PORT ANGELES — Bill Greenwood, executive director of the Clallam County Economic Development Council, predicted Thursday that 250 new jobs will be created in Clallam County by next spring.
He gave his glimpse into the future to a new, smaller and partially seated EDC board of directors at its regular monthly meeting.
Greenwood based his prediction on conversations with about two dozen entrepreneurs from January through March.
“We are learning of more and more companies that are expecting to hire more people,” Greenwood said. “The numbers are quite high. It’s not a trickle.”
In a later interview, Greenwood said most of the expanding businesses are in Port Angeles and Sequim but would not identify them, saying the information is proprietary.
The first full board meeting is April 30, when the panel is expected to switch to a quarterly-meeting format and into full gear with 17 members, up from the 11 who met Thursday because all the members have not yet been named.
They replace a 27-member board that dissolved March 19 under new bylaws that had to be circumvented in order for the board to have a quorum and ratify action at the meeting.
At the meeting, Eric Lewis, CEO of Olympic Medical Center, also touted as “a huge game-changer” the construction by 2016 of an $18 million, outpatient-oriented Caroline Street medical office building across from Olympic Medical Center.
“Outpatient care has grown tremendously,” he said.
Board member Ryan Malane of Black Ball Ferry Line said about 20 tour companies are interested in serving the growing market of tourists from Victoria who are visiting Port Angeles and the surrounding area, such as Hurricane Ridge.
But Greenwood and Lewis lamented the absence of commercial passenger service from William R. Fairchild International Airport in Port Angeles to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Lewis said it deflates OMC’s ability to hire qualified physicians — not to mention having an impact on patients now forced to drive to take buses, shuttles or charter flights to Seattle.
“We need direct air flights,” Lewis said, adding that the issue of runway-hindering trees also must be resolved.
Port of Port Angeles staff held a conference call Thursday with Ben Munson of Forecast Inc., for an update on the consultant’s air service market study for the port.
“There’s no committed carriers, but we’re communicating with several different airlines,” Munson said after the meeting.
Munson will give his next update to port commissioners at their regular April 28 meeting, he said.
Greenwood and Lewis also said the North Olympic Peninsula needs good schools as an incentive for economic growth.
“The school system we do have is unfortunately a major negative,” Greenwood said. “It’s a hard sell.”
Greenwood’s comments echoed his March 19 message to the Port Angeles City Council, when he said entrepreneurs are dismayed that Port Angeles and Sequim voters rejected school-construction bond measures.
Board members on the new board who joined Lewis and Malane were Hugh Haffner; Clallam Public Utility District; Don Butler, High Energy Metals Inc., Sequim; past president Ken Hays, Sequim City Council; Linda Dillard, Clallam Bay-Sekiu Chamber of Commerce; Larry Hueth, First Federal; Doug Sellon, Jamestown S’Klallam tribe; Brad Collins, Port Angeles City Council member; Colleen McAleer, Port of Port Angeles commissioner; and Orville Campbell, private sector representative for Port Angeles.
Board members elected Randy Johnson of Green Crow Corp. as board president, Sellon as vice president and Malane as secretary-treasurer.
The remaining members are expected to be named by the EDC’s participating members by the April 30 meeting.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
