Stakeholders called for new Wilmington port facilities on a tight timeline to compete with neighboring states at an inaugural port expansion task force meeting Wednesday.
The task force includes state and port officials and union representatives, among others. State Rep. Charles Potter, Jr. (D-Wilmington North) helped get it formed earlier this year .
"A project like this -- we can't afford to wait two or three years," Potter says. "We've gotta get it started … keep our competitive edge and act now to get it done."
The task force is weighing how to expand current port facilities and where to build new ones -- all without major impacts to existing users, jobs or the environment.
Potter says they've identified a couple of sites downriver that could house new public-private facilities -- including a site at Riveredge he says is shovel-ready and would create 17,000 jobs.
But they're hoping to build directly onto the current port, too -- from where it sits on the Christina River, out onto the Delaware River. He says local union workers weighed in on that at their first meeting.
"Anything we do is not to take away from what we have," Potter says. "So we don't want anybody thinking there's going to be a loss of jobs. We're looking to expand what we have."
The group also talked about courting new customers for the potential new facilities. Those could include Walmart, Wawa and the agricultural sector. That's in addition to the Port of Wilmington's longtime anchor tenant, Dole.
Potter says all that, plus Wilmington's established local workforce and location, could give it an edge over ports in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
"We want to take a look at what their timetable is for expansion as well," he says. "We don't want to be like … all the other ones who bypass you because you're sitting still."
The next task force meeting is set for Sept. 30, when Potter says they'll dig into details of projects like Riveredge, and talk more about environmental impacts. The group is set to bring its findings back to the legislature next January in hopes of finding state funds for environmental studies and more.
