PORT ANGELES — Harbor-Works Executive Director Jeff Lincoln says he plans to have “serious meetings” over the next several weeks as the public development authority decides whether to purchase the Rayonier mill property.
“I’ll be spending a lot of time with [the Department of Ecology] to try and determine what we can do,” he said at a meeting Monday of the Harbor-Works Development Authority board.
“I’ll make sure to keep the board and public apprised as we move forward.”
He said negotiations with Rayonier Inc. over the site of a former pulp mill in northeast Port Angeles are “challenged, but we are persevering with outreach, and hopefully we will reach an agreement or not and have a decision in August.”
August decision
The board had determined that a decision should be made whether to purchase the property to speed its cleanup and redevelopment by its August meeting.
The Monday meeting was the board’s last before that decision, unless a special meeting is called.
Lincoln has said the property, which is contaminated with heavy metals, PCBs and dioxin, would be worth between $4 million and $10 million once cleaned up.
He said he would expect Rayonier to pay the difference between the cost of cleanup and the value of the cleaned-up acreage.
Harbor-Works is funded by the city and port, which created the public development authority in May 2008 to direct the environmental cleanup and redevelopment of the site, which has been a state Department of Ecology cleanup project since 2000.
So far, $1.3 million from the port and city has been advanced to Harbor-Works for the “due diligence” process to determine if it is feasible to purchase the property.
Closed-door session
The board went into a two-hour closed-door executive session immediately following the regular portion of the meeting Monday and did not take any action afterward.
Two long-time critics of the authority spoke out at the meeting during public comment.
Norma Turner questioned whether the board would be seeking more funding from the city and port if the property is acquired.
Lincoln responded that the city and port are just two of a variety of agencies, both private and public, which might eventually provide funding.
Open-meeting laws
Shirley Nixon, a Port Angeles attorney, questioned the board’s practice of using executive sessions to discuss the Rayonier mill property.
Open-meetings laws allows a board to go into executive session “to consider the selection of a site or the acquisition of real estate by lease or purchase when public knowledge regarding such consideration would cause a likelihood of increased price.”
She said that since the idea of acquiring the site was already public knowledge, it was inappropriate to go into executive session.
“If the public knew what you knew, you might have a lot of help trying to convince Rayonier that they would be fortunate to palm off the property into public hands,” she said.
“Public knowledge of the deliberations would only help the price.”
The board did not respond to her comments.
