North Star Port

U R AUTUMN ISSUE of North Star Port magazine always includes a nod to Thanksgiving, so it seems pertinent to pause and share what I'm thankful for this year in my role as executive director. For starters, I'm thankful for the oppor- tunity to fill this role for the Duluth Seaway Port Authority. When I was selected for the job in 2018, I truly viewed it as a gift, and I have not ceased to think of it that way. Port authority and port work is incredibly diverse and sits at the intersec- tion of many professional skill sets, educational backgrounds, and career trajectories. I'd say the common denominator is a bend toward problem-solving and a willingness to dive into and through a problem to solve it. Some people luckily enter into this line of work early in their career, but I've met many happy individuals, from port authority CEOs to terminal oper- ators, to port and terminal staff, that have found this work on a second or third career transition. I fall in this latter camp. Every week I am astounded by the work we do, and my fortune in getting to interact with a wide variety of industries, and of people displaying diverse thought processes and expertise. I'm filled with gratitude for the fantastic teams at the Duluth Seaway Port Authority and Duluth Cargo Connect. This may sound trite — to brag about the team. But I love that we are mobilized around a shared mission that we care about. I appre- ciate that each of my team members is a whole person on their own life trajectory, and that as much as they serve the team's needs, our organization also plays a role in their life path and development. I try to make time in my day to enjoy that aspect of the work. Looking back, I am thankful for the series of strategic, sequential capital expenditure infrastructure projects we've defined and completed over the past seven years. We've trans- formed the Clure Public Marine Terminal, adding whole new services and more capacity. This, in turn, has provided modal flexibility, enabling us to better serve our regional industries by serving up flexible supply chain solutions to help keep them globally competitive. This didn't happen by accident, and our effective and nimble planning has enabled us to capture $50 million in competitive state and federal grants to make these projects happen. I'm thankful for good partners at the local, state and federal level. Our congressional and state representatives, and also our local government leaders, engage in a tough playing field week in and week out. Our economic development partners help leverage our work and extend our influence, while broad- ening our experience, knowledge, and capabilities. They also bring fun to the process. I enjoy the congeniality of our fellow Great Lakes port and maritime colleagues, as well as their coastal counterparts, and am thankful for the trade associations that ably represent these folk. While there is undeniably competition between the ports, there is also great cooperation and a collectivism in our ability to act. There is no better illustration of the Great Lakes maritime industry 's ability to collaborate than how we turned out in-force to urge the Canadian government to directly engage in the Seaway strike to bring the two parties to resolution (see pages 2-3). In closing, it's been another year of progress for our port, for which I'm certainly thankful, and we're looking forward to even more in the year to come. Wishing you a wonderful holiday season! O DULUTHPORT.COM | 1 THE HARBOR LINE Deb DeLuca Executive Director A NEWLY CONSTRUCTED 56,000-SQUARE- FOOT WAREHOUSE OPENED AT THE CLURE PUBLIC MARINE TERMINAL IN SEPTEMBER, FEATURING FIVE TRUCK BAYS AND AN ENCLOSED RAILCAR DOCK. IT'S PART OF A MULTIFACETED $20.3 MILLION PROJECT FOR THE PORT AUTHORITY THAT ALSO INCLUDES 850 LINEAR FEET OF DOCK WALL RECONSTRUCTION FOR TWO OF THE TERMINAL'S SHIP BERTHS. PHOTO / Kevin Jacobsen

• Cover