What do Citrus County and the Panama Canal have in common?

The old Cross Florida Barge Canal near Inglis.

And attorney Fred Busack of the law firm of Pennington, Moore, Wilkinson, Bell and Dunbar told county commissioners on Tuesday that ships coming out of the Panama Canal are looking for places to offload their wares, using a new concept that uses a barge-based conveyor system. The conveyor barges will allow cargo to reach shore, eliminating the need for the super container ships to port.

Citrus County could be one of those ports, he said, and thousands of jobs could be created here as an offshoot of that activity.

Under the concept, a network of ports along the entire Gulf of Mexico would be used to convey goods inland to the U.S. and Canada from a system of barges called Trans-Sea Lifters that would offload goods from the large container ships offshore, and the goods would then be placed on trucks or trains and sent to their disparate locations from there.

Although the county's portion of the barge canal is only 15 feet deep, the barge-based conveyor system would work well and overcome that limitation. No ships would enter the barge canal; only barges.

To participate in the network of ports, Busack said, Citrus County would need to follow a series of steps.

The first step has already been taken, and that is the establishment of a port authority. The county has had a Port Authority since 1984, which is actually the county commission. The authority should begin meeting, he said, and the county would next need to get the state Legislature to designate the port as pubic from its current designation as private.

If successful at the Legislature level, the county could then apply to the Florida Department of Transportation and obtain funds for a study of the barge canal. The county could then join the organization that governs the network of ports, and then lease the needed property along the barge canal from property owners.

The county would have little, or no, investment in the port project, as the costs would be borne by those companies behind the network of ports wanting to offload at the port.

County commissioners were impressed by the Busack's presentation, and voted unanimously to pursue the project, and to hire a $50,000-a-year lobbyist to make it happen, given the short fuse actionable items can be processed in the Legislature. Two state statutes will have to be amended to list Citrus County as an established port.

Even County Attorney Richard Wesch said he thought the idea of turning the barge canal into a public port was sound. "It could be a real game-changer for our county," he said.

During public comment, however, there was a sense of both shock and awe.

Citrus County Council President Theodora Rusnak said that Busack's presentation came as a real shocker "for the whole public." She said this was the first time anyone had heard of this, and wanted to know how far the barges would come up the canal and how it would impact the "Hollinswood Harbor" development.

Busack said the bridge at Inglis would be the farthest any barge could go, especially since the new bridge was built lower than the old one.

The Citrus County Council has historically been against projects that would affect the welfare of manatees in the barge canal. The council is a consortium of civic clubs, homeowners associations and environmental groups, which includes the Save The Manatee Club. They took issue with the idea that the manatees in the Cross Florida Barge canal weren't in any danger from the Hollinswood Harbor development, and saw increased boat traffic as a danger to the few manatees who go there en route to feeding and birthing areas along the Withlacoochee River.

Others who spoke during the public comment portion of the commission meeting were supportive of the project, all expressing a kind of awe that such economic activity might be possible in the largely unused barge canal.

County commissioners are all on board with the project, as evidenced by their unanimous vote to go ahead with the project. "One thing a lot of people people in this county do not realize," said Commission Chairman Dennis Damato, "is that in the northwest portion of Citrus County there is a tremendous amount of capital assets that are under-utilized. They're just sitting there." And one of those assets is the barge canal, he said.

"There is no down side to move aggressively on the proposed plan of action that has been presented today," Damato said.

Commissioner Joe Meek said that a port, the geographic location of Citrus County with its barge canal and other considerations are unique to Citrus County. "This is an opportunity for Citrus County. It has a potential for a huge economic impact and be a huge economic driver in our community, and I think we do what's necessary to move forward with this plan of action."

Both Meek and Commissioner Rebecca Bays noted that Florida is fast becoming a hub taking advantage of a change in world trade routes. "If we're talking about a return on our investment, this is the first thing that I have seen in many, many years in Citrus County that offers the opportunity to have jobs that pay good living wages to takes us out of the economic slump we've been riding through construction. You want business to boom? Bring this to town," Bays said.

Commissioner Webb equated the port to getting in on the ground floor of Google, Dell Computer or Yahoo. "We've just seen something that's going to happen with or without us," Webb said. "We need to get going."

Commissioner J.J. Kenney said, "What a unique concept - a barge port on the barge canal. Wow! This is a no-brainer, a real no-brainer. It's not going to happen overnight, but we're there now - and shame on us if we don't move forward in this endeavor."

Kenney added, "If we can pull this sucker off, we're looking at prosperity."