Small-Road Briefs: NOPB/Port NOLA, SMART
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s SEBconnect online portal and app connects small and emerging business owners in real-time with available contracting, purchasing and new business opportunities at the Convention Center, New Orleans Public Belt Railroad and the Port of New Orleans.
New Orleans Public Belt Railroad (NOPB) and the Port of New Orleans (Port NOLA) join New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center’s online portal and app that connects small and emerging businesses with available contracting and purchasing opportunities. Also, SMART Freight in California mulls a return to storing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tank cars.
NOPB / Port NOLA
The New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center on Jan. 29 reported that NOPB and Port NOLA are now part of its online portal and app, SEBconnect, which was “designed to create awareness and educate small and emerging business (SEB) owners in real-time about available contracting, purchasing and new business opportunities.”
SEBconnect launched in 2019, and since that time, more than $43 million in contracts have been awarded to area SEBs and disadvantaged business enterprises by the Convention Center. SEBconnect has now expanded to connect businesses to the most up-to-date contracts and purchasing offerings at the Port and NOPB, a Class III that connects with the six Class I’s (BNSF, CN, CSX, Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific) and serves Port NOLA and local companies.
“Local and small businesses play such a critical role in the economic vitality of our region, and we are thrilled to partner with the New Orleans Convention Center,” said Port NOLA President and CEO and NOPB CEO Brandy Christian. “Port NOLA is proud to report that we invested nearly $20 million in fiscal year 2023 to support local small and disadvantaged businesses, and we look forward to continued collaboration with our partners to maximize the impact for our small business community.”
“We are extremely excited to be working with the Port of New Orleans and New Orleans Public Belt Railroad on this endeavor, as we continue to build a network of opportunities that will enhance the growth and prosperity of our small business community,” said Michael Sawaya, President and CEO of the Convention Center.
Dayle Hernandez is among the local business owners using SEBconnect. His company, Source One Facilities Services, LLC, secured a contract through the app and now provides janitorial services and supplemental event labor for the Convention Center. “Upon receiving a notification from the SEBconnect app about a newly posted request for quotation, our team was able to swiftly receive, access, and respond,” he said. “The convenience of the user-friendly mobile app ensured our team was efficient and secured success.”
SMART
SMART (Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit) General Manager Eddy Cumins told the Sonoma Valley Community Advisory Commission that the company’s Board is considering a return to LPG tank car storage in Schellville, a community in Sonoma County, according to a Jan. 29 report by The Sonoma Index-Tribune. SMART runs a 45-mile commuter rail system and offers freight rail service in Sonoma and Marin counties (see map of freight services routes above).
“SMART has some serious financial challenges in regards to its freight division,” Cumins said, according to the newspaper. “The bottom line is we’re spending more money than we have coming in and it’s not sustainable. Storing LPG tankers is not SMART’s primary solution, but we absolutely have to find a way to fill this funding gap.” The LPG would be used in Martinez refinery plants, Cumins said.
According to the newspaper, storing the LPG tank cars is “a 180-degree reversal from the decision to remove the tankers” in 2021 following a public outcry regarding safety. It noted that SMART’s Board of Directors had “signed a 30-year agreement in 2017 with rail operators to allow the rail company [SMART] to continue storing the tankers [in] Schellville,” where up to 80 cars were stored between 2016 and 2021.
After Sonoma residents pushed SMART to remove the cars in November 2021, SMART lost $466,000 and its storage revenue “has cratered since to $7,500 in 2023,” according to The Sonoma Index-Tribune.
“SMART’s board of directors unanimously voted to create an in-house freight rail division in January 2022 and expand freight rail services in the North Bay,” the paper reported. “But the market for freight services has not made up the storage revenue from the LPG tankers.”
“Our operations revenue is about $1.6 million, and our operating expenses are about $2.2 million giving us almost $600,000 gap,” said Cumins, according to the paper.
According to The Sonoma Index-Tribune, Cumins “noted the public’s concerns” and told the Commission about tank car safety features and the rail industry’s safety record—“fewer than 1% of all train accidents resulted in hazmat materials being released” between 2009 and 2019, the paper said.
The newspaper reported that “[o]nce the SMART board makes a decision on how to make up the operating deficit—functionally authorizing whether to bring back LPG tankers—then Cumins will authorize studies and gain permits to review the potential environmental hazards.”
“We’re going to have to dot i’s and cross t’s,” Cumins said, according to the paper. “We’re a government agency, we’re accountable to everybody—we know that… We wouldn’t just be cowboys and try and do our own thing.”
The Sonoma Index-Tribune reported that the next SMART Board meeting is Feb. 21.
