Showdown today on pit-to-pier after Fred Hill Materials pays money to Jefferson County
By Jeff Chew, Peninsula Daily News
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The commissioners on Thursday called a special meeting for 3 p.m. today in their chambers at the county courthouse, 1820 Jefferson St., Port Townsend, to discuss and possibly act on the letter.
The county had said that the company, which wants to build a 4-mile-long conveyor to move gravel from Shine to a pier on the Hood Canal shoreline, owed nearly $100,000 for staff and consultant work on the impact statement on the proposed project.
Fred Hill's project manager, Dan Baskins, said he mailed a check for $55.333.98 owned the county on Monday.
"We got paid," Richards confirmed Thursday.
Another Fred Hill Materials payment of $44,348 is due to the county July 31, Baskins said, and the company fully intends to pay it by then.
"Continuation of the [Board of County Commissioners'] politically motivated, improper legal actions with regard to the [pit to pier] application and associated functions will not be tolerated," said Jim Tracy, Fred Hill Materials' land-use attorney, in a Wednesday letter to the commissioners and Richards.
Richards said the commissioners would have the choice of reaching an agreement or rescinding the letter.
Commissioners could "do nothing and leave it the way it is, or rescind the letter and try to negotiate something else," he said.
Tracy will attend the meeting in an effort to work out a new agreement with the county, Baskins said.
Threatens action
Tracey called the commissioners' action "ultra vires," a Latin term meaning "outside the bounds of their authority," saying that the action exposed the county to "payment of compensation" to the company for damages.
Failure to comply with the company's request, Tracy said, will force it to "immediately initiate and pursue the dispute resolution procedures" provided in the environmental impact statement contract with the county or "begin preparation of a judicial action" against the county "to redress this as well as past actions of the county in this matter."
He cited several legal avenues the company could take, including civil rights, breach of contract and commercial libel/slander and damages actions.
Tracy contends that the commissioners and Richards' actions are "null and void" under provisions of the contract because the county did not provide 60 days notice to the company before the county acted.
Tracy also made a records request in his letter to the county, asking for all records, meeting minutes, correspondence and e-mail communications pertaining to the pit to pier matter.
Pit-to-pier project
The Poulsbo-based company that operates the Shine gravel pit, submitted applications to the county in 2003 for zoning, substantial development and shoreline permits allowing it to construct a 4-mile-long conveyor to run gravel from the Shine pit hub to a 1,000-foot pier to be built on the Hood Canal shoreline.
The gravel would be loaded onto barges for shipment.
Fred Hill Materials employs about 150 people. Forty percent of its workers live on the North Olympic Peninsula, Baskins said.
The pit-to-pier project is opposed by the Hood Canal Coalition and Olympic Environmental Council, environmental groups that fear the company is industrializing Hood Canal.
John Fabian, a Shine-area resident and member of Hood Canal Coalition, also has raised concerns about the safety of barges passing through the Hood Canal Bridge draw span.
Baskins accused Fabian of acting as a "shadow commissioner" behind the scenes and having influence that led to the commissioners' action.
Fabian, contacted after the commissioners' action Monday, said he and other members of the coalition did not discuss the Fred Hill Materials payment matter with any of the county commissioners before the letter was approved, signed and mailed.
County stopped work
Richards' Monday letter to the company said, "In order to prevent a worsening of the county's situation, and based on your firm's failure to pay, the county is ceasing all work on the EIS and asking GeoEngineers to cease all work on the project too. By copy of this letter, the county is suspending its contract with GeoEngineers and requests GeoEngineers to stop working on the Fred Hill Materials EIS."
Baskins said that Fred Hill Materials has invested between $4.5 million and $5 million in the project to date.
Part of the issue, Baskins said, is that the company sometimes questions some of the billings, checking what it is paying for. If it has questions, it awaits explanations before paying.
An all-Republican Jefferson County commissioners in 2004 allowed a mineral resources land overlay on 690 acres zoned commercial forest land that permitted Fred Hill to mine gravel from the Thorndyke region south of State Highway 104 near the company's existing Shine Pit.
The gravel is used to make asphalt for roads and concrete.
The Western Washington Growth Management Hearings Board ultimately backed the county on the mineral extraction overlay.
Al Scalf, Department of Community Development director, said that the county is making progress on the Fred Hill Materials environmental impact statement for the project.
The pit-to-pier environmental impact state has not yet been drafted, but analysis has been quite detailed so far, Scalf said.
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Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: July 24. 2008 9:00PM