate the effects that that intersection was installing.
uh, a that we have two northbound lanes coming out of 14th and harborside
drive. They said that since we only have a turn lane, one turn lane
from eastbound left turn into that, we have one turn bound or one
straight northbound lane. And then we had one eastbound, or one westbound
lane that had uses a channelized lane to enter that area. Uh,
we could make that a dedicated right turn to accept the, the channelized,
uh, traffic directly onto 14th street without having them to yield to oncoming
traffic. And so what they did then was with these improvements
in mind, they remodeled the intersection. And the next slide shows the
kind of the results of, of, um, of,
of, of those improvements being, uh, implemented at the intersection.
so you can see there still is que inc. Uh, it has more place to queue,
um, but due to the, the increased storage capacity
as well as the flashing yellow left turns, it's able to
clear out, uh, better than it was with the current existing improvements.
that does not show the channelized right turn, correct? Uh, it
does. Yeah. That's the, on the white truck is going through it right now. Okay.
I thought it showed it just showing one northbound lane. Oh, you're right. This one
actually doesn't, uh, that truck is stopped. It's either or on the right, it's either straight or turn. Right,
because if you go back two slides yeah, there was a difference in, uh, yeah, you're
getting rid of that right. Northbound and making it to where the,
the folks that are queuing up in that right turn lane don't have to stop. Yeah, they don't, but they're
stopping there. Yeah, they shouldn't. Yeah. Well, the way it's showing there, it's, it's, you know,
either or you can either turn right or go straight. I think that that model, that, that does not
show the benefit of that right turn lane. That right turn. Yeah. I
like you can see that they did do something. If you go back no, on the 14th,
if you go back, you'll see. Go back to the slide before.
go go back one more, john, you said back back, yeah, back.
uh, hit it again. I think it just stopped there. That right northbound lane should
be blocked. Yeah. And they did change something in the model if you go back to slides that
they before had them yielding. But anyway, that a good, good
point too. Um, and so, yeah, so this is basically, I mean, we wanted, I I
think, um, to share this with you, they, they still are working
on the actual full report. It has all the traffic counts and everything from,
from what they had looked at. But, um, that's
kind of what we had to share from y'all for y'all right now at this.
great.
the way that they have numeric numerical, I mean a a bit
more like this is a very, like, uh, it's a video you can, uh,
understand better, but they also have, uh, and they'll have in the report a full level of
service detail. That's how they're usually done is level of service a through
f where c or better is, um, is, is
basically an acceptable score, uh, based upon the number
of seconds it takes each vehicle to get through the intersection. Level d and
below is usually deemed unacceptable. So the
previous video we watched with the, uh, the existing conditions
down there was like a level e and with the mitigation improvements,
their model was showing that it was operating at a level c. And so all
the, all the intersections on harborside drive then with the, the,
the proposed fifth, uh, cruise terminal would, uh, be operating
at a level c were better. Do you remember, I'm trying to
remember, jeffrey, with safe streets mm-hmm . Program, do you remember what
you were gonna implement? Some improvements of 14 as well. I'm
trying to remember what those were. I, I don't know off the top of my head, but the thing
that I want to say, it has to do with the pedestrian, pedestrian signal sidewalks.
mm-hmm . Now, um, jeffrey, this
doesn't really focus on the increased traffic in the neighborhoods,
like coming from, from broadway to, uh, down
14th moving north. This specific,
uh, study does not, uh, look. Yeah, we
there was no counts done in the neighborhood right there. No, it was just, just the counts of the counts
on broadway. There's counts on broadway. Yes. Yes. Counts on broadway.
okay. 14th and 25th street. Yeah. 14th. Same place
as on harbor site. We did it 14th and broadway.
did we confirm it? That was a four shift day. It was a four shift day when they
took their counts. Yeah. December. No, so the count, there's counts
at 14th and broadway. 14th and broadway 25th and broadway 25th
and harborside 14th and harborside, we know what those counts were.
they, they will be in the full published report right now. This I like, and
this was just kind of a, where we are with what we have received. I know roger,
the last special board meeting had mentioned that we've received this and we've kind of brief on
what, what has been seen so far. But I think that's craig as part of the mobility study,
I think to take a more detailed look at what, what's going down 14, right? What's going down 16,
think those are some of the questions that we need to kind of understand and what,
what's acceptable as far as types of traffic and numbers, traffic.
and then also not, not spend too much time collecting recollecting
the exact same data that has been collected and presented. Right.
you said this was right at an e before, right? This, this one intersection started
to c dipped from an e dipped to an e. You adding the additional
traffic with the mitigation factors, the model showed it at a level c. Did
you get a rating for the other intersections? I, I don't have it with me,
but, but it'll be in the full report once we get that back. But basically it says we, you
know, we can kind of, we can manage it. You can manage it getting in and out of the port,
get in question we the more detail about, you know, shuttles
and buses and other impacts than the neighbor pedestrians and other
impacts in the neighborhood streets.
so that's, yeah, that's really the up. I think we have a recommendation or anything at this point. Just, just wanted to
update. No, thanks for sharing that. Its good. But I think you're right.
