PORT TOWNSEND — The Board of Jefferson County Commissioners is considering ways to fulfill its 2024-2028 Strategic Plan objectives, specifically building “community resilience” and “thriving people.”
Daniel Milholland, the Production Alliance’s director of operations, led a workshop Monday, when he presented a draft proposal for an events partnership with the county.
“In our strategic plan, goal No. 6 is ‘thriving people,’” County Administrator Mark McCauley said. “I’m responsible for a number of those objectives. I began to think, ‘How can I achieve those objectives?’ Danny’s organization came to mind.”
TPA, founded in 2019, is a 501(c)(3) events organization with a ubiquitous presence on the calendar throughout Jefferson County.
Milholland’s draft proposal outlined five events for potential partnership. Each included general descriptions, overviews on how they aligned with county objectives and draft budgets.
The events included Connectivity Summit (formerly Connectivity Fair), All County Picnic, Jefferson County Farm Tour, Port Townsend Chautauqua and Field Day.
“I think back to the Connectivity Fair last year and the energy in that gymnasium was awesome,” Commissioner Heidi Eisenhour said. “People were engaged and excited and talking to our departments.”
While the workshop was a preliminary step in moving toward a partnership, Eisenhour expressed enthusiasm, saying she was interested in offering full support for the Connectivity Summit and the All County Picnic, and offering partial funds for the other events.
The Connectivity Summit had a draft budget of $50,000, including prep work, marketing and day-of-summit costs. The All-County Picnic had a draft budget of $30,000.
“These guys make better events with more energy than anything else in our community,” Eisenhour said. “I’ve worked alongside Danny till 2 in the morning on events. There’s very few people who will stay up that late at night working on events with me, and he’s one of them.”
Commissioner Kate Dean prompted a sidebar discussion, expressing an interest in collaborating with TPA on a Fourth of July event.
“I have really felt a lack of the Fourth of July event and feel like there’s a really big opportunity there,” she said. “We end up dealing with this really scattered fireworks problem. I think, in part, because there isn’t an event. I know that it’s a whole complicated thing, talking fireworks, but I’ve just felt a real loss for our community in having no events.”
Thunderbolt productions, Milholland’s company previous to TPA, produced Fourth of July events in partnership with the Chamber of Jefferson County for many years until COVID-19 hit, Milholland said.
“You know, when George Floyd was murdered, there was a lot of unrest about the state of our country and there’s a broad spectrum of feelings around celebrating our national pride,” Milholland said. “We at that time, as stewards of that tradition, invited together a large group of BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and People of Color] community members to participate in a conversation around, ‘How can we celebrate the Fourth of July?’ That led to the decision to go fallow on the Fourth, not having an outward celebration but having a kind of inward reflective time. The energy that we were putting into the Fourth of July we’ve pushed into Field Day as a summer kickoff celebration.”
Milholland added that this year was the launch of Airport Day, an event partnering with the Port of Port Townsend. The port is interested in exploring Airport Day as a Fourth of July celebration, Milholland said.
He added that the airport’s central location within the county and the port’s interest in supporting an event as a federal agency were good reasons for exploring the idea further. While not likely a good location for fireworks, Milholland suggested a drone show could occur.
Along with Airport Day, TPA partners with the Port of Port Townsend for its annual Boatyard BBQ, which will run from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday. For event details, go to https://theproductionalliance.org/events/boatyardbbq.
As the board moves into its budget process, a TPA proposal would compete with other proposals, McCauley said.
McCauley told Milholland that he would consider the board’s feedback and reach out for next steps.
“I also think this is a great investment,” Dean said. “The county has kind of a hard time promoting the work that we do. We get kind of siloed and stuck in our work. As people’s civic education has declined over time, it’s less and less clear what it is that we do.
“I think there’s a ton of value in having the county be more visible and doing things to promote that cross pollination and civic education and presence,” she said.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
