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From the Washington Public Ports Association |
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MAY 2010 |
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Upcoming Events June
16, 2010 June16-18,
2010 Innovative
Partnerships Highlighted at WPPA Spring Meeting Join
Your Colleagues at the “Port of Washington” Legislative
Issue Talking Points WSDOT
State Freight Rail Loan and Grant Program Call for Projects - Updated WCIA
Offers Public Records Officer Training 201 MSRC
to Host Social Media Webcast Port
Security Grant Program Application Period Opens Proposed
Puget Sound Partnership In-lieu Fee Mitigation Program SR
520 Test Pontoon Construction at Satsop Finishes WPPA's
Spring Meeting at Campbell’s Resort in Lake Chelan received high marks from
participants for its focus on innovative ideas. The varied presentations were
geared for ports of all sizes, whether on the waterfront or with inland
industrial property.
Another
highlight of the meeting was the report on the just-completed 2010
Legislative Session that gave attendees an in-depth look at how ports fared
in the recent difficult session as legislators scrambled to fill an
ever-growing budget deficit. Roundtable discussions included a variety of
topics from trends in marina operations and human resources to public works
and sustainability. Thursday’s
sessions included tips for ports on the economic development opportunities of
bringing broadband to port property, or forming an IPZ with community During the business
meeting, the $1,000 Lewis R. Holcomb Scholarship was awarded to Natalie
Wirkkala, daughter of Port of Benton’s Robert Davenport. Natalie plans to use
her scholarship at Central Washington University this fall. The Board of
Trustees also voted to explore the purchase of a WPPA building. As always, we’d like to get a better sense how
attendees felt the meeting went. Meeting attendees should have received an
email survey from Zoomerang. It’s a quick survey that won’t take up much of
your time and your responses will help us continue to build meetings better
suited to your needs. If you attended the meeting, but did not receive a
survey, you can fill one out here: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22ANPEQNF64. Mark your calendars now for both the 2010 Annual
Meeting, to be held November 17-19 at the Hotel Murano in Tacoma, and the
2011 Spring Meeting, which will be May 18-20 at Semiahmoo Resort in Blaine. The 2010 Finance and Administration Seminar
attendees will return to the fictional “Port of Washington” from past seminar
case studies. This year the port is considering moving from accrual to
cash-basis reporting, needs a bond issue for a new project facility, is about
to receive federal stimulus dollars, and is considering going paperless,
among other things. From the afternoon of June 16 through the morning
of June 18, attendees will work through these issues and in the end you will
have learned about converting from accrual to cash-basis reporting including
the impact on continuing disclosure and the ability to finance projects; receiving
federal stimulus money; determining whether to hire or contract for special
projects; and much more. There will also be open discussion time for any
issues or problems you’ve been facing at your port, or to just let us know
what you’re doing that’s working for you! As promised at last year’s seminar in Vancouver,
we have again scheduled pre-seminar BARS Training, this time dealing with
cash flow statements. This is a ½ day workshop from 8:00 – noon on June
16. Please note that the BARS training workshop is a separate
registration from the finance seminar. All port finance officers and auditors, as well
as commissioners and executive directors are invited to join us at the Enzian
Inn in Leavenworth for this comprehensive educational opportunity! To be assured of a room at the seminar rate,
please make your hotel reservation by May
25. Registration for the seminar can be done online at http://www.washingtonports.org/member_resources/events/eventregistrationfin.asp
any time before June 11. Expanding
Prevailing Wage Requirements to Private Entities Partnering with Ports and Other
Public Entities For the past few
years, the state legislature has considered a proposal to expand prevailing
wage requirements to construction projects of private entities receiving not
just public dollars, but any kind of “indirect” public investment. This
discussion will continue. Public investment can be broadly defined and
includes tax credits or preferences of any kind, as well as property sold or
leased at below market value to the private entity. We appreciate the goals
of this idea. However, as the proposal stands currently, it is simply too
broad, and will probably result in unintended consequences, such as a loss of
jobs and a loss of publically maintained property. It will also prove very
difficult to implement. · Negative impact on job
creation: This effort to ensure that more
private sector construction jobs are paying prevailing wages would likely
jeopardize ports’ ability to partner with the private sector in creating
long-term, stable, higher-wage jobs that new industries brought to the state
can provide. Out-of-state companies being recruited by ports look very
closely at ALL the costs, especially in this economy. Construction cost increases could
potentially outweigh any tax deferral or preference or public involvement that
Washington can provide. A company may choose not to partner with a port to
build on publicly leased ground if they know that their bottom line costs
will go up by doing so. · Incenting the sale of public
lands: As it stands, the proposal requires a private
entity leasing public property at below market value to be subject prevailing
