PORT TOWNSEND – The City Council will consider loaning itself money from a fund that supports a water transmission line that Port Townsend Paper Corp. leases the city.
A last-minute addition to tonight’s Port Townsend City Council meeting agenda proposes to transfer up to $350,000 from the city’s transmission line replacement fund to the city hall annex/renovation capital project fund in the form of a loan.
Money from the transmission line replacement fund – which totals about $3 million of city money – is earmarked for maintenance or possible replacement of the line.
The line sends water from the Big Quilcene River in Quilcene to Port Townsend, said Port Townsend Public Works Director Ken Clow.
“I don’t think this would impact the operations of the paper mill, and I told them that this morning,” Clow said Tuesday.
Chuck Madison, Port Townsend Paper Corp. vice president of human resources, said Tuesday the company heard about plans for the transfer that day.
“We are aware of the issue and are having discussions with the city,” Madison said after speaking with the company’s president, John Begley, who was on vacation Tuesday.
City Manager David Timmons said that the city is responsible for purchasing materials to maintain or replace parts of the line.
The paper mill is responsible for having work done on the line, and pays for the work, he said.
No public money goes to the paper mill for work expenses, he said.
“They have an interest in seeing that the fund is maintained,” Timmons said of Port Townsend Paper Corp.
But he said the fund transfer wouldn’t affect the paper mill because it’s a short-term loan.
