While officials attempted to get the ball rolling with more than a year's worth of meetings, legislation to fine-tune the Connecticut Port Authority, created by law last year, was essentially figured out at the last minute by being stuffed into the nearly 700-page implementer passed by the Connecticut General Assembly early Tuesday morning.

The new port authority, which comes into existence Wednesday, will have jurisdiction over state harbors and ports, and primarily will be responsible for marketing the state's three deepwater ports: New London, Bridgeport and New Haven.

Of local impact is the intent to have the port authority be the new landlord at State Pier. Currently the Connecticut Department of Transportation serves that role.

The main lease at State Pier is with Logistec serving as terminal operator for the facility, aside from a small part of the pier that is leased to the Thames River Seafood Co-op. The periods of the two leases coincide, with both due to expire Jan. 31, 2016.

Frank Vannelli, senior vice president for Commercial & Business Development at Logistec Stevedoring Inc., said in a recent interview that Connecticut is one of the few states in the country without a port authority and that the intention to create one makes sense.

Vannelli emphasized the great relationship Logistec has with the state and DOT. He said in an email that Logistec is "also growing and developing our business relationship" with the state's Department of Economic and Community Development.

"We are the current operator today and will work with new Port authority to market and develop cargoes for New London," Vanelli said in his email. "Our goal is to remain on site under a long-term agreement."

While it officially becomes an entity on Wednesday, a lot of work must be done for the port authority to become fully operational, including the creation of a board and the hiring of an executive director.

Certain provisions in the refined legislation won't go into effect until July 1, 2016, because legislators and the administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy didn't want to immediately transfer authority of existing operations to the new quasi-public entity, to avoid disruption, said Garrett Eucalitto, undersecretary for transportation policy and planning at the state Office of Policy and Management.

Over time, the state will establish a memorandum with DOT to begin to transfer its maritime functions to the port authority, including control of its grants-in-aid program used to fund infrastructure improvements, mainly dredging, at the small to mid-size harbors that line the state's coastline from Greenwich to Stonington.

Those involved with the state's small to mid-size harbors remain concerned, as they have throughout the legislative process and even before, that their needs won't be addressed under the port authority.

Of great concern is that transferring control over the grants-in-aid program will not guarantee the smaller harbors get the funding they've received in the past.

Ned Farman, vice-chair of the Old Lyme Harbor Management Commission, said the town is unsure how the legislation will impact its application to the state to dredge the Black Hall and Four Mile rivers.

The combined cost of the projects is estimated to be $1.5 million to $2 million, Farman said, adding that there's no way the town could pay that on its own. The Four Mile River, in particular, is expensive because of the Amtrak bridge that goes across it.

"We're waiting," Farman said. "It's very difficult to know what will happen."

The bond bill sets aside about $17 million for the grants-in-aid program, at least $5 million of which is for non-deepwater ports. Eucalitto says that's a minimum of $5 million each year but the number can go above that based on projects each year and the bond commission's agenda.

Geoff Steadman, a coastal area planning consultant who is on the board of the Connecticut Harbor Management Association, said everyone should be able to compete and "apply equally."

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will take over certain responsibilities for the DOT like supervising the state's local harbormasters, who are appointed directly by the governor, and receive a modest $500 a year to perform their duties.

They are responsible for the safe and efficient operation of their respective harbors and navigable waterways.

The department will also have primary purview over local harbor management plans, but, Eucalitto said, DEEP will need to consult with the port authority given its central role in the grants-in-aid program.

Ultimately the board of the port authority, Eucalitto said, will decide its level of involvement.

The 2014 port authority legislation established a port authority working group to make recommendations that DECD could then put into a report for the governor and the General Assembly.

The working group held meetings over the course of a year and a half to solicit recommendations for the report, including from representatives of the small to mid-size harbors who expressed their concerns at being left out.

"We tried to raise issues that we hoped would make the bill better," Steadman said.

j.bergman@theday.com

Twitter: @JuliaSBergman