wage requirements. There is no definition of “market value” and ports are not
allowed to sell or lease property at “below” market value. However, a port
can include “considerations” as part of the value of the property, and the
tax dollars and jobs that are generated by the lessee, as well as other
public value, can be calculated into the “market value” rate. If this is not
allowed under new legislation, a port could be in the position of being
required to sell off public property (often waterfront) to the private
sector, in order to bring jobs to their community. Once that property is
sold, the public will have little to no input into what happens with the
property. Valuable waterfront property, for example, could be lost to the
citizens of the Washington forever. · Implementation problems and
litigation: Because there are so many
ambiguities in the current legislation, it would be extremely difficult to
implement and likely result in further litigation costs to the state. Several
critical definitions are missing from the current proposal, just one example
being the “market rate” as described above. The complexities of sales and
lease agreements are not accounted for, and there is no clarity provided for
determining how to measure the “public involvement” that would trigger the
requirements. WPPA is always
willing to discuss ways to ensure Washington citizens are receiving the most
benefit for the public investment that ports make, but the current proposal
is simply unworkable and potentially damaging to our state and its citizens. In last month’s MembersLetter we ran a notification that
The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is seeking
proposals from railroads, port districts, rail districts, private companies
and local governments to compete for $7.75 million in funding under the
Freight Rail Assistance Program and the Freight Rail Investment Bank. As part of the application
process, a series of workshops are planned to help potential applicants with
their paperwork. Please note the dates of the workshops have been changed due
to some scheduling conflicts and are now as follows: §
Friday
June 18, 2010 - 2:00 p.m. §
Tuesday
June 22, 2010 - 8:00 a.m. §
Tuesday
June 22, 2010 - 2:00 p.m. §
Wednesday
June 23, 2010 - 8:00 a.m. §
Wednesday
June 23, 2010 - 2:00 p.m. §
Thursday
June 24, 2010 - 8:00 a.m. § Thursday June 24, 2010 - 2:00 p.m. Space is limited and workshops may be cancelled if there are no reservations. To attend one of the above workshops, please make your reservation as soon as possible by sending an email to rail@wsdot.wa.gov or calling 360-705-7900, stating which workshop you wish to attend and how many people will be in your party. Washington Cities Insurance Authority (WCIA) is excited to present training by Ramsey
Ramerman, Attorney, WAPRO President in follow up to the Public Records Officer Training
101! ·
July 22 - Whitehorse Hall, Room 105, Everett
Community College ·
July 23 - Lacey Community Center Time: 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. (Lunch Provided) Fees: $95 Participant Fee; WCIA Members Free No-Shows will be charge $75.00. Cancelations due
two days prior to training
date. For more information
or to register, go to www.wciapool.org and click “Training Schedule.” If you have any questions, please contact
Maria Orozco, WCIA Member Services Assistant at mariao@wciapool.org or 206-575-6046 ext. 241. Join
the MSRC for a live discussion on local government use of social media on
June 11, 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. Panelists: Bruce Blood, Citywide Web Manager,
City of Seattle; Brenda Cooper, Chief Information Officer, City of Kirkland;
and Marlene Feist, Communications Director, City of Spokane. Q&A to
follow. Topics will include ways social media are being used by local
governments, policies and procedures, public response, staffing issues and
public records. Register for the webcast.
There is no fee, but the webcast is limited to first 100 Washington local
government participants. Marine Exchange announced the opening of the
Port Security Grant Program (PSGP) for Fiscal Year 2009, in which Puget Sound
has an allocation of $26,001,293. Applications must show an
"in-kind" and/or cash match of 25% of the total project or a
compelling justification for a waiver of the match. Complete information on PSGP FY09 can be found
at http://www.fema.gov/government/grant/psgp/index09.shtm. If
you have any questions or want to discuss a project idea, please contact Mary
Ann Chapman of The U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) Seattle District and the Washington State
Department of Ecology (Ecology) are seeking comments on a proposal to
establish the Puget Sound Partnership In-lieu Fee (ILF) Mitigation Program. A
prospectus describing the proposed program has been received from the program
sponsor, the Puget Sound Partnership, dated May 6, 2010, and titled in-Lieu Fee Prospectus Puget Sound Partnership. The term
"in-lieu fee mitigation program" refers to a program involving
restoration, establishment, enhancement, and/or preservation of aquatic resources
through funds paid to a governmental or non-profit natural resources
management entity to satisfy compensatory mitigation requirements. Similar to
a mitigation bank, an in-lieu fee program sells compensatory mitigation
credits to permittees whose obligation to provide compensatory mitigation is
then transferred to the in-lieu fee program sponsor. The operation and use of
an in-lieu fee program are governed by an in-lieu fee program instrument. This
prospectus proposes a pilot ILF program within portions of Pierce County. The
Partnership intends to add a second pilot area, Thurston County, at a later
date after the pilot ILF program in Pierce County is approved and operating.
