I stopped by the JAX Chamber Transportation & Logistics Council
(T&L Council) luncheon on Thursday. It has been mentioned to me several times that this is the ‘best’ council… Of course, President Scott Lane of Beaver Street Fisheries also made that statement several times from the front of the room, so there’s a little bit of peer pressure going on… But maybe that’s just the Downtown Council part of me saying that!

There was a good and lively crowd- plenty of people were on hand and Tina Robbins of the JAX Chamber signed up several new members on the spot (including me). 

Frank Castillo, President of Feeding Northeast Florida, gave a quick but impassioned talk about the work they do to help feed people in need. He pointed out that it might be easy to think ‘that’s not my problem,’ but hunger and poverty affects everyone, regardless of the zip code you live in. A collection bowl was passed around and the amount doubled by the Logistics Council- over $750 was raised right there on the spot! 

The featured speaker of the day was Ananth Prasad, President-designate for the Florida Transportation Builder’s Associatation. Ananth spoke about some of the projects currently under way, as well as the plans for projects on a much longer term. He discussed some of the concerns about how to pay for infrastructure, going forward. With automotive gas efficiency increases, and therefore gas tax revenue decreases, the outlook for funding is not good unless something changes. 

So I’m not ready to agree it’s the ‘best’ council, I will say it appears to be a ‘good’ one, and one worthy of a return visit in 2019. I will be back, and encourage you to visit, too. 

Thanks for reading.