Region's port districts gather for support

Eight port reps meet in Moses Lake

MOSES LAKE - Port districts from around the region gathered in Moses Lake Monday afternoon to talk about their issues.

Representatives of the port districts of Chelan County, Douglas County, Mattawa, Moses Lake, Othello, Pasco, Royal Slope and Warden were on hand during a Washington Public Ports Association regional listening session, hosted by the Port of Moses Lake in the conference room at Grant County International Airport.

"This is an opportunity for us to listen what's on your mind as port commissioners and staff, how the association's doing but how we as ports are doing," association Executive Director Patrick Jones told those assembled. "Whether we have the right tools to do what you want to be doing in your communities and how we as either the association staff or ports need to be really adapting to changing times to do our job better and move our organizations forward."

The association explained its role to those present, including a change in its dues structure and then heard from them on a variety of issues and concerns.

Over the course of three hours, the audience discussed a variety of issues, including marketing and developing, labor shortages, mixed use property, Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB) funding, the tourism industry, zoning requirements, the cost of state audits, communications with county associations and with city and county government, telecommunication fiber, political pressures, the Department of Ecology and water law and public transparency.

Jones said the meeting was comparable to two held previously in the year on the western side of the state.

"All three of them have been well-attended, vigorous discussions," he said. "A lot of quality participation. We're accomplishing what we tried to accomplish, and that has caused people to do a little bit of thinking on the association, to step back and reflect on where we need to ask for policy changes and progress."

Jones was interested to hear about the lack of industrial zoning in rural Washington.

"The perception certainly is there's lots of land available to site heavy industry and the perception from the economic development professionals over here that there's a shortage of quality industrial land is surprising, so something to work on and think about," he said.

Jones said the information from the meetings is going to be written up and compiled into a presentation to the association's executive committee and likely to the board of trustees during the association's annual meeting in Bellevue in November.

"Based on the reception these issues get at the board meeting, they may become part of our legislative program for next year or our committee work program," Jones explained.

Port of Royal Slope Commissioner Alan Schrom said he was interested in the association's efforts to expand the limits of CERB funding, which is important to his port district's future projects, he noted.

"It was a listening session, they want to hear our real issues our small ports have," Port of Mattawa Manager Bob Adler said. "The only way we can get some of those points across is to do a meeting like this, roundtable it, let other people know what we're battling. Maybe people have other ideas, have been in similar situations - it's all good, a way for all of us to interact together, give thoughts and ideas."

Adler most wanted to bring up issues with the Department of Ecology, something Jones said during the meeting was already in the works, waiting for the opportune time to bring it up.

"We really do need to be looked at as a municipality, as opposed to just an economic development as we always hear," Adler said.

Port of Othello Manager Michael Beardsley is new to the area and thought he had better be present for the assembly of other port districts.

"It exceeded my expectations by a lot, I didn't think it was going to be anything this productive, actually," he said.

Beardsley plans to take away a recognition that attracting companies from around the state into his port district's business park might be more difficult than expanding upon local businesses.

He also picked up the idea of taking energy and shipping costs seriously as part of the formula, he added.

"Plus I like the idea of just getting to know my fellow port people from around the area better, (that) is a real big plus," he said. "Now I feel more comfortable calling them up when I need to talk."