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The county on Tuesday unanimously approved the beginning of the process of studying Port Citrus for economic viability.
The Citrus County Port Authority, a.k.a. county commission, approved the release of a Request for Qualification (RFQ) "on the street" to seek companies who might want to use the port for economic activity.
The port authority will choose a company from among all the applicants and that company will do a feasibility study to see how the port could best be used to help the local economy.
"The feasibility study is an RFQ to qualify a firm to do a study," said Port Administrator, a.k.a. County Administrator, Brad Thorpe. Once done, it'll be up to Port Authority to rank firms and then a firm with the best ranking will negotiate with the county staff before the study begins. "We've had over 10 firms contact us already," Thorpe said.
There are two important dates that those who wish to compete for the study will have to observe. The first date is Dec. 12, which will be a homework session for firms to answer any questions they may have.
The second date is Jan. 20, 2012 - the submittal date that bidding firms must meet to qualify.
"We have been in contact with chairman of FSTED and Ports Council to fine tune this RFQ - we did not create this in a vacuum," Thorpe said. We have gotten their approval of our draft, which is a 'broad scope' view, rather than getting into the weeds."
For the full article, visit the Citrus Daily.
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