PORT ANGELES — Clallam County will award a $1 million grant to the Port of Port Angeles for development of a proposed composites recycling center.
The three county commissioners Monday agreed to tap the Opportunity Fund to help the port complete a 25,000-square-foot building at 2220 W. 18th St. near William R. Fairchild International Airport in Port Angeles.
The $5.3 million Composite Recycling Technology Center has the potential to produce 111 jobs within five years at annual incomes ranging from $35,000 to $72,000, port officials said.
The recycling center would be part of a composites campus anchored by Angeles Composites Technologies Inc. and Westport Shipyard cabinet shops.
Commissioners Monday directed staff to prepare the paperwork to award the money. A formal vote will be taken Tuesday, May 12.
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Commissioner Jim McEntire said.
“We’ve got to take prudent, intelligent risks and manage them.”
The port has received preliminary approval of $2 million in federal funds and $712,000 from the state for the composites center.
The port, city of Port Angeles and Peninsula College will fund the rest with cash and in-kind contributions such as fee waivers and staff time.
Port officials have said the center will house recycling machinery to process carbon-fiber scrap trimmed from aerospace components, classes and labs for the Peninsula College Advanced Manufacturing-Composites Technology program and startup space for potential manufacturers.
“As exciting as this project is, that’s not what our board is using the Opportunity Fund for,” County Administrator Jim Jones told port officials Monday.
“We’re using it to give to the port to build a public port facility, and you guys have come up with this exciting project that is going to be your tenant. But even if for some reason in the world that doesn’t work out, the Opportunity Fund money was used simply to create an economic building that can be used for economic development far into the future. That’s what our action here is about.”
The Opportunity Fund, which consists of sales taxes returned to the county by the state Department of Commerce, can only be used for infrastructure projects and personnel in economic development offices.
The Opportunity Fund Board voted 5-1 April 23 to recommend the $1 million expenditure for the port building.
“It will be there for years to come,” Port Commissioner Colleen McAleer told the county board.
Advisory board members Mike McAleer, Dan Leinan, Joe Murray, Bill Hermann and Alan Barnard voted to allocate the money to the port.
Board member Sharon DelaBarre was absent because of a medical emergency but sent a letter casting the lone no vote.
Mike McAleer, Opportunity Fund Board vice chair and Colleen McAleer’s father, said DelaBarre’s concerns would have likely been assuaged at the recent meeting.
Jennifer States, port director of business development, said Gov. Jay Inslee issued a statement in support of the project Monday.
States read Inslee’s statement to the county commissioners.
“I commit $712,000 of our state’s Clean Energy Fund as a partial match for this innovative project, which will lower greenhouse gas while delivering much-needed jobs in Port Angeles and expand jobs across the state,” Inslee said.
The port already has allocated $190,000 to Mount Vernon-based Carletti Architects for the building’s interior design.
Composites are lightweight, extremely durable materials consisting of carbon fibers imbedded in polymer resins.
They are typically produced in sheets that are molded into components like aircraft wing struts.
Examples of items manufactured from recycled carbon-fiber composite materials include bicycle frames, snowboards, stand-up surfboards and paddles, kayak paddles, guitar bodies, computer cases and automobile hood liners, roofs and seat frames and backs.
McEntire said the building will be a “durable asset for the entire county.”
Chapman thanked McAleer, States and port Executive Director Ken O’Hollaren for working with various governments to bring the project to fruition.
“I’ve been excited about this project since I heard about it two years ago,” Jones said.
“I am especially interested in the port now potentially having the anchor tenant it needs to put in a commercial barge dock. I think the transportation issue is the one issue that is holding us back from really being able to participate in the economic development of the region, because it just costs so dang much money to ship back and forth 75 miles to the I-5 corridor.”
Jones said a barge dock would attract businesses to Port Angeles.
“I think once this gets going, we’re going to look back and say this was the item that really started us out of the doldrums,” Jones said of the composites center.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