I mean these, these things all kind of run, you know, linked together, right? You've got counts and data
trying to feed those into the next, the next pieces of study there.
okay. Thank you. Uh, so ff seven, discuss
and consider annual maritime fundraiser for scholarships.
roger reese. Well, you know, I kind of alluded to this a little bit earlier.
um, you know, we're, uh, trying to add to our scholarship
programs and um, you know, we just really wanted to, uh,
talk a little bit about the maritime program that we're
intending to have and, and it would be a sponsored program
and we would, uh, you know, um, have the same kind of
same kind of presentation and stuff we had this past year, which we had a lot of
positive feedback from that. And then, you know, going into
maybe a eip luncheon after that, um, where
we would be able to thank sponsors and things like that. And this is just, you
know, just letting you know that this is kind of where we think we're heading on
maritime. There is some additional pieces, uh, down the road.
I mean, we've, we've talked about would we go back and have a party
on the pier again? And that's not what we're asking for here, but we're considering
that plus a golf tournament so that we can continue to add to these scholarships.
this is just a general discussion. We kind of talked about it in the port
director's report that we'd like to have a, a maritime day event.
and as a matter of fact, we had one person who already came up and said they'd be happy to do sponsorships.
so I think it's, it's, I mean, it's a good thing for the community and we involved, we
involve children and the school systems and, and
those kind of things. As you saw, we had some, uh, little choir last year.
so I think it's, it is a nice little event and just wanted to kind of let you know that's where we
were heading and see if there was any objections.
no objections. Congratulations. There's been a big push. Um,
a new department being stood up at ball high, you're aware of
really? Yes. Maritime logistics college
as well, has a, has a pathway and uh, brett
attends, uh, a meeting once a month, uh, with the chamber of
commerce that brings gisd and galveston college and the middle schools
odyssey together to try to figure out ways to, um,
to expose these, these kids to the maritime industry and the opportunities that exist
for them. And this is just another opportunity that we can to get them to the water
and show 'em what's out there. A m also has a four year degree now in
management. Maritime management, construction operations, operations. Yeah,
so there is a business administration, mara, that's been there. There's a new
one. This new one is supposed to be more of a, a, a pipeline to get 'em into, uh,
maybe an entry level operations rule at these various, right, right. But I
think it's good to strike by iron side people. We had two response last year for the, yeah,
we had two, I think last year we had two classes from that came
outside of this kind of program that came and we, we give 'em a tour and talk about
maritime industry and things like that. I think it's available.
violence participated in that and, uh, uh, doug's, I
forget what the tug company was out there. G and hg and h was out there. And it's
usually mark kelso's class that comes in. Yeah. Very
good. Alright, thank you roger. No action. I don't think on that. No, it just, I think it's,
I think this the sense of the board, if we, well, I guess we could ask if, if
anybody wants to participate or sponsor, should we get with you, brett
or ? Kind of, I would say go through,
I mean go through angie, because the, that's where the logistics are, are happening, you
know, the, the scheduling and right. All that kind of stuff. And kathy's
certainly playing a, a part in this too. I don't want to leave you brett out
if you want play a part. He certainly is. Well, he,
he said he gets, he gets, he gets enough people coming to him for things,
right. He's, we have a post guard cutter pencil in. So, exactly.
but I think, I think the sense of the board is, you know, we really liked the way, I mean the,
it was a great idea to do the, the, for the 200th anniversary and it turned out wonderfully
and I think we want to continue that momentum on, on a smaller scale,
but I think we, we want to continue, uh, what we're doing. So thanks for
giving us that update. Uh, f eight, discuss and consider march
agenda items only one. Um,
we talked about a little bit if we could have presentation on marine green
and what they're doing and, uh, all the activities, especially highlighting
possibly the, uh, air quality and pollution and how that is
being managed. Yeah. Monitoring, I think. 'cause I think that's things that maybe not everybody's aware of.
