Decision near on Battelle-college research plan

Published 5:16 am Monday, September 17, 2007

SEQUIM – Oct. 1 could mark a turning point for the local economy and make the North Olympic Peninsula a place scientists want to stay in or move to, said Dr. Tom Keegan, president of Peninsula College.

Next month, Keegan will hear whether the college, along with Battelle Memorial Institute, a private nonprofit company that runs the Marine Research Operations laboratories on Sequim Bay, will be designated principals in an state Innovative Partnership Zone.

Under a new state program, five such zones in Washington state will receive grants of up to $1 million each for economic development.

Grays Harbor, Bellingham and Bremerton – all communities where colleges are building partnerships with private industry – are among the 28 other applicants for the designation, said Linda Rotmark, director of the Clallam County Economic Development Council.

Battelle, which employs about 90 people and holds an annual $20 million in research contracts, has had labs off West Sequim Bay Road for three decades.

The facility conducts all manner of research projects, from studies of mollusks that could detect a bioterrorist attack to lethally low oxygen levels in Hood Canal.

“We have this bird-in-the-hand opportunity,” Rotmark said, to build on Battelle’s operations, create well-paying jobs and attract inventors and other scientists.