PORT TOWNSEND — Following a Port of Port Townsend commissioner candidates forum Wednesday night, the Port Townsend Marine Trades Association took a poll of its members, asking them to choose which two of the four candidates they support, and the results are to be released today.
“If there are a lot of votes there, that’s a message in itself,” said the association’s board chairman, Les Schnick.
The association’s 68 active members were also give the option of saying “undecided” in the polling.
The candidates for port commissioner District 2 — incumbent Commissioner Dave Thompson and challenger Bob Schuessler — and District 3 — incumbent Herb Beck and opponent Leif Erickson — sat before about 50 of the association’s members Wednesday night at the Port Townsend Yacht Club at Boat Haven Marina.
More boats in yard
And there was little surprise the main topic of debate was getting more boats in the yard to boost work for the marine trades.
Beck, a Quilcene farmer retired from Navy service and the longest-standing port commissioner in the state, said he has always supported the marine trades.
“I will continue to support the marine trades as I have done for the past 30 years,” said Beck, 71. “They’re still here, and they still work.”
Beck said rates and fees “should carry us” along with “no new taxes.”
His challenger, Leif Erickson, a 58-year-old production manager at Townsend Bay Marine, said the marine trades was looking for a candidate to run against Beck “so I stepped up.”
“The easiest point to take up with the port is the way they spend their money,” Erickson said, calling for affordable moorage rates that were not predicated on those in Seattle.
Erickson said the port should concentrate on cleaning up the yard, which he said was strewn with trash and weeds in its alleyways.
Schuessler, a retired harbormaster who calls himself “Boat Ramp Bob” because he wants more and better port boat ramps around East Jefferson County, called for keeping port spending down and within a budget.
“We have to have boats in the marina and the yard to generate income,” said Schuessler, 66.
“If anything needs expanding around here, it’s the marina,” he said of the Boat Haven that now harbors about 450 boats.
More responsive
District 2 incumbent Commissioner Dave Thompson, a longtime shipwright at the boat yard, said he fought to make the port staff more friendly and responsive to the port’s yard customers, and his efforts have resulted in a change in the staff’s collective attitude.
Thompson, 66, said he favored keeping haulout and storage rates low “to maximize activity” in the marine work yard.
Erickson said he supported keeping the rates down at the port to generate boat business.
“We’re going to have to keep our rates down until the yard is overflowing with boats,” said Erickson.
The port commissioners in June cut the cost of hoisting a boat from the water by 50 percent, effective July 1 to March 31.
The cost of using the 70-ton marine lift dropped to $90, and the cost of the 300-ton lift was cut to $325.
The port is also offering Monday-through-Thursday moorage discounts at both the Boat Haven and Point Hudson marinas.
All discounts are intended to drive new business to the boat yard in a sagging economy and create a ripple effect into the community, with boat owners investing in hardware, food and lodging while they stay in Port Townsend.
Boat yard users receive a 20 percent discount off their total bills if a project on land takes more than 30 days.
With the discount, the cost of keeping a boat in the yard will be calculated at 34 cents per foot per day, about 10 cents cheaper than normal.
The port budgeted $20,000 to advertise in maritime publications.
Local professionals
Erickson also called for using local professionals instead of hiring consultants and lawyers from out of town.
Beck argued that the port needed an attorney on retainer, such as the Seattle firm that specializes in port law, to help guide the port through facility and environmental issues.
“We have to have good answers to protect the port,” Beck said.
Schuessler said the port’s main goal should be “to bring more boats to the area.”
Thompson said even if more boats come in, he doubted that boat owners would be spending as much as they were in the port’s record year of 2006.
“I don’t think the marine trades is as sustainable as it would like to be,” Thompson said.
He contends the port is spending more on the heavy haul-out than the lifts are bringing in for revenue.
“This is a pretty big event for the association to host such a debate,” said Association member Gordon Neilson, who moderated the forum at which members were allowed to ask questions of any or all of the candidates. Neilson read the questions from a list of eight that were selected by the committee and that no candidate had seen.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
