Friday, August 12, 2016

The Last Domino Falls...

File it under "No Surprise," or maybe even "We Told You So." But however you classify it, the fact remains that the Nippon Mill is for sale.

"But gee," those surprised by this (like Cherie Kidd) will say. "Didn't they just spend all that money building a biomess cogeneration plant? Didn't the City just build them a new main water line? Didn't all our elected leaders spend half their time kissing Nippon's ass?"

The answer to all of the above is yes, but...

Then the cry will come in reply: "Then how could they do this to us?!?"

Because, it has been the plan all along. Not an admitted plan, not an openly discussed plan, but rather, it's been the follow-the-clues-to-find-the-elephant-in-the-living-room type of plan. Obvious to those with seeing eyes; invisible to those who are blind by disposition and/or cowardice. Being that this type of secret is bad news for the town, it's been easy to keep "top secret" from those who, let's face it, didn't want to face it.

Now that it's Twilight for Nippon,
bring on The Hunger Games...

But Nippon's always been good at secrets. Hell, it spent many years essentially (secretly) running the town. Even this new article demonstrates how hard it is to get a straight answer out of what Cherie Kidd laughably calls a "local company." Look at the most current employment figures that someone managed to pry out of Nippon - they're from June of last year.

In the realm of Not a Secret is that big payoff from the National Park Service that will become available - uh oh! - next year, I believe. Nippon just has to keep the plant "operating" until then, and then they can take those millions and run. Also Not a Secret is the City's complicity in allowing a power plant to be built on the shoreline - a move that was only barely allowable because it was an "auxiliary" function to the paper mill. The one that is now For Sale, and yes, soon to close, leaving just a power plant.

Could be a new economic model for Clallam County...
If it had more barns.

Except that...Also Not a Secret are Nippon's new water line and transferable water rights. And also Not a Secret is the fact that Veolia is already represented locally, and even if that were not the case, there are any number of multinational water companies who would love to swoop in and pick up those water rights for the right price.

Well, for the right price to Nippon, anyway. How such a deal would work out for the City is unclear, but...Do you really think a huge multinational would have any trouble rolling the City? I mean, again, Cherie Kidd really seems to think that Nippon is a "local company." If Nippon were to introduce her to "cousin Veolia," do you really think she would ask too many questions? Would anyone in City Hall? The rest of the Frightened Fluoride Four?

So, to sum up: The Nippon Mill is (finally) For Sale. Which means the mill itself will soon close, and Nippon will walk away with their NPS dollars. Jobs will vanish. The City will have a half-a-million dollar hole blown in its budget. And many, many fantasies about Port Angeles being a mill town will be well and truly crushed.



60 comments:

  1. The majority of the council, the Fluoride Four, have neither the courage nor the creativity to deal with a seismic change of this sort. I assume their reaction will be shock, sorrow, and then a deep, lasting depression. Nothing proactive, just wallowing in the "good old days."

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  2. None of this should come as a surprise. As soon as the money from the Elwha restoration was set aside, this has been a done deal. That was years ago. I remember Max Mania getting on the city council and urging the city to start budgeting as though those Nippon utility funds weren't there, to prepare for the day they really weren't there any longer. Needless to say, they didn't listen to him.

    All the head in the sand types (Kidd, Downie, Gase, Collins, Dan McKeen, and so on) always swat down any forward thinking proposals, and then end up being wrong every single time. Harbor Works, Pen Ply, the Turd Tank, and on and on. Tens of millions of dollars wasted, and not a good idea bought with any of them.

    Now the city will have to contend with higher unemployment, and a $450,000 hole in their utility tax revenue. That's probably close to the amount the city should have been charging Nippon for water each year as well, instead of the $10,000 sweetheart deal they got. So look for your utility rates to go up, folks, to make up the difference.

    Tens of millions of dollars wasted, outmoded and dying industries clung to, and new, sustainable ideas pushed away. And all we have to show for it is a shoreline dotted with polluted and abandoned industrial sites, a giant Turd Tank, and a million dollar fake beach that no one uses, and that will get washed away.

    The only thing Port Angeles does right is doing it all wrong.

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    Replies
    1. Max was right about the mill closing, and a lot of other things. He was also right about the wisdom of getting out of this town. Think about it: If you moved away, what would you miss? The total civic incompetence? The exorbitant utility rates? The high unemployment?

      Don't get hung up on the mountains and the waterfront. Let's be real: Most of us don't spend much of our time out in nature, we spend it stuck (in every sense of the word) here in town, in what passes for civilization here.

      It's a crock, and this latest economic blow is a real wake-up call for me. This town REALLY IS DYING. I have to get out of here. By any means necessary. This joke isn't funny anymore.

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    2. You forgot the lack of any real culture here...the scary high rates of drug abuse...the high drop out rate...the racism...the total lack of respect for the environment...

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    3. Don't forget (what's left of) the PDN and Paul Gottlieb. Oh, and the fearlessly (and cluelessly) reactionary voices of KONP. And speaking of voices, would anyone miss NOT hearing Cherie Kidd again?

