SHINE — State Department of Revenue officials recast their opinion Thursday about Fred Hill Materials Inc.’s plans to sell gravel retail.

Initially, Revenue officials said the company’s plan to sell gravel retail from its proposed “pit to pier” project wouldn’t work.

On Thursday, the called the plan “workable,” though several significant questions remain unanswered.

Fred Hill plans to build a massive four-mile long conveyer belt and marine pier in Shine to ship gravel out by boat.

An application for the project hasn’t yet been submitted.

The Poulsbo-based company released figures Tuesday showing that its operation could bring $9.2 million in tax revenues into Jefferson County coffers over the next two decades.

More than two-thirds of that amount, the company said, would come from retail sales, an uncommon way to sell gravel in large amounts.

Gravel transactions of that size are usually wholesale, which means tax revenues go to the state, but not counties.

Revenue officials, who said Wednesday that there was “no mechanism” under which the plan would be workable, said Thursday after talking with company officials that they “stand corrected,” according to Mike Gowrylow, Revenue’s communications manager.

“They explained what they planned to do,” Gowrylow said. “Basically, any business has the option of only selling retail if they want to.

“Conceptually it sounds like it might be workable.”

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The rest of the story appears in the Friday/Saturday Peninsula Daily News Jefferson County edition. Click on SUBSCRIBE to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.