Iowa Ports Association
While we don’t sell or do paid advertising from our mail list, we do support people and causes we believe in – especially when they involve people we work closely with on the development of on our inland river systems.
As many folks know, last year the USCG finalized a decision to remove aids to navigation (ATONs) from the Missouri River above Blencoe, Iowa (shoutout to our friends at New Coop putting those 2022 PIDP dollars to work!). Once mobilized by our friends at the Coalition to Protect the Missouri River, the industry working collectively was able to turn back this wrong-headed effort along with support from Rep. Feenstra’s office. What that event highlighted was a lack of immediately-deployable resources to work for the benefit of Iowa’s waterways. As luck would have it, that caught the attention of our friends at the Corn Belt Ports leading them to establish the Iowa Ports Association (IAPA).
IAPA’s mission is to build on the success of CPB’s earlier efforts to organize, promote and market the opportunities presented by port and port-adjacent development and draw more dollars into the region to support public and private endeavors. Because Iowa currently has no state-level funding for ports, federal funding programs are critical to developing, expanding and maintaining ports and boosting related barge traffic. Not only is state funding absent, but IADOT does little (actually, nothing) to promote the value of ports (shoutout to MoDOT for this gem demonstrating in cold, hard facts the value of the State’s ports), leading some cities and their leadership (not gonna name names, Bettendorf) to believe public and publicly-available ports have no value (seriously).
IAPA won't be a quick fix or a panacea for state waterborne commerce needs, but will certainly be helpful in promoting river and river adjacent funding, development and coordination over the long haul. IAPA is currently in its formative stages and looking for members and financial support. We’ve created a public access folder with additional information if you have an interest – you can reach it here. We look forward to helping IAPA grow and succeed over the long term for the benefit of our river communities and those dependent on them - farmers, manufacturers, building materials suppliers, etc.
Marine Highway Program (MHP) Grant Applications
We usually tell folks not to bother with MHP applications because of the small amount of money available. This year, however, MHP has $14M to spend and we’ve got a handful of projects we’re working on submitting. If you’re interest in learning more about what our clients have in mind and where, drop us a note or reach out from our website. And if you’d like to support our clients’ applications – most of which are focused on inbound barge freight (with a heavy emphasis on fertilizer) – we’ve got a form letter you can tailor to your liking.
The SHIPS Act and Maritime Prosperity Zones
If you haven’t read any analysis of the newly-reintroduced SHIPS Act, you should. There’s a few nice summaries out there and some good analyses by Big Law. Bottom line: if this Act passes it will unleash a torrent of funding, investment opportunities, regulatory relief and medium/long-term (through MAP and otherwise) planning, resource commitment and workforce development programming. More on this in future updates.