The ultimate goal of the Partnership's ILF program is to include all the watersheds
draining into Puget Sound. The Partnership plans to add other interested
counties or watersheds to the program via applicable public and agency review
processes. The complete Puget Sound Partnership ILF Mitigation
Program prospectus is available for inspection at the
above-listed Corps office and may be found at http://www.nws.usace.army.mil/PublicMenu/Menu.cfm?sitename=REG&pagename=PublicNotices The Corps and Ecology
are soliciting comments from interested parties in order to identify program
aspects that need to be addressed during the ILF program review process and
in the development of the ILF instrument. Written
Comments on this proposal will be accepted and made part of the record
and will be considered in determining whether it would be in the public
interest to authorize this proposal. In order to be
accepted, e-mail comments must originate from the author's e-mail account and
must include on the subject line of the e-mail message the permit applicant's
name and reference
number as shown below. Comments should be sent to Kimberley.a.harper@usace.army.mil at
the Corps and/or Brad.murphy@ecy.wa.gov
or ATTN: Kim Harper, Regulatory Branch and/or to Ecology ATTN: Brad Murphy,
SEA Program. Comments must include the permit applicant's name and reference
number, as shown below, and the commenters name, address, and phone number. All comments must
reach the above by June 11, 2010 to ensure consideration. Please include Puget Sound Partnership ILF Mitigation
Program - NWS-2010-654 in the title of your submission. The
construction of the test pontoon for the State Route 520 Bridge replacement
is complete and a “complete success.” “We’ve learned a tremendous
amount,” said Scott Ireland, Washington State Department of Transportation’s
(WSDOT) project engineer for the project which occurred on seven acres at
Satsop Development Park in eastern Grays Harbor County. “This was essentially
a research project intended to find as many problems as possible so we could
identify them now, document them and address them in anticipation of the
actual pontoon project,” he explained. With four floating
bridges in the state, WSDOT is considered the world’s expert in design and
construction of floating bridges. Each time they build one they carefully
make a list of “lessons learned” to carry over to the next project, said
Ireland, who was the construction manager on the Hood Canal Bridge project. “Over the next two weeks,
observations and lessons learned from this testing will be compiled to help
facilitate the most efficient construction methods and produce the highest
quality pontoons for the 520 Bridge,” Ireland said. WSDOT has determined
that the 33 pontoons – the biggest ever built in the state, each of them 75
feet wide by 360 feet long by 28.5 feet high – will be manufactured in Grays
Harbor County. Upon final environmental review, a pontoon casting facility
will be built at either the “preferred” site of the former Weyerhaeuser log
sorting yard in Aberdeen or the 90-acre alternative site in Hoquiam owned by
the Anderson-Middleton Company. The test pontoon
constructed at Satsop Development Park is 120 feet long, 38 feet wide and
28.5 feet tall, roughly one-sixth the size of the largest of the final
pontoons WSDOT will build in Grays Harbor for the new SR 520 floating bridge.
“The Satsop
Development Park provided us the access and the lay-down area that we needed
to complete the project on such a short time basis,” Ireland said. “We didn’t even have to go through the
permitting process because the site was already permitted for this kind of
work.” “We’re honored to be
a part of the project and thankful to DOT for thinking of us. We would very
much like to be considered for future DOT projects, as well as any others
that require pad-ready sites,” Garrow said. “It’s exciting for us
to play a small part in this big operation that will bring so many new jobs
to Grays Harbor.” Port of Tacoma Awards Contract to Restore Habitat Site Port of Tacoma Commissioners approved a $2 million
contract, the final step to enhancing and restoring
a premier $12 million habitat site near Hylebos Creek.
