PORT ANGELES — Port of Port Angeles commissioners are considering three proposals for management of Port Angeles Boat Haven and Boat Yard.
The area formerly operated by Port Angeles Marine has been under the management of Masco Maritime PA LLC since Feb. 29.
Masco assumed the last 10 months of a 10-year agent agreement between the port and Port Angeles Marine, according to John Nutter, the port’s director of finance.
Over the past few months, the staff has been negotiating a long-term lease with Masco as well as an interrelated agent agreement, according to Nutter.
Proposals have been submitted by Masco, Clallam Marinas LLC and Todd Ritchie.
The proposals were reviewed during a special commission meeting on Friday. Commissioners directed the staff to compare the plans over the weekend and to submit findings this week for discussion during a special telephone meeting.
The date of the meeting has not yet been announced. It is not expected to be before Tuesday, as such meetings require 24 hours’ public notice according to state law, Nutter said.
Commissioners said they want to move quickly to choose a proposal before a Jan. 1 deadline to remove aging underground fuel storage tanks at the Boat Haven, something that Port Angeles Marine and/or Masco are contractually obligated to do.
“No matter who goes forward, the removal is on them,” Nutter said over the phone Saturday.
The five steel, single-walled underground storage tanks feed the adjacent fuel dock float, which provides gasoline, diesel and motor oil products to boats.
The fuel dock float and associated fuel storage tanks are located on the west end of the breakwater directly adjacent to the harbormaster office. Both were installed in 1973.
“By contract, the old tanks need to be out of the ground by the end of the year,” Nutter said. “We are down not only to the eleventh hour, but the eleventh hour and 58 minutes.”
Removal must be done by Masco or Port Angeles Marine because the latter’s insurance policy “covers the fact that if — and we have no reason to believe there is — if there was any soil contamination, if there was any leakage from those tanks, his insurance company will cover that,” Nutter said.
“Because there is going to be a change in ownership here, we need a clean cutoff between who owned the tanks up to here. We need them pulled out, the soil tested and the facts established. We’ve got to draw a line in the sand.”
It will then be up to the port or the company under contract, if one is signed, to install new tanks, pending negotiations, Nutter said.
On May 11, the port submitted a request for information, or RIF, seeking input from parties interested in managing the Boat Haven and Boat Yard for a contract that would begin in January.
Two responses were received — one from Masco and one from Todd Ritchie.
After commission review, staff was directed to start negotiating with Masco.
The terms negotiated between staff and Masco include an initial 12-year agreement that includes a lease of the marine supply store and marina office, and a ground lease for fuel tanks, fuel dock and storage area for a total of $1,810 per month.
At the conclusion of the initial 12-year term, there would be the possibility for a 10-year extension at the port’s option.
Ritchie’s proposal would not include fuel sales or responsibility on the contractor’s behalf to install or operate new fuel tanks, Ritchie said.
“Fuel tanks should be a small part of this discussion,” Ritchie said during Friday’s meeting.
“The most important issue with the marina fuel tanks is making sure that profits from fuel sales go back into providing quality staff and services in the Boat Haven, ” he said.
“The other important thing to consider is making sure that we can always provide competitively priced fuel to support the Northwest boating community. This can only happen with port ownership of the fuel tanks.”
On Oct. 3, Clallam Marinas LLC presented an alternative management model for commission consideration.
The proposal would include an annual lease payment of $250,000 and says that responsibility and ownership of new tanks would remain with the port, Bruce Alexander, Clallam County Marinas LLC manager, said during Friday’s meeting.
“My proposal is to lease Boat Haven from the port but does not include the storage tanks,” he said.
“In reviewing some of the latest port financials, the cost of that fuel operation — looking at the option you have with an oil company to provide that service looks like a pretty good option as far as the capital cost of those tanks and having an expert run that fuel operation.”
Jim Mason, president and owner of Masco Maritime PA LLC, during the meeting voiced his displeasure with any delays in signing his company’s contract.
“You folks chose us out of the RFI,” he said.
“You then instructed Executive Director [Karen] Goschen to negotiate with us, which we have done. It has been miserable because these guys are good negotiators, and we gave you everything you want at the end of the day, which is the agreement that you have now.”
Mason said he found it “curious and, I have to say, very frustrating to be sitting here today talking about this deal,” especially with the looming deadline to remove the fuel tanks.
“We’ve got a gun to our head because so much time has gone by,” Mason said.
Said Commissioner Colleen McAleer during the meeting: “I absolutely feel the urgency here to get something done. I feel desire to execute, [but] I want to ensure … that we look at all the options.”
“What we have with Masco is a very known quantity,” McAleer continued, “a very solid, thorough agreement. Then we have two others that are still more in the idea phase, and yet we still have a deadline to get things done. I know that deadline shouldn’t drive all of our decisions, and it is not. It is just a factor.”
That being said, “we could go through machinations of negotiations with one of these two other entities, and that could take another seven months,” McAleer said.
“And then maybe that wouldn’t work and we would start with another one. I have seen this happen since I have been involved since 2012, and I want to put this behind us.”
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Features Editor Chris McDaniel can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56650, or at cmcdaniel@ peninsuladailynews.com.
