PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to start the countdown to the final dissolution of the Harbor-Works Development Authority.
The city created the public development authority, with support from the Port of Port Angeles, in May 2008 to acquire Rayonier Inc.’s former pulp mill site on the Port Angeles waterfront, assist in environmental cleanup of the property, and oversee its redevelopment.
“It is unfortunate that they were not able to reach the goal of development,” said Mayor Dan Di Guilio.
“I’m sure that there will be efforts to keep momentum going that you started.
“Thank you for your time and volunteering.”
Next reading Oct. 19
The second reading of the ordinance to dissolve Harbor-Works will be held just after a public hearing on Oct. 19 during a council meeting that will begin at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
A 30-day comment period and a public hearing are required before the city can formally dissolve Harbor-Works.
The city ordinance that created Harbor-Works specifically states that the comment period is for the Harbor-Works board.
The intent of the comment period is to allow the Harbor-Works board to have time to make any comments they wished, but others may comment as well, City Manager Kent Myers said.
Members of the general public may comment during the public hearing Oct. 19, or by e-mailing council@cityofpa.us or writing to the council at P.O. Box 1150, Port Angeles, WA 98362.
The five-member Harbor-Works board voted unanimously Sept. 2 to ask the city to dissolve the entity after Rayonier announced last month that it would not negotiate further with Harbor-Works on a purchase agreement for the company’s former pulp mill site.
Tuesday night, all seven council members, including Brad Collins, who was participating in the meeting by telephone, voted in support of the first reading of the ordinance to dissolve the entity.
Council member Max Mania made the motion, which was seconded by Deputy Mayor Don Perry.
Continue momentum
Council member Cherie Kidd said she hoped momentum begun by Harbor-Works would continue.
“One thing I can say is that this has brought out the community interest in developing the property,” Kidd said.
Harbor-Works Executive Director Jeff Lincoln has said that negotiations with Rayonier ended after it became clear that there was no way to provide an accurate estimate on the extent or expense of cleanup of the marine sediments off the shores of the Rayonier mill property.
The Rayonier site on the eastern shore of Port Angeles Harbor has been a state Department of Ecology cleanup site since 2000.
It is contaminated by heavy metals, PCBs and dioxin left from 68 years of a pulp-mill operation that was closed in 1997.
The city and the Port of Port Angeles loaned the public development authority a total of $1.3 million. Little of that money is likely to be returned, Lincoln has said.
Port of Port Angeles Executive Director Jeff Robb confirmed last week that the port is conducting one-on-one talks with Rayonier Inc. over the future use of the company’s former mill site.
But exactly what that entails is confidential, he said last Friday.
He said the talks involve support for the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe’s “Salish Village” concept, which includes residential and commercial development, along with native cultural and conference centers, on the 75-acre waterfront site.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.