Plans for the 23-acre
site on Marine View Drive include excavating contaminated and unsuitable
soils and creating freshwater and intertidal marsh, forested upland and
riparian habitat. When the
restorations are complete, the property will provide about 23 acres of
freshwater and intertidal marsh, forested upland and riparian habitat along
Hylebos Creek. It will provide resting and feeding areas for young salmon
before they head out to Puget Sound, as well as a home to native plants,
water birds and other wildlife. The
site’s complete design, restoration and ongoing monitoring is expected to
cost about $12 million. Work is expected to begin in early June and generate
about 25 construction jobs. The restoration is expected to be completed
before the end of the year. Port of
Ridgefield Agrees to Purchase Property for Development The Port of Ridgefield Board of Commissioners
voted unanimously to approve purchase of the property at the southeast
quadrant of Pioneer St. and S. 45th Ave., west of I-5. The purchase price of the property will be
$4M spread out over the next 10 years. Of that, the seller has committed to
reinvesting at least $1M into property within the port district within the next
24 months. The parcel, 17 acres owned by Mr. Elie Kassab,
will be combined with 13 adjacent acres owned by the port, into a single 30
acre plot of developable land. “This will be the first land the Port has
purchased for investment purposes in some time…” said Brent Grening,
Executive Director of the port. “…the
sale of the Discovery Pointe property to SW Washington Health Systems in 2007
essentially exhausted our supply of land suited for development.” Initial
plans for the property call for preparation of the land and the installation
of infrastructure, while marketing the site to similar businesses as those
targeted for the Discovery Corridor.
“We’ll be looking at research and development, technology, medical,
higher education, and professional offices…” stated Randy Mueller, Director
of Business Development at the port.
“This property could make an ideal single-tenant corporate campus,
college or university branch campus, or a multi-tenant office park similar to
what you can see on Kruse Way in Lake Oswego. Those would be the kinds of end
users we will be seeking.” Port of Quincy introduces new intermodal program for fruit
and produce A new
shipping option for Central Washington’s fruit and produce already has
national grocery retailers testing a multi-million- Port
of Klickitat Commissioner Passes Away Port Commissioner Rodger Ford
unexpectedly passed away April 18, 2010, in his home outside Lyle, Wash., at
the age of 55. Ford represented Commissioner
District #2 encompassing the communities of Appleton, Dallesport, Klickitat, Lyle,
Murdock, and Wahkiacus. He had been involved with the port since the mid-90s
when he served as an advisory committee member. He was elected to the Port
Commission in November 2001 and reelected to a second term in November 2007. “This is a tragic loss for the port,
for our community, and for the county,” said Marc Thornsbury, the Port's
Executive Director. “Rodger was dedicated to the long-term success of the
port, understood its potential to improve the lives of local residents, and
had a clear vision of what it should become. On behalf of the port commission
and its staff, I extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to Rodger's
family and friends. Klickitat County is a better place because of his
contributions and he will be greatly missed.” In addition to serving on the port
commission, Ford owned and operated R & M Game Birds, provided bird
management services to the Columbia Gorge Regional Airport, was involved with
the SR-35 Bridge Crossing project, and served seven years as the representative
for Washington ports on the Mid-Columbia Economic Development District
(MCEDD) board. He was a strong supporter of regional economic development and
a champion of Klickitat County. Port of Kalama
Commissioner Passes Away
Port of Kalama Commissioner Fred Swanstrom died last
week at his Kalama home. He was 77 and had been a port commissioner since
1995. Fred
graduated from Denfield High School in Duluth and later graduated from
Whitworth College with a bachelor's degree, Portland State with a masters and
his second masters from Oregon State University. Later he received his
superintendent credentials from Washington State University. He was a teacher
and administrator in the Vancouver Public Schools for 30 years. In addition to serving the Port of Kalama, Fred was a
member of Kalama's United Methodist Church, local VFW, Northwest
Steelheaders, Castle Rock Eagles, Lower Columbia CCA and Duluth, Minn. Masonic
Lodge. In lieu
of flowers, contributions in Fred's name may be made to the Kalama United
Methodist Church Building Fund, 111 N. 2nd St. Kalama, WA 98625 or Kalama VFW
Scholarship Fund, P.O. Box 1082, Kalama, WA 98625. Port of Kalama Executive Director Lanny Cawley said
Swanstrom was "a man with a big heart. He liked people and treated
people very well." "He loved the port and we loved him as
well." Executive
Director, Port of Bellingham Deputy
Director, Port of Astoria, Oregon Accounting
Tech, Port of Skamania County © 2006 Washington Public Ports Association. All rights
reserved PO Box 1518 * Olympia, WA 98507 |
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