right. Briefing on shore power at the same time and probably bringing kind
of, you know, future plans there, so, okay. Yeah. But I'm
hopeful we can do that. Yeah. Anything issue? Um, are we expecting
to have, um, the proposals to look at for
the pedestrian bridge over 25th
in march? Mr. Yes, mr. I think you asked jeffrey a question about the, uh,
proposal, your proposed path forward for the pedestrian bridge at 25th fifth street.
yes. In march. Yes. Coming march. That's our goal. Okay.
any other topics come to mind? Alright, with that,
uh, I'm gonna move on to comments from the board of trustee
willie, you go first with all the news that's happening in mexico. We just say prayers
to the people that live there and are on vacationing there. It's
my understanding it's happening more on the, uh,
pacific coast, of course, but still any, any action that happens in
the country that that's questionable. It does strike some fear in people
that have booked cruises and that kind of thing, but from what we understand at this point,
it's safe to cruise, it's safe to be to mexico and in those beaches and
close to my area. Um, but our heart
turns out to the people that, that are hurting because previous
actions. Eric, just want to, uh, follow
up on what willie said earlier and men, the staff on all of y'all's
hard work. Um, it's your efforts that that kept, you know, insurance
renewals down cnm, you know, keeping equipment and assets running
properly and not breaking down and turning into a claim. It's the it department
that's putting best practices forward and making sure that those cyber policies
are coming in at at lower renewals. I mean, you name it, you go down every policy
and there are staff involved that are, that are keeping those, uh, those premiums down.
so thank you again from, from the board. Second
vic's gonna pass. So move over to richard.
I'd like to reassure what eric said and uh,
we shall all marry what's coming up next.
maybe it's easter st. Patrick spring
break, coming break, spring break. Here they come. Ready or not.
alright, thank you richard. Sheila. Um, same just
staff second to none. And we've known that for quite a few years
now. Um, on a personal note, and speaking of school children, uh, the annual
gala lab for the galveston education foundation is next thursday.
I suspect tony will be there. Yes. Um, we hope
to raise, uh, I'm chairing it with a couple of friends and we
hope to raise $150,000 for, uh, k through two
reading. So please come out if you can.
location, uh, moody gardens on thursday the fifth
from six nine. Dr.
mayor. Well, uh, thank you everyone, uh, supporting
what everyone else has said. Um, uh, I would make just
one comment. Uh, you know, I was looking at, we always
talk about how good the cruise line's doing and rightly so, they're doing extremely
well here on the port, but, you know, I'm so excited about
here shortly that west end is going to explode out there.
the things that are being done and all of the efforts that everyone here at the port
is doing to do all the slip fields and, uh,
rebuilding of the docks and bulkhead and so forth, uh, it's
gonna be exciting to see that revenue stream start to really pick up
what, and support and be a supplement to what we're already
doing on the cruise lines here. So thank you roger, and
all your staff for what you're doing, uh, out there to make that happen.
and, uh, looking forward to a good, we have
march roger. Uh, no,
and I would just add, uh, for me the, the, the meeting, public meeting with
the master plan, I think that was, I think that's really good to just have
that scheduled and, and, you know, invite people over to the new terminal 16, right? Get opportunity
for folks to see that and come out and, and give their comments and thoughts there.
uh, and I'm pleased to see the, the new safety manager hiring in this
near and dear to my heart on the thing. And to see that culture continue to grow
and the getting more of the implementation and the resources
behind that. I think that's been, it's a, it's a good, I mean, safety, like it's a journey. You
just don't flip a switch and, but you, you have a journey that's been a really good journey that
ports on. We see it paying off in insurance and other things, right?
we, we've got less injuries and people like what we're doing, they feel safer
and it's all to the good there. Our, our workman's compensation
stuff goes down, so that's all, all together. We're, we're not hurting people.
uh, and then finally I think just the opportunity for the city and the port to continue to
work together on the mobility study and the integration of downtown
to the port. I think that that's a, I mean, for my time on the board, I think I
feel closer to, you know, how this
board and city council is, is working together. Of course, we're gonna end up with a new council one
day, so we, maybe we get, well we get to start building those, the new relationships
there. But I think we've, we've got, we've got some momentum there. We've got some good positive
momentum. We've got some, you know, meaty topics that we're working on that I think are
gonna have a positive impact on the community. And I think that's really one of our
key drivers for both city council and on the board is how do we serve the, serve
and make better the community we live in. So that'd being say, quickly say,
thank you, craig, for serving on this board. We don't get a chance to say it again.
you've been, you and angela have been priceless to
the city, so thank you for everything. Thank you. Appreciate that. And
with that, I'm going to use my newly found gavel to adjourn us
at two 40. Well.