Port of Port Townsend commissioners and staff quelled rumors that they were planning to sell the Quilcene marina at a public meeting March 13 at the Quilcene Community Center.

“This isn’t some back room deal,” said Port Interim Executive Director Jim Pivarnik. “We are not considering selling Quilcene, we never have and never will. We are not limiting access to the shoreline. We’re not going to take money from Quilcene and put it into facilities in Port Townsend.”

The community center was packed with nearly 40 people as Pivarnik explained that port staff is recommending to commissioners that they sell most of the property that Coast Seafoods leases from the port in Quilcene.

Coast Seafoods, which is owned by Pacific Seafood Shellfish, currently leases 8.8 acres from the port for its oyster farming business along Hood Canal.

Pivarnik said that the recommendation to sell the building and property that Coast currently leases could help the port pay for some capital improvements in Quilcene.

“We believe nothing is not a good action,” Pivarnik said. “We don’t have enough money to put into this facility. At some point we’re going to reach a breaking point.”

The Quilcene facilities need about $1.6 million in capital improvements. These include a new roof for the Coast Seafoods building, dredging of the marina, new marina docks, fuel system improvements, ramp replacement and restroom renovation.  

At the meeting, commissioners heard public comments from about 20 people about the issues that the Quilcene facilities face. But members of the public were also unsure about the port selling public land.

“I do not support the selling of public lands,” said Patricia Jones, a resident of Quilcene. “Where we’re at today needs to be addressed with funding, not with selling public lands.”

The problem for the port is that there is no funding. In 2019 budget projections, the Quilcene facilities will generate $159,472, but will have a total of $199,006 in direct operating expenses. This makes for a loss of $39,534 in income.

And while the port’s District 3 collects around $300,000 in taxes, that money is for all the communities in the district, including Port Ludlow and Brinnon. Taxes generated specifically for Quilcene is more around $65,000 each year, Pivarnik said.

“The taxes currently are being used solely to pay off the debt service of the port,” said Abigail Berg, director of finance for the port.

With a net loss of nearly $40,000 and tax generated revenue being used for debt service, the port is searching for funding opportunities so the facilities do not continue to deteriorate.

Selling the building and property to Coast is one option, Pivarnik said.

In 2004, the Department of Fish and Wildlife owner the building that Coast now uses. The port purchased the building and land to then lease to Coast, who could not afford to buy it at the time. Coast pays around $62,000 in rent.

“We paid about $300,000 for that building and it’s probably worth about $700,000 to $800,000 now,” Pivarnik said. “We really should be reinvesting that money.”

But in addition to concern about selling public land, Quilcene community members also raised questions about Coast’s environmental practices.

“When the lease was set up, was there consideration with regard to their growth, and increased effluent?” asked Keith Meyer, a resident of Quilcene. “We want to have them here, but we want them to be responsible community members.”

Last year, the Olympic Forest Coalition sued Coast Seafoods over its discharge of effluent from its oyster-growing facility into Quilcene Bay. On March 9, 2018, the 9th Circuit Court concluded the seafood company needed to obtain a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit.

“One of your mission statements is protecting the environmental heritage,” Meyer said. “It ain’t happening.”

Pivarnik said the port had not received any notice from state or county environmental health agencies about environmental issues.

“The port is not a regulatory agency,” he said. “The port is just a landlord. We can suggest that our tenants be good neighbors. To my knowledge, our tenant has not received any citations from any of those agencies.”

Meanwhile, he stressed that the public meeting was just the beginning stages of problem solving for the Quilcene marina’s issues. In the coming months, port staff will be appraising the property and discussing with Coast and community members about the possibility of selling that portion of land.

“Our appraiser will be doing an appraisal from a selling point of view and from a renting point of view,” Pivarnik said. “We’re slowly going to be getting that information.”