PORT ANGELES — McKinley Mill, which laid off almost 200 workers and indefinitely shuttered its doors in August, is still holding out hope to reopen, according to the Clallam Economic Development Council director of operations.
Lorie Fazio provided the three Clallam County commissioners and the three Port of Port Angeles commissioners with an update on McKinley during the commissioners’ joint meeting on Monday.
County administrator Todd Mielke also presented the convened commissioners with a potential for collaboration on the public safety facility that the county and the city of Port Angeles are jointly funding.
Since McKinley announced its plans for closure, the Clallam Economic Development Council (EDC) has been meeting regularly with representatives from Bio Pappel, which owns McKinley, Fazio said.
“McKinley’s objective is to reopen for 20 to 50 years,” port commissioner and EDC Executive Director Colleen McAleer said.
However, the reopening depends on the company’s ability to secure long-term offtake agreement with buyers in the Puget Sound area.
McKinley initially was closed due to market conditions. Currently, the global capacity of paper is 20 percent greater than the demand, McAleer said, and that led to multiple mill closures.
“The least efficient mills were the ones that shut down,” McAleer said. “[McKinley] wasn’t able to compete with newer mills.”
However, the company is hoping to reopen its Port Angeles location.
“We’ll see what happens,” McAleer said. “There’s a lot of investigation and decisions that are ongoing.”
In the meantime, the EDC is working with the North Olympic Legislative Alliance (NOLA) to request a state capital budget legislative aid package in response to the mill’s closure.
Many of the employees laid offare still trying to figure out next steps.
Rick Dickinson, outgoing program director of the Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship (CIE), said he has had a few individuals who used to work at McKinley reach out to him about self-employment.
“We have interest from about a half-dozen folks so far,” he said, although no action has been taken.
“A lot of people are still figuring out what they’re going to do,” Dickinson added.
Public safety facility
Mielke also presented an opportunity for collaboration on the public safety facility, which will house the county’s emergency operations center and the 911 dispatch center.
Last spring, the city and county purchased land in the 2000 block of West Edgewood Drive to use for the facility, according to prior reporting.
However, there is now a chance that the Edgewood Drive location may not be the facility’s home due to potable water and funding concerns.
Site work alone for the project has been estimated at $4 million to $5.2 million, in part due to the fact that the land is not completely flat.
Those concerns, coupled with the fact some of the funding for the project is time sensitive, mean it might be wise to select a new location, Mielke said.
One option that has been identified is using space at Fairchild International Airport, which is owned by the port.
The site already has water and sewer, and is “basically level,” Mielke said, so the sitework costs would likely be far less.
In the coming months, the county and the port will work together to figure out what a plan might look like.
That will likely push back the project’s timeline a bit.
“In our perfect world, we were hoping to go out to bid February of next year,” Mielke said.
Even with the potential site changes, he said he’s hopeful that the project can go to bid by spring.
The North Olympic Develpoment Council (NODC) also provided an update.
NODC Executive Director Karen Affeld said the organization is creating its new five-year comprehensive economic development strategy to replace its current plan, which expires in October 2025.
It also is continuing to provide one-on-one technical assistance and workshops for farm and food businesses. It recently received a $161,550 U.S. Department of Agriculture rural business development grant that will fund the assistance for the upcoming year.
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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
