PORT ANGELES — Port of Port Angeles commissioners received a lot of advice during a public workshop on the port’s developing strategic plan this week.
Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers offered his experiences in visiting the port communities of Bremerton, Bellingham and Anacortes.
“Ports around the state are getting pretty involved in a broad economic arena,” Myers said Monday.
Several others of the 15 people who attended the workshop offered information, contacts and ideas, some for new future concepts, others urging the commission to think in terms of decades, not years.
The commissioners listened, then joined the conversation.
The workshop was the first scheduled to get comments from the public on how commissioners should update the strategic plan.
More discussions on strategic plan development will be announced.
“A strategic plan is a work-in-progress,” said Commissioner George Schoenfeldt.
Active export market
In the past, the port district did not plan for an exporting market that has become as active as it has, Schoenfeldt said.
“At that time, we did not foresee what we have now,” he said.
The most expensive part of planning is the type of capital investments needed to get to the point where the port can take advantage of such changes, commissioners said.
An example is the pier realignment the port has planned to increase the number of ships it can accept at one time.
“It takes two to five years to complete,” Commissioner John Calhoun said.
“It’s a multimillion-dollar investment,” Calhoun said.
Type of development
The strategic plan also is intended to identify the type of development — such as manufacturing, repairs, technical industry or tourism — the port should encourage.
“One of the challenges is to be inclusive but focus our resources,” Calhoun said
Commissioners agreed that businesses that support “family wage” jobs — those that pay well enough for a worker to support a family and purchase a home — should have priority.
However, they said, they would have to study exactly how a “family wage” translates to dollars per hour.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
