PORT ANGELES — The Port of Port Angeles staff will examine moorage rates at John Wayne Marina on Sequim Bay and Boat Haven in Port Angeles.
The evaluation will include both a cost and market analysis, port commissioners were told Monday.
The rates were last evaluated in 2005, prompting a series of controversial rate increases through this year.
“When we did this in 2005, it took several months and a series of adjustments were undertaken after that time,” said Bill James, port business director.
He said that the project was time-consuming but necessary to properly evaluate rates.
Ray Thomas, a Sequim resident who rents a slip at John Wayne Marina, told commissioners Monday that he hoped they would take the chance to look at the marina as a business and the slip-holders as customers.
“You as the port provide us with the slips, and we pay you for that service,” he said. “I hope that you will use the information to start looking at us as customers.”
Thomas said he spoke out repeatedly during public hearings in 2005 before moorage rates were increased.
James provided commissioners with some information about 40-foot slips.
In 2000, the Port Angeles Boat Haven charged $2.95 monthly per linear foot and $4.52 monthly per linear foot at John Wayne Marina.
This year, the port charges $5.98 monthly per foot at Boat Haven and $7.71 at John Wayne.
In other business at Monday’s meeting, the commissioners heard about revenues from the Koombana Bay while the freighter was loading about $2 million board feet of logs March 8-10.
The loading was the first at Port Angeles Harbor in a decade.
David Hagiwara, director of trade and development, said the port made $30,705 from service, facilities and wharfage, dockage and security before the ship pulled out for Southern Washington and eventually South Korea.
An additional $37,627 was paid to the port for the handling of the logs, which went through the port log yard.
The Port Angeles company Merrill & Ring provided the logs from its private forestlands and others. No logs from state forests were included.
“The thing to remember is that this is significant,” Hagiwara said of the log-loading operation, “but it does mean that some of the logs that would have been put into containers weren’t, so we will see a bit of a drop there.
“But overall that is good.”
Hagiwara said two more log ships are expected this spring, while two passenger cruise ships are expected to tie up in May.
“We are trying to figure out right now how to handle the pedestrian and truck traffic because the second log ship will be here around the time of the first cruise ship,” Hagiwara said.
“But that is a very good problem to have.”
He said although it appeared to be a positive sign about the uptick of demand, the market elasticity was still to be determined.
“It is a complicated global economy we are living in,” Hagiwara said.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
