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Chief
05-23-2008, 05:45 PM
VANCOUVER, Wash. – When the Port of Vancouver USA Board of Commissioners meets on Tuesday, May 27, the agenda will include a resolution regarding Martin Island, and six other action items.

The resolution to authorize the use of eminent domain to gain ownership Martin Island, and the rest of the agenda items will come before Commissioners Brian Wolfe, Nancy Baker and Jerry Oliver for discussion and action.

The meeting is set to begin at 9:30 a.m., in the Commission Room at the port’s administration building, located at 3103 NW Lower River Road in Vancouver.

Other action items include: Approval of a consulting services contract for an unloading facility at the Kinder-Morgan facility; approval of a first amendment to the port’s lease with Rest-A-Phone Corporation; approval of an easement between the port and Clark Public Utilities at the IMS Electronics Recycling facility; authorization to purchase a mobile harbor crane; authorization to award a change order to David Evans and Associates for schedule one rail design work; and a request for approval of United Grain Company’s “Prior Notification for Request of Expenditure” from the Repair and Replacement (R&R) Fund for facility improvements; and Addendum Two to the Purchase and Sale Agreement (PSA) with Alcoa Aluminum, Inc.

Resolution regarding Martin Island

The Columbia River Channel Improvement Project is well underway, with more than 50 percent of the project complete, and taking action to gain ownership of Martin Island to compensate for the habitat changes that occur due to the project is critical to the continuation of the project. The purchase of mitigation land on the Washington side of the river is still to be complete, so the use of eminent domain is an option that is required by Federal regulations to complete the project. Most of the project is being paid for by the Federal government, while the remainder is paid through a local match.

The result of a completed eminent domain action, if required, means the land owners will be paid at least fair market value for their property.

In order to renew the water quality certification issued by the Washington Department of Ecology, the ports of Vancouver, Kalama and Longview need to take action toward acquiring mitigation property by the June 23. If not, dredging would stop, which could cost the project upwards of $125,000 per day that the dredging equipment sits idle. If that were to occur, and the water quality certification not be renewed, completion of the project could be delayed by a number of years and require a costly and lengthy, new National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) review.

A public hearing on the issue will be held during the meeting. Citizens wishing to address the commission will be asked to limit their comments to three minutes.

Kinder-Morgan Bulk Facility

Before construction can begin on the West Vancouver Freight Access Project Schedule 3 (internal to the port), the relocation and replacement of the Kinder-Morgan Unloading Facility needs to happen. The commission will be asked to authorize Paulson to sign a consulting services agreement with Westmar Engineering (Kirkland, Wash.) for the not-to-exceed amount of $472,110 for work to be provided in the areas of project management, engineering, bidding assistance and construction oversight.

Port staff completed the Request for Qualifications and selection process earlier in the year and found Westmar Engineering to be the most qualified of the two teams that applied for the work.

Construction of this replacement facility is expected to begin in early 2009.

Rest-A-Phone Corporation

Rest-A-Phone Corporation (a.k.a. ABC Plastics), a long-time port tenant, has requested a three year extension on its lease, with two additional three year options to renew, effective August 1, 2008. ABC Plastics/Rest-A-Phone leases approximately 12,500 square feet of warehouse space from the port, where nine permanent employees work. At peak times, the plastics company expands up to as many as 25 employees by using temporary workforce labor.

Income to the port for the three year extension will be $203,760, plus leasehold excise tax, insurance and Common Area Maintenance (CAM) fees.

The commission will be asked to approve the first amendment to the lease between the port and Rest-A-Phone Corporation.

Easement with Clark Public Utilities

In order to accommodate a new electronics shredder at IMS Electronics Recycling, which culminates a significant facilities upgrade project at the port’s building 2401, facilities for the additional electric service was required, and installed by port maintenance crews. As a result, an additional easement is required for Clark Public Utilities to install the electrical service line to the transformer.

The commission will be asked to authorize an easement between the Port of Vancouver and Clark Public Utilities for new electrical transmission lines to IMS Electronics Recycling.

Purchase of a Mobile Harbor Crane

Since 2006, the Port of Vancouver has become globally recognized as a wind power and project cargo port for regional, national and international projects. As a result of the port’s success in attracting additional wind and project cargos, a second mobile harbor crane is needed to ensure the port can meet its commitments to current and future customers.

As indicated in the approved 2008 Port of Vancouver budget, $2,405,000 is authorized for expenditure in 2008, with the balance planned to be paid in the first quarter of 2009. It is anticipated that the cost to purchase the crane (including shipping, handling, installation charges, and state sales tax) would not exceed $5.5 million.

The commission will be asked to authorize Paulson to purchase a mobile harbor crane for an amount not to exceed $5.5 million.

Change Order to Professional Services Contract

The commission will be asked to authorize change order No. 1 to a professional services contract with David Evans and Associates to complete design revisions to the “Alternative Replacement Improvements” on the West Vancouver Freight Access Schedule 1 rail project, which increases the amount of the contract by $99,536.60, for a not-to-exceed total contract amount of $1,641,775.60.

