The Port of Iberia Board of Commissioners swore in its newest member and received its annual audit during its regular monthly meeting Tuesday night.

Shane Walet was sworn in to replace outgoing member Gene Jeffries, representing the village of Loreauville. Jeffries announced his resignation in December, citing health issues.

“It is unfortunate that Mr. Gene had to resign,” Walet said after taking the oath. “But his resignation sparked interest in me. The port’s a main artery for the community. You see things here that you don’t see anywhere else. It’s very vital to our community, to Loreauville.”

Commissioners also heard from auditor John Istre with Broussard Poche L.L.P., who walked the board through the 2018 audit of the port’s finances.

Although the port’s liquid assets rose from $24 million to $30 million in the previous fiscal year, it also operated at a $300,000 loss on paper due to depreciation and the writing off of bad debt in the previous year, Istre said.

“This is not necessarily a bad thing,” Istre said. “Your loss due to depreciation is because of the improvements you have made and the depreciation on those improvements.”

Commissioner Larry Rader asked whether the depreciation loss required any adjustment in the port’s strategy.

“How do we address this?” Rader asked. “Does that mean we have to go up on our lease rates, or do we need to cut expenses?”

“Both,” Istre replied. “Even though this is a paper loss, it means you need to have funds in reserve to replace this property when it approaches the end of its useful life.”

Overall, Istre declared the report “a clean audit” with an unqualified opinion and no management findings.

The board discussed one of those depreciated assets, an office building currently leased to All Points Equipment Company, which will have to be replaced. But the port administration is weighing its options based on the time All Points has left on its lease.

“They have an option for a five-year extension,” Port Executive Director Craig Romero said. “So I told them if they send me a letter extending, then we can do something.”

The board discussed two options, either replacing the structure with temporary buildings or building a new office on the site. No decision was reached. Romero said he would have more details at the February meeting.

Romero also floated the idea of securing permission to use funds the port has been saving for its Acadiana Gulf of Mexico Access Channel (AGMAC) dredging project for dredging within the port until the larger-scale project is approved to move forward. The proposal was accepted, but Commissioner Roy Pontiff questioned the depth to which the administration would be allowed to dredge.

“If we can only dredge to 14 feet now, and the AGMAC depth will be 16 feet, I don’t want us to have to go back and re-dredge all of the inside of the port,” Pontiff said.

The AGMAC project would allow for the dredging of a 16-foot deep channel all the way from the port to the Gulf of Mexico via the Intracoastal Canal. It would allow for bulkheads and dredging of more than 14 miles of the Commercial Canal to meet the Intracoastal south of the port.

Romero said he would verify the permitted dredging depth and report back to the board.