HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-September 2015Thank
You
Marine
Trades
Last month we completed the sale of our boatbuilding and repair business in the Boat Haven to the Port
Townsend Shipwright’s Co-op. Townsend Bay Marine started in 1999 as six local boat builders working
for a holding company owned by a German shipyard. After a couple of years, we acquired the company
in a friendly buyout and two of the original six dropped out. In our heyday TBM had more than 80
employees, annual sales over $10 million and over $3 million in payroll. Though we ran the business
pretty quietly after the great recession, we always took care of our customers, paid our bills, and we always provided
health insurance for our employees.
The TBM facility was the coolest tool I will ever own and will certainly be the pinnacle of my marine trades
career. I arrived an itinerate boat carpenter in 1978 with Alice, a truckload of tools, and a cat named Termite. I began by
moving timbers around and making shavings. I ended up moving people around and making payrolls. I know a little bit
about making a living working in Port Townsend.
Mill
Town?
One year ago in the 2014 September newsletter I described how the paper mill is a good fit for our community
because it maximizes the use of a local resource [water], provides family wage jobs, generates most of its own energy and
is an exporter of manufactured goods thereby importing the wealth we retain by buying locally.
Recently as I was riding through Glen Cove on my way back from a bike ride in Old Fort Townsend it seemed to
me that the air quality through the 8th Ave. Wye next to the Aerated Stabilization Basin (ASB – aka the settling pond) was
greatly improved from what I remembered. So I arranged for a visit to the mill to see what they’ve been up to.
In April and May, the mill removed the accumulated sludge from the last section (the “fourth run”) of the ASB.
This is the biological build up that had accumulated on the bottom of the basin for years and is a major source of hydrogen
sulfide which produces the “smell” with which we are familiar. They’ve also planted a green belt of trees along the ASB
to help filter the air.
I also got to see the installation of their new Wet Electrostatic Precipitator (WESP) and Scrubber. Particulates in
mill exhaust come from natural sources – trees absorb heavy metals from the soil. Wet precipitators have become more
cost–effective due to advances in their electrical systems and this new installation should reduce stack particulates 60%.
Businesses in a small community like ours, even ones owned by national parent companies like Safeway or P.T.
Paper, must care about where they work because it’s where their workers live. The $10 million plus installation of the new
precipitator and scrubber is in response to a new Maximum Available Control Technology (MACT) rule from the
Department of Ecology. But the money spent dredging the ASB to reduce the odors that are a byproduct of their
manufacturing process was made on behalf of their community not their bottom line.
Finally, I got to look at the Evaporative Cooling Towers the mill has installed to reduce their water use in
response to our drought emergency. The towers increase from 7 to 8.5 the number of times the mill is able to reuse water
before it goes into the ASB.
A
Sustainable
Industry
Raw material for Kraft paper manufacturing is 2/3 wood chips and 1/3 OCC (Old Corrugated Containers –
recycled cardboard). In fact, our mill uses about 1/3 of all the OCC collected in Washington State and it competes with
China for it. When the preferred lumber mill waste of wood chips and sawdust is not available in adequate quantity the
mill has to pay more for chips milled from timber unsuitable for lumber.
The mill makes and exports “unbleached market pulp” which is used in other mills. This is packaged in 500
pound bales and is shipped out on barges from their dock – on average about one barge a week. The mill is still very much
part of our working waterfront tradition.
Carbon in the form of “biochar” is a bi-product of the manufacturing process. Usually the mill burns it for energy
but this poor man’s activated charcoal is being experimentally used in the Port to collect zinc and other contaminates from
roof runoff in Port buildings, and it may have other uses.
But 2/3 of what is manufactured at the mill is Kraft paper. It’s shipped mostly to the pacific northwest and Canada
to become new cardboard containers that will in-turn become raw material for the mill.
