PORT ANGELES — A Jan. 22 windstorm that generated heavy seas caused $122,000 in damage to Port of Port Angeles properties, Jeff Robb, port executive director, told commissioners this week.
The damage included erosion at multiple locations, damage to fender piles and a cracked anchor float.
“There has been significant impact,” Robb said Monday at a port commissioners meeting.
Work to keep some of the damage from becoming dangerous has been done, but the fix is only temporary, he said.
Robb said he plans to submit the damage to the county to be submitted as a single Federal Emergency Management Agency claim.
PenPly equipment
A ring debarker once operated by Peninsula Plywood is being leased to another company to keep logs moving through the port.
Logs shipped to China or Korea must have the bark removed before shipment to reduce the chance of pests being transported and infecting trees in other areas.
The machinery, which is now owned by Korean log export company DKorum, will be leased to Munro LLC, a company that has exported logs through the port’s log yard area since 2010.
“Munro LLC had always paid on time and has an exceptional track record with the port,” Robb said.
Grant Munro, owner of Munro LLC, was one of the investors in PenPly, a failed plywood manufacturing business on Marine Drive in Port Angeles.
Commissioners noted that his log export company is a separate entity that has maintained a positive business relationship with the port.
The 13-month agreement also includes the removal of existing woody debris and improvement of entrances, and has options for two one-year extensions.
The debarker ran at nearly capacity through 2011, he said.
Robb noted that if the debarker was to be allowed to become idle, the work likely would be shifted to Astoria or Coos Bay, Ore., where ring debarkers are available.
The new lease could result in an additional four log ship loads per year, he said.
Log yard activity fell sharply in January, from 235 loads in 2011 to 148 loads in 2012, mostly because of two weeks of severe weather, which affected logging operations, Robb said.
There also is a general downturn in exports to China, but the export level is still very high compared with the last decade, Commissioner John Calhoun said.
New engineers
The port also hired two new engineers.
Chris Hartman of Port Angeles was hired as the port’s public works director.
Hartman is currently a civil engineer at Zenovic & Associates in Port Angeles and is a graduate of Port Angeles High School.
He recently served as a mentor for several students at the high school for a bridge-building competition in which the students took first, second and fourth place at the statewide civil engineering contest.
Gary Wiggett was hired as director of engineering from his current employment in Micronesia.
Wiggett’s first day at the port will be Feb. 27.
State delegation
Colleen McAleer, the port’s marketing director, will travel to Paris as part of a Washington state delegation to a March international composites exhibition.
The port is expected to share a booth with the state Department of Commerce to draw attention to the port’s two composites campuses in Sequim and Port Angeles.
In recent years, the composites industry has been growing rapidly, and two major companies in Clallam County — ACTI and Westport shipyard — each have expanded as more composites are used in aircraft parts.
Aggressive marketing of the Port Angeles composites campuses is something that has to be done if the port is serious about taking advantage of diversifying the Peninsula’s export possibilities, Commissioner Paul McHugh said.
“Halfhearted efforts are not going to do it,” Calhoun said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
