PORT ANGELES — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration skipped over Port Angeles’ bid to be the new home for its research ships, selecting instead an Oregon port for its facility now based at Lake Union.
While officials with the Port of Port Angeles, which had begun plans for renovating Terminal 3 for the research ships — and the 175 jobs the facility would bring — expressed disappointment, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Mountlake Terrace, said she would fight the decision to take the facility out of the state, and a spokesman for Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, said the 6th Congressional District representative would “explore the possibilities” of a change in NOAA’s decision announced Tuesday.
NOAA selected the Port of Newport, Ore., to be the new home of the agency’s Marine Operations Center-Pacific research fleet beginning in 2011, pending the signing of a 20-year lease, the agency said in a prepared statement.
NOAA’s Lake Union lease in Seattle is up in 2011, and the agency asked for bids for a new location. Bellingham and Seattle had also bid on the facility.
“We are extremely disappointed in the decision made today, and we have not yet had time to ascertain the reasons behind the final determination,” said port Commissioner Jim McEntire, adding the facility would bring about $19 million per year to the location chosen.
“We felt and still feel that Port Angeles was the absolute right location for NOAA, for a number of reasons, and we will be debriefing with the NOAA staff to understand their decision.
“At the same time, we are grateful for the outpouring of support we have had from our partners and the community at large.”
As of late evening, NOAA hadn’t formally informed the port, interim Executive Director Bill James said.
Both McEntire and Commissioner George Schoenfeldt expressed shock that the facility would move out of state.
Port commission President John Calhoun was out of town on a river rafting trip.
“Out of all the options, Oregon was the last one I thought it would go to,” Schoenfeldt said.
“I really thought that it would stay in state.
“But now that we know what happened with this, we can move on and do other capital projects that we have put off in anticipation that we might be building for NOAA.”
McEntire worked with Dicks and visited Washington, D.C., to lobby for the port on the project.
Cantwell vows to fight
Cantwell plans to fight, she said Tuesday.
“I am extremely disappointed by NOAA’s announcement today that it intends to relocate its Marine Operations Center to Newport, Ore., and intend to fight it,” she said in a prepared statement.
“For centuries, mariners have recognized the clear strategic and logistical benefits of housing ships in the Puget Sound.
“I seriously question whether relocating NOAA’s ships outside of the Puget Sound is really the right move for NOAA.”
George Behan, spokesman for Dicks, said the representative also was disappointed.
“He was expecting that Port Angeles had a very good chance,” Behan said. “The congressman has talked to both senators, and they will examine if there is anything that can be done.
“The question is that we don’t know what can be done, but we are exploring the possibilities.
“I don’t want to imply that this could be easy to change.”
McEntire said that the port would stay in contact with its Washington, D.C., delegates.
“We will get done with the emotional side of this announcement, and then in the cold light of dawn we’ll decide what the next steps are,” McEntire said.
“This is a sore disappointment, because I really thought we would come out on top.”
Worked as partners
The port worked with the city of Port Angeles and Clallam County to hire Reid Middleton, an engineering consultant group, to write the competitive proposal.
The firm’s $129,000 contract was split three ways, with the port paying $54,000, the city of Port Angeles paying $50,000 and Clallam County paying $25,000.
The port paid $25,000 in additional fees to do more work on the project.
“I thought we had a strong proposal,” County Commissioner Steve Tharinger said.
“I think that we should be encouraged by the fact that we looked at our assets and our strengths and we worked together in a very productive way.”
Oregon sweetened the pot
According to The Seattle Times, the Port of Newport said it would issue $24.76 million in revenue bonds to cover half the cost of the new facility in Oregon, and the state agreed to add $19.5 million in bonding capacity.
“I am extremely disappointed for the city of Port Angeles, but I am devastated for Washington state,” Port Angeles City Council member Karen Rogers said.
“Washington state must change how it does economic development.
“We understand that Oregon state gifted $19.5 million to the Port of Newport in support of Newport’s proposal. In the state of Washington, we cannot do that.”
McEntire said that, at a time when the state of Washington is in dire financial straits, it is difficult to compete with a port getting substantial help from its state government.
Rogers said that type of financial incentive is outlawed by the state constitution.
“Oregon does not have that restriction,” she said. “We have got to figure out how to win in the future.”
City Manager Kent Myers said that, while he was disappointed by the outcome, he was heartened by the community response.
“Hopefully, we can build on those partnerships to compete for other businesses,” he said.
Capt. Michele Bullock, commanding officer of the Pacific Marine Operations Center, said the finances and the quality of life for the staff in the location were weighed when the decision was made, but she had not seen the proposals.
The center will be the base for ships that travel from Alaska to Southern California, Bullock said.
The Port of Port Angeles commissioners agreed in June to begin preliminary work on the Terminal 3 dock in case NOAA came to town.
The engineering work, which cost $134,925 and has begun, would have allowed the port to meet a tight time line if Port Angeles had been chosen as the new station for NOAA’s research fleet.
The work — and eventual lengthening of the dock — will be used for other vessels that need repairs in addition to the Terminal 1 dock, McEntire said.
Considerations in selecting the site included NOAA’s infrastructure needs, proximity to maritime industry resources and NOAA labs, quality of life for civilian employees, officers and crew and the ability to meet the desired occupancy date of July 2011 in addition to lease cost, NOAA said in the statement.
The NOAA Marine Operations Center-Pacific includes more than 110 officers and crew assigned to the NOAA ships McArthur II, Miller Freeman, Rainier and Bell M. Shimada, a new fisheries survey vessel is expected to join the NOAA fleet in 2010.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
