PORT ANGELES — The Port of Port Angeles was not selected to house new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration facilities, the organization said Tuesday.
NOAA selected the Port of Newport, Ore., to be the new home of the agency’s Marine Operations Center-Pacific research fleet, beginning in 2011, pending the signing of a 20-year lease, NOAA said in a prepared statement.
NOAA’s Lake Union lease in Seattle is up in 2011, and the agency asked for bids for a new location.
The Port of Port Angeles was among the bidders for the facility — and its 175 jobs — along with Bellingham and Seattle.
The Port of Port Angeles commissioners agreed in June to begin preliminary work on the Terminal 3 dock just in case NOAA came to town.
Commencing engineering work, which would cost $134,925, would have allowed the port to meet a tight timeline if Port Angeles had been chosen as the new station for NOAA’s research fleet.
Considerations in selecting the site included NOAA’s infrastructure needs, proximity to maritime industry resources and NOAA labs, quality of life for civilian employees, officers and crew, the ability to meet the desired occupancy date of July 2011 in addition to lease cost, NOAA said in the statement.
The NOAA Marine Operations Center-Pacific includes more than 110 officers and crew assigned to the NOAA ships McArthur II, Miller Freeman, Rainier and Bell M. Shimada, a new fisheries survey vessels expected to join the NOAA fleet in 2010.
“NOAA is committed to providing the highest level of science, service and value to the nation,” said Rear Adm. Jonathan W. Bailey, director of the NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations and the NOAA Corps., in the statement.
“We look forward to reuniting NOAA’s West Coast research ships and support personnel at one facility, and being an active part of the community.”
