PORT ANGELES — As local leaders make one last effort to secure state funding for Harbor-Works, a recently formed group of people opposed to the public development authority continues to gather signatures for a petition urging the government to just say no.
Port Angeles resident John Ford, of Citizens for Fiscal Restraint & Public Accountability, said he will present a second installment of signatures on the petition to the City Council on Tuesday.
Ford, while representing the informal group of approximately 15 people at the last council meeting July 20, provided the city with about 450 signatures.
He said he collected another 150 at Walmart in Port Angeles on Saturday but doesn’t know how many others have collected over the last two weeks.
“We are going to have more signatures in the future,” Ford added, confidently.
The petitioners said they are opposed to the Harbor-Works Development Authority acquiring Rayonier Inc.’s former mill site.
Harbor-Works’ goal is to expedite the environmental cleanup of the property, now in its 10th year, and kick start its redevelopment.
The issue for members of the group, they said, and for those who sign the petition, is the possibility of state Department from Ecology money being used for the cleanup of the 75-acre property on the eastern shore of Port Angeles Harbor if it is placed under public ownership.
“Rayonier has got to be responsible 100 percent,” Ford said.
Representatives of Harbor-Works, along with the city and Port of Port Angeles — who believe that the public development authority is the way to keep the cleanup of the property, and eventual redevelopment, from dragging for another decade or more — said they are not trying to transfer the burden of the cleanup to the taxpayers.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean the company would cover all of the costs if a deal is made.
While Rayonier, with any deal, would pay for the estimated cost of cleanup, Harbor-Works said it would still need money to ensure the company that it could cover any costs over that amount.
Harbor-Works is looking for $4 million from Ecology’s environmental cleanup fund to cover that contingency, said its executive director, Jeff Lincoln.
Rayonier, which notified Harbor-Works on July 21 it is no longer interested in negotiations, has said it’s not interested in a deal unless the public development authority brings with it some contribution for the cleanup.
Harbor-Works, the city and port representatives — who are meeting with Ecology and Gov. Chris Gregoire’s chief of staff this week in the hopes of securing that $4 million — are hoping that it would be enough to bring the company back to the bargaining table.
They also said it’s been the plan to seek that money since the city, with support from the port, created Harbor-Works more than two years ago, and deny that they mislead people by saying that no public funds would be used on the cleanup if the public development authority acquires the property.
By no public funds, they said they meant no local tax dollars and emphasize the funds they seek from Ecology come from taxes on heavy industry and are allocated solely for cleanup efforts.
“There are a number of cities around the state which use this money to clean up environmental problems in their community,” said City Manager Kent Myers.
“And I think that it’s going to be a very difficult row to hoe if we take the position that we don’t want the state grant to help clean up this property.”
Norma Turner, who started the petition effort, said officials should have made that clear if they wanted to gain the trust of the public.
“I just think they keep defining things differently,” said Turner, who lives south of Port Angeles
“If they’re asking for public dollars, they should be open and transparent.”
Myers also said that the cleanup will continue to remain on the slow path if it’s the hands of Rayonier and added the community cannot afford to allow the property to remain fallow for another decade.
Ford, 65, said those funds could be put to better uses, such as removing old pier pilings around the state.
“I know it will take longer to work with Ecology, but that’s the way it is,” he said.
Myers said he doesn’t think that’s what most of the community wants.
“I think they want to expedite the cleanup,” he said.
Turner agreed with Ford and said the $1.3 million the city and port loaned Harbor-Works could be put to other uses.
Lincoln also said Harbor-Works would accept an Ecology grant, from the same cleanup fund, to reimburse it for doing the cleanup itself. But he said that’s not the option the public development authority is seeking.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
