PORT TOWNSEND — After some 20 years in operation, the Jefferson County Economic Development Council’s future comes down to its members who will decide later this month if the organization ends.
The EDC’s board voted 11-5 to dissolve the agency during a Friday luncheon meeting at Point Hudson Marina Room.
Twenty-five percent of the EDC’s dues-paying members will now gather at a March 17 meeting and vote on whether to to accept the board’s recommendation to call it quits.
The action must be approved by a two-thirds vote, according to the organization’s bylaws.
The EDC’s Web site says the group has 73 members.
Meanwhile, longtime Port Townsend businessman and consultant Joe Breskin will be temporarily retained to answer business inquiries and maintain a presence at the EDC’s office shared with the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce in the Frontier Bank building on upper Sims Way.
Even if the organization survives the March 17 vote, it only has about two months of funding remaining.
The board’s action came less than a week after the Jefferson County commissioners announced they would pull financial support from the group and designate county government as the official economic development agency for Jefferson County.
The EDC, a nonprofit corporation “with a mission to assist businesses to grow in Jefferson County,” according to its mission statement, has been funded largely by local government grants in addition to its membership fees.