PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Harbor-Works Development Authority presented its budget, including a $500,000 funding request, to the Port of Port Angeles commissioners at the Monday meeting.
The commissioners took no action on the request at the meeting, but noted that $200,000 had been set aside in the 2009 budget for Harbor-Works.
President of the commission John Calhoun asked if Harbor-Works Executive Director Jeff Lincoln was requesting more than was already allocated this year.
“If the commission were to not give additional funding this year, I would recast the cash flows and award contracts incrementally based on that,” Lincoln said.
“We would have to proceed with our plans in phases over time.”
Additional funding would require a special action of the commission, Calhoun said.
The $500,000 is for a two-year budget covering 2009 and 2010.
Harbor-Works requested an equal amount from the city of Port Angeles.
Lincoln also said he had requested funding from Rayonier.
“Rayonier’s concern is that if they were to give us $500,000, then people in the community might say once we acquire the land that they paid us to do that, and they feel like they will be damned if they do and damned if they don’t,” Lincoln said.
“It doesn’t appear very likely that we will receive funding from them.”
He said he was, however, hopeful that the group would receive $200,000 in funding from the Department of Ecology.
“We have been told that our application has thus far been favorably received,” he said.
The city and port each provided a $150,000 loan to Harbor-Works last year from their economic development funds. About $104,000 is left, Lincoln said.
“I did not include land-use planning in this budget,” Lincoln said.
“So when we start on that, it will be an additional expense.”
He said that it was a tight budget.
“I am trying to tighten up our expenses in every area,” he said.
“This is a very aggressive time line.
“Without that, we could keep looking into aspects of the cleanup project indefinitely.”
Lincoln said the goal is to pay back all the loans through development of the property, which has been a state Department of Ecology cleanup site since 2000.
The total Harbor-Works 2009 budget is estimated at $736,200 and includes $277,200 for administration, $174,000 for legal, $100,000 for reserves and $185,000 for projects.
The 2010 budget totals $825,900 with $371,000 reserved for projects, $354,900 for administration and the $100,000 kept in reserves.
Legal expenses are not broken out separately in that budget but are included within various subcategories.
__________
Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
