PORT ANGELES — The three Port of Port Angeles commissioners agreed Wednesday to consider a request for $4,000 to help fund the planned Clallam County Business Incubator.
The money would be included in the Port’s 2005 budget if the commissioners decide during the upcoming budget process that the Port can afford it.
Port Executive Director Bob McChesney said Port staff recommended against the request because the business incubator doesn’t support the Port’s core businesses, and one of the Port commissioners, Bill Hannan, agreed with this assessment.
Start-up businesses accepted into the incubator program would receive reduced rent, mentoring and business services to help successfully grow the business.
Clallam County Economic Development Council Executive Director Jim Haguewood, who was speaking as the incubator’s treasurer, said 87 percent of businesses that start in an incubator become successful, going out on their own into the community.
Haguewood said the business incubator fits the Port’s core mission because the Port could provide space for these business once they leave the incubator building at Lincoln Center on Eighth Street.
