PORT TOWNSEND — Peninsula Development District has several Jefferson County projects on its list for federal money assistance to get the economic development wheels turning.
“Money, who needs it? Well, the Olympic Peninsula needs it,” said development district regional coordinator Susan Bauer, who has led the agency aimed at treating economic development as a regional matter over the separation of Jefferson and Clallam counties.
She said the old view was to recruit economic development.
The Peninsula Development District is geared toward retention and expansion and greasing the skids for some new industry.
“There’s a lot of times when it’s like two completely different worlds,” she said of the two neighboring North Olympic Peninsula entities, adding that the regional approach is what the Seattle Northwest office of the federal Economic Development Administration wants.
Founded in 1984, the district’s main objective is to foster a cooperative effort in planning, development and implementation of local and regional plans, programs and projects that will increase the economic activity in the area and improve the quality of life of its citizens, its blog states at http://pendev.wordpress.com.
The district brings together elected officials, tribal leaders and community representatives from business, education and a variety of interest groups.
Ever since it was founded, the development district has been trying to pull the Peninsula out of challenging economic times dating back to the 1980s when the timber and fishing industries fell under Endangered Species Act mandates that deterred both industries from future growth.
“This is our 25th anniversary, and I bet you have hardly heard of our agency before,” she told about 50 attending the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce luncheon at Fort Worden State Park Commons on Monday.
The district has well-known leaders on its board, including Jefferson County Commissioner David Sullivan, D-Cape George, who chairs the agency’s board, with other representation from the county’s economic development driver, Washington State University’s Team Jefferson, as well as the Port of Port Townsend.
Hot on the development district’s plate is an application to acquire an EDA grant for a Port of Port Townsend-proposed “eco-industrial park” feasibility study.
The proposal is high on the EDA’s list of built-green business and industrial parks, said Bauer, and would be the first such facility on the Peninsula in an attempt to attract industries such as solar energy component builders.
The port proposes a facility of 24 acres just south of Jefferson County International Airport’s runway, land that is also designated for a future East Jefferson Fire-Rescue station.
“If the feasibility study says this is a viable idea, then we’ll be back on [Bauer’s] doorstep,” port Executive Director Larry Crockett told the audience.
“Give us four or five years and we’ll have another 100 jobs.”
Other Jefferson County priority projects proposed for 2009:
• Jefferson County Public Utility District’s plan to increase treatment capacity at the Sparling Well site to support the planned tri-area urban growth area, which the county proposes for sewage treatment infrastructure.
• Peninsula College, WSU and Team Jefferson’s effort known as the PEAK Leadership Development Program, designed to bring together and train emerging leaders on the North Olympic Peninsula.
• Team Jefferson, Jefferson Health Care, Mobilisa and Ram Vision’s proposal for wireless connection and redundancy for the Peninsula that makes every site a potential work site for high-value businesses.
• Jefferson County and Team Jefferson, water and sewer infrastructure investments essential for business growth in the tri-area.
• Clallam Economic Development Council, Clallam County, Jefferson County, Team Jefferson, Port of Port Angeles and Port of Port Townsend for the annual Green Entrepreneur Conference.
• Team Jefferson, a feasibility study to develop a Green Manufacturing Center, a 20,000-square-foot multiple-use small manufacturing incubator building.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
