Commissioners on the Port of Iberia Board are optimistic about their financial position, despite an audit of the last fiscal year showing lower revenues. 

“Our revenue is down from the previous year, but we’ve located three new tenants since the completion of the fiscal year reported,” Port of Iberia President Roy Pontiff said. 

The audit covered the fiscal year spanning from June 2016 to June 2017. It was presented to the board by John Istre, of Broussard, Poche LLC, at the board’s regular meeting Friday afternoon. The meeting was initially scheduled for earlier in the week, but after several weather-related cancellations, the board finally met at noon on Friday. 

“Even though we’re not real happy with the numbers, we still have a positive cash flow, and with new tenants, we should be able to at least bump us up to where we were,”  Pontiff said.

Revenues were down from around $4 million the previous year to around $3.4 million for fiscal year 2017, but the port’s overall net position was up by about $12 million, at $101 million, said Istre. 

“If expenses stay the same, we ought to look much better this time next year,” Pontiff said.

Port of Iberia Executive Director Craig Romero also had good news for the board: port tenant Logan Industries wants to expand on their property, Romero said. 

“They came to us, they said ‘we need more space,’ ” he said. “They’re wanting to expand another 20,000 feet to their 30,000-foot building.” 

Romero estimates the expansion could add an additional $110,000 to $130,000 in lease revenues from the company. He said an initial estimate of the cost of the expansion was between $2 and $2.4 million. 

Gerald Gesser, of Gesser Group APC, briefed the board on Crosby Energy Service’s progress in getting up and running at the port. 

“Crosby has moved in,” Gesser said. 

“Craig (Romero) has been out there every day checking on them, and I don’t believe there are any issues,” he said. 

He said improvements and changes CES requested from the port have been completed. Romero said the company has will begin hiring soon with plans to begin fabrication by Feb. 1. 

“All the repairs are done,” Romero said. “They claim they can hire 60 people within six months.”