Opportunity Fund money to go to Waterfront Center

PORT ANGELES — Clallam County commissioners have approved a $589,473 grant for infrastructure improvements for the Port Angeles Waterfront Center, the latest milestone for the downtown campus.

The three commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to award the Opportunity Fund grant to the city of Port Angeles to connect the Field Arts & Events Hall and other Waterfront Center buildings to city sewer, water and electrical services.

‘Exciting investment’

“When I think about what this project potentially means for the spirit and health and well being of Port Angeles, I have been persuaded over and over again that this is an appropriate, and in fact really exciting, investment from the Opportunity Fund,” Commissioner Mark Ozias said after a public hearing on the expenditure.

The grant also will fund curb cutouts for buses and automobiles, provide access to the Olympic Discovery Trail, upgrade a transformer and allow for the installation of a lighted pedestrian crosswalk on West Front Street, officials said.

Construction of the Field Arts & Events Hall is well underway. The events hall is one of three buildings that will make up the waterfront campus.

Port Angeles Waterfront Center Executive Director Chris Fidler said 187 pilings have been installed and work on the orchestra pit and elevator vaults is nearing completion.

“We will be pouring concrete here in the coming months and you’ll be seeing the building going vertical,” Fidler told commissioners Tuesday.

“So there’s a tremendous amount of excitement about the project and what it means.”

The Opportunity Fund is a 0.9-percent portion of state’s 6.5-percent sales tax used for infrastructure projects in rural counties.

A county advisory board that makes recommendations on Opportunity Fund spending voted unanimously to recommend approval of the $589,473 grant Dec. 30.

“This application meets all of the criteria that are designed for the use of the Opportunity Fund,” said Alan Barnard, Opportunity Fund Advisory Board chairman.

“If there was ever an application that was the poster child for the intended use for these funds, this would be it.”

Concern raised

Kenneth Reandeau raised concerns about the grant in the public hearing. He questioned the long-term viability of the downtown area in light of earthquake hazards and sea level rise associated with climate change.

“I guess I’m concerned about the segment of the population that this economic activity would serve, and whether or not a larger, broader portion of the population could be served by this money in other ways,” Reandeau said.

Waterfront center proponents say the project will attract 60,000 annual visitors and support more than 70 direct and indirect jobs, according to the grant application.

Ozias said his concerns about the site location were assuaged by the Opportunity Fund Advisory Board’s vetting of the city’s grant application.

The $34 million waterfront center will include a 500-seat performance hall named in honor of the late Donna Morris, whose initial $9.1 million gift from her estate kicked off the project in 2016.

When the campus is finished, the 41,000-square-foot glass-wrapped Field Arts and Event Hall will join a companion Lower Elwha Klallam cultural center and a new marine discovery center.

Waterfront Center officials say construction is on schedule and on budget.

The arts and events center at the corner of Front and Oak streets has been named Field Arts & Events Hall in honor of local arts patrons Dorothy Field and her late husband, Walter Field. The 1.6- acre Field Hall parcel was purchased with Dorothy Field’s $1.43 million donation.

“The theater arts center is an absolutely wonderful thing, but (when) I think about the convention center we think about our lodging tax folks and what that’s going to do to attract people in the off season and the other parts of year,” Commissioner Randy Johnson said at the Tuesday meeting.

“So again, I’m totally behind this project.”

Commissioner Bill Peach said he, too, could support the project because of Chief Financial Officer Mark Lane’s recent analysis of the Clallam County Opportunity Fund.

In a Feb. 3 work session, Lane told commissioners that the fund could support $300,000 in annual infrastructure investments through 2048.

“One of the reasons we are able to look at opportunities such as the one we are about to approve is that we are financially disciplined,” Peach said.

“When we see an opportunity like this, we are able to compare with other opportunities and then stand on a position that is based on the fact we understand the financial implication.”

Fidler said he met with downtown business owners before construction began late last year.

“I expected that there would be some resistance to the noise, and in fact not a single person that we visited with was concerned about the noise,” Fidler said.

“They all said a little bit of pain was going to be a big gain, and they all recognized what it was going to mean for their businesses in the area. So we’re very excited.”

Meanwhile, Port Angeles Waterfront Center officials are working to raise the final $14.5 million needed to complete the project.

“While this seems like a large sum, the organization has raised almost 70 percent of the total $47.5 million project cost,” waterfront center board President Brooke Taylor said in a Tuesday news release.

“We are now offering once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for the entire community to become involved; from local donors, to our legislative team in Olympia, to grant makers throughout the region, helping push us across the finish line.”

For information on the Port Angeles Waterfront Center, visit www.pawaterfrontcenter.org.

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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.