Port of Port Angeles officials will provide a letter of support — but no money — for the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe’s efforts to acquire a surplus U.S. Navy dry dock now based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
The dry dock — which presumably would be towed to Port Angeles and used by a tribe-owned ship repair company — measures 520 feet by 125 feet and includes a machine shop and cranes.
It is smaller than the U.S. Navy’s soon-to-be-surplus Dry Dock 1 in Portland, which the Port of Port Angeles has pursued for the last year, Port Deputy Executive Director Dave Hagiwara said.
Jamestown S’Klallam Economic Development Director Mark Madsen told the Port commissioners at their meeting Monday that U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, had the dry dock surplused to another Native American tribe in Alaska — but they were going to move it somewhere else, so their application was denied.
“So there’s a window of opportunity, we may be able to get it — this is a great opportunity for the community,” Madsen said.
The rest of this story appears in today’s Peninsula Daily News. Click on “Subscribe” to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.