View from the 'on-ramps to the river': Dan Overbey shares his perspective from 22 years as executive director of the Semo Port

Dan Overbey's been working at the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority for the past 22 years. He's seen it grow and expand its products, and has even been through some of its tougher financial situations. But through it all, he's remained committed and enjoyed the many aspects of his job.

Read on as Overbey talks about his history at the Port, and what he enjoys most about working with "the on-ramps to the river."

__BT: How did you get started with the Semo Port and how has your work changed over the years?__

__DO:__ I grew up in Sikeston, Missouri, my wife Gail in Benton, Missouri, and we met in freshman English class at Southeast Missouri State University. Later, we went to school in Texas. I worked in the railroad and trucking industries before we returned to Cape Girardeau. Gail teaches in the psychology department at the university.

In 1993, I had been working several years at Drury Development Corp. in commercial real estate development. I served on Cape's Airport Advisory Board with Alan Maki, executive director of the Port at that time. Alan asked if I would be interested in working at the Port. Since Drury Development's properties were being redistributed among other Drury companies at that time, I gave him a resume. Awhile later, Alan left the Port, and the chairman, Ms. Mysie Keene, recalled seeing my resume on Alan's desk. I was called as one of several people to be interviewed for the job.

Dan Overbey, executive director of the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority, poses for a photo. (Laura Simon)

Let me note that Ms. Keene, while definitely a lady, asked to be called "chairman" the same as the gentlemen of the Port board -- no more, no less, and she did not like the term "chair," as that was a piece of furniture. She was a treasure, extremely sharp and very good to work with. The Port has always been blessed with exceptional board members, for which I am thankful to the two county commissions.

The work really hasn't changed over the years. We are still trying to develop a good place for companies to move goods -- transportation and distribution -- focused on river transportation (barge service) in addition to truck and rail. We are not an industrial park. We develop sites above flood elevation, adding transportation access (streets, railroad tracks, barge docks) and access to utilities. The challenge is that we have a limited amount of land on which to do this.

The other key point is that we must be able to pay our bills. We do not receive subsidy money from the counties, and what land we develop we must be able to lease at a rent that lets us pay our bills, maintain the Port-owned infrastructure and provide some seed money for future growth. With the long-term land leases, the rents we charge now will determine the success or failure of the Port for decades into the future.

__BT: Can you briefly explain the Port and the general activities of the Port on a daily basis?__

__DO:__ There are two parts to the Port. There is a small little agency, officially the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority, which is governed by nine people serving on its board of commissioners and who are appointed by the county commissions of Scott and Cape Girardeau counties. There are five full-time people (myself and four others) who work for the port authority.

Dan Overbey, executive director of the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority, poses for a photo. (Laura Simon)

The greater part of the Port is the companies who lease land and operate facilities at the Port. They are Midwest Agri-Chemico, First Missouri Terminals, Girardeau Stevedores and Contractors, Consolidated Grain and Barge, Missouri Fibre Corp. and SEMO Milling. Several other companies operate through these facilities or through railroad spur tracks for rail-truck transfers. These include Midwest Grain & Barge, Agri-Trans, Nestle Purina PetCare, Southern Illinois Motor Express, Doe Run Co., Inter-Rail Systems, Mid-South Wire, Select Plastics, DCO and Motive Rail. Many other companies operate trucks in and out or handle products through the Port's terminal companies. There are a lot of farmers who bring their grain crops to the elevators at Semo Port.

__BT: What are your main tasks as executive director of the Port?__

__DO:__ A little bit of everything. Because we are such a small group at the Port office, we try to keep each other informed and up to date so we can handle things (at least somewhat) when others are out. Part of my work is laying out plans for the Port 20 and 30 years in the future, trying to tie that into what we have now, and making pieces of the puzzle to get us from here to there.

__BT: Why is the Port an important asset to have in Southeast Missouri? Specifically, how does it benefit Cape Girardeau and Scott counties?__

__DO:__ Missouri has 11 active port authorities, and three in the planning stages. It also has 114 counties, so by far, most counties are not on a navigable river and do not have port authorities. Scott and Cape counties are fortunate to be on the Mississippi River and had the foresight in 1975 to start Semo Port. Ports are, as the Missouri Port Authority Association calls them, "on-ramps to the river." Ports provide an economical way for many smaller companies to access the river when they could not otherwise afford their own barge dock or terminal. We are fortunate to have something that 100 other Missouri counties do not have.

__BT: What's your future at the Port? Any plans of retirement? What do you hope to do with your free time someday?__

__DO:__ We're working on that, but it's a bit down the road yet. I'd like to ease down the hours, eventually go part time and still help some where I can, but keep out of the way.

__BT: How has the Port grown since you began working there?__

__DO:__ I don't spend much time looking back because there's so much ahead yet to be done. Many good people worked hard to bring the Port where it is today. The original board met month after month, trying to figure out, "How the heck do you start this thing?" and "Where can we find some money?" They built a small dock -- a big project at that time -- before the harbor was even a dream.

When I came on in 1993, we had the harbor, Russ Mothershead's liquid fertilizer tank and the main dock, which Girardeau Stevedores had just leased. We had a gravel road and a water line, but no paved roads, no railroad, no sewers, no gas and no electric. The two companies each had septic tanks and their own portable generators. We were close to going broke, but we had prospects for land leases, but they needed some basic infrastructure (corps permits, roads, railroad tracks) before they would sign. We had a $1.2 million federal grant approved, but needed an $800,000 local match -- which we did not have. At the next board meeting, I offered some alternatives, including taking out a mortgage. Board member Bill Bess, from First National Bank in Sikeston, chomped on his cigar, looked around the table and said, with a moment of silence and then a slow drawl, "You ain't got nothing to mortgage."

Well, that was true, but the board got together, with Bill helping lead the way, and got the two counties to cosign on a loan for $1 million -- just like you do for a teenager trying to buy a car. We got the grant, got the infrastructure, got the tenants and only drew down about $600,000 on the loan. A few years down the road, we paid off the loan.

Since then we've paid our bills, grown our tonnage, grown the railroad and had enough money to match several more grants to continue growing the Port.

__BT: What's the best part of your job? What do you enjoy the most?__

__DO:__ First, the many wonderful, good, interesting people you get to know and work with. I get to look out my window across the Port, the harbor and the river. I get to hear the train crew crank up their train engines -- General Motors mid-1950s model GP9s, 1750 horsepower V-16s, the same sound and same kind of engines I watched switch Gristo Feeds at Sikeston when I was a kid. (The engines have been rebuilt three or four times over the years, but they're still going.)

I get to watch the switchboat -- the Curtis Moore or the John Walker -- bring a barge down the river, then swing around in the current, making a big half-circle as it floats downstream before revving up to come into the harbor. I get to see the trucks lining up at harvest to get into the grain elevators -- big trucks, tractor-trailers, bigger than those in most countries around the world. American agriculture at its best. So too for the little box trucks, even an occasional pickup truck with a small trailer, standing in line right there with the big fellows, all selling their bushels into the world markets, right here. I get to look out our office window, across the parking lot, and sometimes see deer or turkeys. We can look up the river, past Cape Bend and Marquette Island, and see a rainstorm two miles away coming downriver -- and watch it come at us -- and maybe see a rainbow out east past the wood chip mill's crane. Not bad. Beats a big-city downtown high-rise office building.