PORT ANGELES — Tod McClaskey won’t say how many local motel owners attended his closed-door meeting Monday night against the proposed Oak Street hotel and conference center, nor would he give any names.
He wouldn’t say how many supported legal action to stop the project, or whether they all were in agreement.
But, said the owner of the Best Western Olympic Lodge, “I feel like we have support.”
But no one pledged to help pay any legal bills — “I guess (financial support) is just going to come through me,” he said in an interview Tuesday.
He added: “We are committed, and we will do whatever we have to do to make people take a serious look at this project.
“We are financially committed for however long it takes to convince whomever we need to that this (project) doesn’t have a good, sound financial plan.”
He contends the planned $16.5 million hotel and convention center would draw away customers from the Olympic Lodge and other hotels and motels in the city and cause a “room rate war.”
McClaskey also objects to the city’s commitment for a 20-year, $100,000 annual subsidy from hotel-motel bed taxes to fund the proposed conference center.
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