Repair and Replacement Fund

The commission will be asked to approve United Grain Corporation’s “Prior Notification for Request for Expenditure” from the Repair and Replacement Fund for improvements to a conveyor system at an estimated cost of $3.7 million, and authorize Paulson to approve United Grain’s request for expenditure when submitted to the port.

Addendum No. 2 to Purchase & Sale Agreement with Alcoa

The commission will be asked to authorize Addendum No. 2 to the purchase and sale agreement (PSA) with Alcoa, which ends litigation between the Port of Vancouver and Alcoa. The agreement provides for certainty of the sale closing on March 31, 2009, but allows for the port to lease property from Alcoa where wind power components will be stored in the third and fourth quarters of 2008. The lease will come before the commission for authorization at its June 5 meeting.

The meeting will be televised live on CVTV, and will be streamed live on www.cvtv.org.

About the Port of Vancouver USA

While working on some of the most important port development on the U.S. West Coast, the Port of Vancouver USA is cooperating with its tenants and customers to schedule and maximize business potential during construction. The end result will show why the port is “On Track to the Future,” as the completed developments will mean expansion of business and resulting new jobs for the community.

The Port of Vancouver USA, created by Clark County taxpayers in 1912, is one of the major ports on the Pacific Coast. Its competitive strengths include available land, versatile cargo handling capabilities, vast transportation networks, a dependable labor force and an exceptional level of service to its customers and community.

– POV –

=======================

Nelson Holmberg

Communications Manager

Port of Vancouver USA

3103 NW Lower River Road

Vancouver, WA 98660

360-992-1107 - direct

360-518-2553 - mobile

nholmberg@portvanusa.com

Chief
05-27-2008, 06:53 AM
bttt....

Chief
05-27-2008, 12:10 PM
I had to leave at 11:45, and this meeting was still going strong. They were about half-way through the list of people who wanted to speak out against this resolution, along with a bunch of people who spoke out in favor.

There will be a news release after the meeting and I will post that later this afternoon.

Chief
05-27-2008, 01:07 PM
A few impressions are in order from listening to about half of the Public testimony today at the Port.

You would think that if you were making a personal appearance in front of an elected body of officials to present your case and try to influence them to vote in your favor, that you would be polite. You might even trouble yourself to know the Officials names, especially the ones you are addressing directly. Sadly that was not the case with Mr. Dick Colf today. He was overly excited, openly hostile, as well as rude to Commissioner Nancy Baker when he addressed her as "...you! Lady...".

I would have also thought that the organizations who were representing your cause might try and keep a civil tongue in their heads as well. That was also decidedly NOT the case when the representative (and I did not catch his name) from the American Land Rights Association stood up to deliver his rant. He threatened the Port Commissioners with a boycott of the Port and all of their tenants at the Port if they don't vote in favor of the Colf Family.

If you watch the video of this later, you'll see what I mean when this big burly, red-faced fellow got up to the microphone and started bellowing his delivery. He rattled off a number of successful boycotts that he claims to have won in the past, but presented no credentials that I am aware of to back his words up. Lotta bluster if you ask me.

The other people I heard stand up to complain were three members of the Martin Island Duck Club. Now fellas, I appreciate your interest in this, but one person could have delivered the same speech the three of you I saw gave, and I suspect there were more of you there waiting to speak.

One woman from Yakoltistan spoke, with a whole bunch of questions that should rightly have been asked at any number of the earlier public meetings on this that have taken place since 1994.

And that is the main point I took away from this whole thing. The process of identifying Martin Island as a mitigation site for the Columbia River Channel Improvement Project (CRCIP) began five years before the Colf Family ever even bought Martin Island or Woodland Bottoms. The Corps had been doing preliminary work on those two sites when the Colfs bought, and I cannot see how they could possibly have been ignorant of that fact at that time.

Certainly the Colfs have long-standing attachments to Cowlitz County and Washington State that date back to the 19th Century...they do not however have longstanding attachments to any of the properties in question, and it appears to me that they are attempting to drive the price they will eventually get higher and higher.

They even brought in grandma Colf today on her 91st birthday to give a little speech. How sweet.

We'll see what the Port Commissioners decide about this, but I hipe they make a firm decison to go forward with the process of imminent domain. To put it off means to shut down the Columbia river deepening from 40 to 43 feet all the way to the I-5 bridge, and that job has been undeway since 2005 and his half-way done. If the Ports don't support the Army Corps on this, then the project will come to a screeching halt so that the environmental mitigation can be re-done again.

Shouldn't take more than another decade to do that...then they can finish the deepening??

In any case, I think I got a good cross-section of the speakers there today and I had other things to do besides listen to another 30 people speak on the same subject today. There was other substantial business on the Ports' agenda today, and it's too bad that it is getting buried in a bunch of openly hostile and often outright rude public testimony. I cannot for the life of me understand why people think they can go speak in public and use the tone of voice that they do.

Developing...

cewl