Recycling is a religion in this Port Townsend but where do we think all that cardboard goes? Metaphorically and
actually it goes to PT Paper. The mill is not only vital to our economy and central to our history. It is also an important
component of our commitment to sustainability and resilience.
September 2015
Tourist
Town?
I received the following comment in a thoughtful letter from a local citizen concerned that our dependence on
tourism will make us vulnerable if visitors quit coming: “We’ll be helpless when deprived of coarsening hoards of tourists
visiting establishments that can’t pay young-family wages. Meanwhile, our housing is going almost exclusively to
retirees, gentle folk who won’t long tolerate the mill’s water use and odor, thus costing still more family-wage jobs,
propelling the average age ever higher, the abilities in our midst ever lower, making the community more vanilla, home to
way too many helpless citizens.”
Well, first of all you have to look at where we live - water on three sides, a backdrop of mountains and the best
climate in the lower 48. As long as there's any kind of town here we will always have hotels and shops and businesses
serving the needs and desires of short-term visitors. Also, the promotion of tourism has a dedicated source of funding in
the Lodging Taxes which are collected from accommodation providers and can only be used to put “heads in beds.”
But not all tourist economies are the same.
Tourism
as
Share
What
We
Do
The Wooden Boat Festival, which is what brought me here in 1978, has always been distinctive as a boat
builder’s festival. It was started by local marine trades to celebrate and share the skills they used every day, a tradition that
has persisted over the years. When the party's over we go back to work.
Visitors to the Northwest Maritime Center have built and taken home well over 200 kayaks and other boats in
build and learn classes. The Maritime Center has helped Outward Bound re-launch its west coast on-the-water programs
and the local school district conceive and implement the Maritime Discovery Program. Professional mariners come here
to use the Center’s TRANSAS maritime simulator in Crawford Nautical School.
The Marine Science Center DOES science and its outreach to visitors, particularly youth, is an important part of
its education mission.
Centrum’s festivals with their workshops/concerts are life-changing, value-added experiences for visitors. As are
the classes of the Port Townsend School of Woodworking also located at Fort Worden. As will be the full implementation
of restored Building 202 and the increased presence of Peninsula College.
For me, the “tourist economy” we are trying to avoid and the “education economy” we are trying to foster are
closely related in that they both offer products, services and experiences to visitors. What distinguishes the latter from the
former is the quality, durability and authenticity of those offerings and this, in turn comes from the array of for-profit and
not-for-profit local organizations that provide them.
The
role
of
local
government
Marine trades, the mill and tourism are three major sectors of our local economy but there are others and some,
like health care, are larger than these. But these three are particularly relevant to this place and have a history of
community support. Townsend Bay Marine was successful because of the Port’s investment in the shipyard area and the
300-ton marine Travelift. The Mill is here because of a reliable source of fresh water through the pipeline it built with the
City, and because of access to salt water for shipping its products. Visitors come for our setting and our historic district
and increasingly for the life-changing experiences we offer.
Local officials are elected by residents to express the community’s desire to move towards a particular future. We
do this by directing the spending of public funds, and through resolutions and ordinances that try to encourage what is
wanted and prevent the undesirable. For instance, both City zoning and the Port's strategic plan restrict development in the
Boat Haven, and to a lesser extent in Point Hudson, to "water-related" and "water-dependent" uses and limit or prohibit
"water enjoyment" uses like restaurants that would otherwise be permitted in the shoreline area and drive out marine
trades. The City's investment in a "Work District" north of Upper Sims will be zoned for light manufacturing, seeking an
upland version of the Boat Haven’s working community. And the City restricts the use of homes and accessory dwelling
units as short term vacation rentals in order to preserve that capacity for affordable housing.
Occasionally we get a chance to make a definitively positive contribution like the $1 million purchase ensuring
public access to the grounds of the Maritime Center, or the the City’s creation of the Fort Worden PDA and our $500 K
contribution to the reconstruction of Building 202 as Peninsula College.
