WASHINGTON: Nobody sang “Auld Lang Syne” or anything, but the Virginia Port Authority board held its last meeting of the 2017 fiscal year on Tuesday. And it was all about the money – mostly. The board OK’d a fiscal year 2018 budget that projects $531 million in terminal operating revenue, up from the projected 2017 figure of nearly $482 million. The new fiscal year will start July 1.
The board approved spending about $2.2 million in its aid to local ports program next year, including some money carried over from the current year. Finally, a deal was approved to buy roughly $16 million worth of hybrid shuttle trucks for use at Virginia International Gateway in Portsmouth. At an Oscars-like event on Thursday in New York – the Lloyd’s List Americas Awards – the port is vying for “Deal of the Year” for its $670 million in expansion projects at Norfolk International Terminals and Virginia International Gateway as well as for “Port Operator of the Year.” “We may just be also-rans, but being nominated for two awards was significant,” John Reinhart, the authority’s executive director and CEO, told the board.
