PORT ANGELES — The Port of Port Angeles has set aside $1.5 million to develop a proposed Composites Recycling Technology Center at William R. Fairchild International Airport.
It hopes to spend less money than that by seeking $1 million from Clallam County’s Economic Opportunity Fund to match a hoped-for federal grant.
However, port commissioners spurned a request Tuesday for $50,000 from the county’s Economic Development Council, or EDC, the same group that advises Clallam County commissioners on how to spend the Opportunity Fund.
And they noted that the state Legislature, which endows the Opportunity Fund that currently totals about $1.8 million, could pull back the money to meet other state spending needs.
The seemingly contradictory actions came amid a four-hour port commission meeting largely spent discussing public stewardship.
Commissioners were urged to be cautious in their pursuit of the composite center, and they agreed to be forthright about their business plan.
Want game plan
But they said they wouldn’t write a check to the EDC — which is embroiled in a controversy to pull $500,000 for itself from the Opportunity Fund — until the EDC provides a “game plan” for how it would serve the community.
“We have a paucity of facts here about the EDC’s spending county money on staffing,” said Port Commissioner Jim Hallett.
He referred to a bid to add $500,000 worth of employees paid by the Opportunity Fund, which heretofore financed capital projects.
Clallam County Commissioner Jim McEntire proposed the staffing spending but has been stymied by a citizens’ petition to put the proposal to a referendum.
The petition likely will stall the proposal for at least two months if voters don’t overturn it entirely.
“What I’m hearing is that public process wasn’t followed” in attempting to channel money to the EDC, Hallett said.
“They need to be forthcoming if they’re asking for a half-million dollars for personnel, but I never saw anything about that until I read it in [the Peninsula Daily News].
Seeking federal grant
As for the composites recycling center, the port hopes to attract a $2 million federal grant with which to build out a structure at 2220 W. 18th St. in Port Angeles.
It would house classrooms where Peninsula College would teach composites technology, equipment to recycle carbon-fiber composite material and perhaps machines to manufacture new products from it.
Michael L. McCarty of Port Angeles warned commissioners they might have an inadequate business plan for the center, especially if it didn’t have a guaranteed supply of material to recycle.
“If you don’t have commitments for the recycled carbon-fiber product, the Composite Recycling Technology Center will end up looking like the ‘I Love Lucy’ candy factory,” he said.
Jennifer States, the port’s director of business development, said the center would be ensured a supply of free material and that manufacturing businesses had expressed strong interest in becoming spinoffs of the center.
To get the project started, the port first must acquire the federal $2 million, then match it with money of its own or from the Opportunity Fund, or from other agencies that could include Peninsula College and the city of Port Angeles.
Hallett, States and a port consultant will travel to a composites trade show in Paris next month to talk with possible suppliers and manufacturers. The trip will cost the port about $17,000 in airfare, accommodations and booth space at the show.
Setting aside the port’s $1.5 million share for the center didn’t come without caution.
A lot of unknowns
“This is all very exciting, and I want it to work,” said Port Commissioner John Calhoun, “but I’m not convinced yet that these projections are highly likely. We’ve heard comments today that there are a lot of unknowns.”
He urged States to “develop some support for what otherwise are speculative numbers toward a wishful end. Otherwise, they’re just points on a graph.”
Also yet to be determined is how the port will manage the center, possibly through a nonprofit agency.
“I hope we don’t envision a 28-member board that will try to make decisions,” Calhoun said in a reference to the EDC.
The council is in a reorganization headed by McEntire but so far has not produced a new set of bylaws, according to Port Commissioner Colleen McAleer, an EDC board member.
Aside from McAleer and a brief appearance by another EDC board member who urged the port to contribute $50,000 to its cause, no one from the EDC attended the port meeting.
Calhoun described as “a Christmas tree mess” the council’s fragmented promises to communities throughout Clallam County without any overall plan.
Hallett also said EDC members themselves hadn’t requested the $500,000 payment proposed by McEntire.
“If the EDC isn’t advocating for that, maybe they don’t want it,” Hallett said. “They’re being silent. Maybe they don’t want it.”
Hallett, who owns Hallett Advisors financial planning agency, said he hadn’t heard anyone from the business community endorse McEntire’s request.
“I’d run myself out of office if I tried that,” Hallett said.
“It’s not that the people are not well-intentioned,” he said.
“I get that. But I want measurables and metrics and work plans done and to hear that the board is united behind it.”
Port commissioners directed their staff to request more detailed plans from the EDC.
McAleer said the council earlier had considered asking the port for as much as $125,000.
“If they were asking for $50, that’s still public money,” Hallett responded.
“There’s a lot at stake here.”
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com