Our
Town
Over thirty-seven years I’ve seen many examples of residents and businesses picking up the spirit of this place
and incorporating it into their lives and their livings. I have also witnessed, and participated in, several extraordinary
community projects with spectacular results. Being an elected official has broadened my understandings of the economic
diversity of our community. As we are the sum of all these parts, I tend to be generally optimistic about our future.
September 2015
Port Townsend Water Resources Update
On August 3, 2015 the City Council adopted a revised Drought Contingency Response Plan
that mandates alternate day outdoor watering restrictions.
Even numbered addresses are only allowed to water on even numbered days and odd numbered
addresses may only water on odd numbered days. Drought Response Plan details are promi-
nently posted at the City’s website.
The small amount of rain that fell in August has not significantly changed the drought situation and
Lords Lake reservoir has continued to be drawn down. The current water status is updated week-
ly and is available at the City’s website:
www.cityofpt.us
Scroll down the main page and in the center of the page click on the link for
Drinking Water Supply Status Reports
Post Your Great Idea, Vote on your Favorite Idea,
Join the Discussion
Instructions: 1. Type a heading for your Idea at “Enter your idea here” and “Submit.” 2. Enter a
detailed description of your idea and pick an idea category and click “Submit.” A confirmation
email will thank you for your submission. Be sure to Sign In using either a Facebook login or
through setting up an email and password.
- - - - - - - - Capital Projects are in Full Swing! - - - - - - -
The Landes Street Sidewalk has just
been completed, creating a safe, ADA
accessible route on the west side of Kah
Tai between 12th and 19th Streets.
Contracts have been awarded for the new water
filtration plant. Construction work is beginning on
Rainer Street off of Discovery
For current information on our construction projects please visit the City of Port
Townsend website www.cityofpt.us and click on CURRENT PROJECTS
Port Townsend Public Library schedule
changes:
The library will open late on the last Friday of
each month to allow time for staff training. We
will be open from 1:00-5:00pm on the following
Fridays: September 25, and October 30.
MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
Citizen Advisory Board Recruitment
The following boards currently have vacancies or posi-
tions up for renewal. Appointments are for three years.
Arts Commission - 2 positions
Library Advisory Board – 4 positions
Lodging Tax Advisory Committee – 1 recipient
position and 1 collector position
Parks, Recreation and Tree Advisory Board – 1
position with arboriculture/landscape experience
Planning Commission – 1 position
Applications are available in the City Clerk’s Office on
the second floor of City Hall, 250 Madison Street, Port
Townsend, WA. Call 379-5083 with questions and to
request an application form or download from
www.cityofpt.us (Boards & Commissions).
City residency or employment within the City is a re-
quirement for most positions.
Our Public Works Department
would like to remind you to please
call for underground utility loca-
tions before you dig anywhere!
Call the Utility Notification Center at
811 or 1-800-424-5555
to start the process
Wait The Required
Amount of Time
Locate Accurately
Respect The Marks
Dig with Care
A sampling of available youth and adult activities at City facilities in September
City Mountain View Pool City Public Library
Jefferson County YMCA offers a wide variety of programs for youth, adults and families
www.jeffersoncountyymca.org
End of Summer Labor Day 9/7/15
Splash Camp for Ages 5 to 15:
Swimming Lesson
Open Swim
Bring a Picnic Lunch
Build and race a cardboard boat
LEGO Robotics Team for Ages 9-14
Beginning September 15
Storytimes for Young Children
College Application Writing Workshop
Book Club, Poetry, and Fiber Arts Groups
Youth/Family Open Swim and Lessons
Adult Only Swim Sessions Meet the Author Book Presentation –
Weed the People by Bruce Barcott
Rent the Pool for Your Event!
Elwha River Restoration and Dam
Removal Program Presentation
For more information on events at the Pool:
www.cityofpt.us/pool
For more information on activities at the Li-
brary:
www.ptpublic.library.org