PORT ANGELES — A state negotiator will preside over a meeting today between representatives of the state Department of Transportation and Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, bring a glimmer of hope that the Port Angeles graving yard project might be resuscitated.
Consultant Tim Thompson and officials of the Transportation Department — including Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald — will meet privately with the tribal council in Port Orchard this afternoon to discuss likely fates for the 22.5-acre site on Marine Drive, MacDonald told the PDN on Monday.
MacDonald met with editors and reporters with the PDN between appearances with the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce and unionists at a union hall on Monday.
There’s a chance — just a chance, he said — that labor, business and civic leaders could prevail on the tribe to reconsider closing down the yard that was to have built and floated concrete anchors, pontoons and decks for the new east end of the Hood Canal Bridge.
Thompson, who did not attend the PDN meeting, stood up at the Chamber of Commerce luncheon meeting at which MacDonald was keynote speaker, and later discussed strategy with union and community members gathered at the Carpenters & Pile Drivers Hall.
“We need to get the tribe to meet with a small number of community members,” said Thompson, who negotiated an agreement between the Port of Tacoma and the Puyallup Tribe when he was an aide to Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Bremerton, from 1982 to 1991.
“And they (the Klallam) need to begin to deal with community issues.”
Key to the effort is respect, he said.
“We have to begin dialogue in a respectful manner.”