PORT ANGELES — A half load of logs on Monday were topping off the Sunny Royal for the forest products company Merrill & Ring after a harrowing Easter weekend.
Nineteen bundles of logs were swept into Port Angeles Harbor during windstorms April 2 and 4, Jerry Demetriff, operations and public works manager, told Port of Port Angeles commissioners Monday.
“The wind caused waves that were much larger than we anticipated,” Demetriff said.
“We were hit with a nor’easter that was much worse than was forecast.”
The bundles spilled into the harbor.
“We had pretty well wrapped up by Friday evening, and then Sunday hit,” Demitriff said.
“We had another even worse than Friday, and it got scattered all around the harbor.
“We had a few people come in to corral it all up.”
Demitriff said port staff put in 56 overtime hours to gather the wood back up.
“I am fairly sure we got all of it,” he said.
Port Commission president George Schoenfeldt said after watching the weather forecasts on April 1, he would not have prepared the wood because the water was likely to cause such problems.
“I’m not sure that was such a good decision,” he said.
More aware in future
Demitriff said the staff would be more aware in the future and commended the work employees did to quickly fix the problems.
“Now we are able to load up the log ship,” he said.
The Sunny Royal is receiving about a half load — which is about 2.5 million board feet — after loading the first half in Tacoma.
In other matters at Monday’s Port Commission meeting, the commissioners introduced a resolution which will allow them to issue $806,000 in Recovery Zone Economic Development bonds and about $1.21 million in Recovery Zone Facility bonds.
The bonds will not mean any raise in taxes or changes for taxpayers, Port Executive Director Jeff Robb said.
The port would issue the bonds to pay for capital projects, then it would be repaid over time through both revenue generated from the projects or from the regular tax levy.
The Port of Port Angeles does not use its property tax revenue for operating costs — covering them instead with revenue from rent and other income — but uses it to retire debt and for capital projects, Robb said.
The commissioners likely won’t approve the bonds for several months, said Bill James, port finance director.
If the commissioners approve them, they will likely pay for long-planned improvements to the port-owned pier where Black Ball Ferry Line’s MV Coho docks.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladaily news.com.