      Life is too short to live in Port Angeles.

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  3. With the new government that will take over in November of next year the new city can shed this water rights agreement and begin to look out for its residents and not a corporation that has steadily exploited this entire area.

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  4. There has been writing on the wall for this for a long, long time. Let's all remember, loyal Nippon hatchetman Harold Norland bailed out and took a job at a mill in a town considered the WORST TOWN IN CANADA to get away from this sinking ship.

    Only rubes and dopes will be surprised by this turn of events.

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  5. I knew they produced paper for telephone books but I didn't know they were the ONLY plant. That should be the writing on the wall right there.

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  6. Oh, come on now! Turn those frowns upside down and smile, smile, smile! Be a Chipper Chipmunk!

    This a golden opportunity! Just think of the possibilities this opens up for Port Angeles!

    The Nippon mill will make a fabulous performing arts center. It's got even more space than the Lincoln Theatre. And it's got boatloads of raw, gritty industrial atmosphere!

    The folks at the Gastropub can buy and turn it into full service restaurant/performance arts center. What a great view and, again, loads of atmosphere.

    Alternately, the folks at PAPA could buy the mill and run their programs from there. Add a radio station (plenty of space for that) and a place to print the POC (again, plenty of space) and you'd have a vast information hub. It would be like Fox News, but with Dale Wilson as Rupert Murdoch!

    The city can buy it and hold various events there. Lots and lots of room, easy access, and did I mention the atmosphere? This place really has a lot of atmosphere. Arts and Draughts, Crab Fest, Esprit - you name it! This is a convention center just waiting to happen!

    So stop whining! This really is Positively Port Angeles!

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  7. In terms of bringing Port Angeles into something closer to the current century we're living in, this is GOOD news. Close that fucking mill! Move on.

    But, of course, most of our elected officials aren't living in this century. It will be pathetic to see them react to this. I'm guessing some will hold out foolish, hopeless hope that someone is going to come along and actually buy the mill and keep it running. Which is not going to happen. Not.

    Others will, as noted above, simply retreat into tears and memories, leaving the community, as always, to flounder and fail.

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    1. Agree, Close the fucking mill. Get some clean industry, small manufacturing, goat ranch anything clean and sustainable.

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    2. Amen. Good riddance to Nippon Industries and its stinking nasty presence. Knock it down quickly and take the debris to a licensed hazardous waste site (not an unlined local landfill like Rayonier did).

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    3. You are assuming that someone had the foresight to require Nippon to tear down the structures and remediate the site in case of a closure. Is that really the case?

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    4. Anyone who thinks Nippon will be required to do anything other than collection their millions from the NPS is setting themselves up to be very disappointed...Think more along the lines of Rayonier closing, with a dash of Pen Ply thrown in.

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  8. But aren't we all supposed to be millionaires by now from the tourist dollars that were going to flow in after the OUTDOOR magazine article last year? I thought everything was hunky dory here...

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    1. Uh, yeah. How's the crowd control coming along? Maybe Tyler can send in some photos of the swarming masses of visitors...

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    2. I'll go downtown tomorrow with my camera. It was pretty dead today, as I drove through town and back, but I didn't have my camera with me. You can decide if they are worth posting.

      Yes, it is one of those new fangled contraptions that records the date and time each picture is taken, imprinted on the digital file. If I turn on the GPS, it will record the exact place the picture was taken from. Should anyone question the pictures.

      Tyler

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    3. Thanks in advance, Tyler. Glad to hear you don't have enochlophobia.

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  9. Shit all they would have had to do is ask the employees. My sister and her husband sold their large house and property and are building a smaller place on a lot across the road because they knew that he would not be employed there much longer. Lucky for them their kids are all grown and they will no longer have a house payment so they can afford for him to semi retire. Hopefully people there with younger families have been making plans to cover their asses because anyone who didn't see this coming a long time ago (well before biomass) is either blind or stupid.

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  10. As an interested newcomer, this is why Unearthed is my primary source of news and relevant local information.

    OTOH, that there is no true vision or leadership in this Village is hardly newsworthy.

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  11. Along these lines, did you see the new study that has determined the mega-earthquakes on the Cascadian fault , off the coast here, happen more frequently than previously thought?

    What, exactly, IS this town ready for? Anything?

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  12. Maybe the Clallam County PUD will bid on it. They provide water and electricity.

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    Replies
    1. With their PUD millions???

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    2. Actually, it is a great idea for the Clallam PUD to consider buying the mill property.
      Many entities - including the Lower Elwha and Jamestown S'Klallam Tribes - should consider buying the mill.
      Maybe even the National Park Service should consider buying the property, so that it could better manage the industrial water supply.
      Think outside the box here, people! Seriously!

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    3. The Klallam Tribe already has all they want which is the village of Carlsborg. They got the county to put in a needless sewer system. Except it will be needed when the tribe moves in all those workers necessary for the high rise resort they are planning. Low income housing, 350 homes on one 30 acre plat is on the drawing boards.
      The county has already printed a map of the area calling it, "New Jamestown." Nothing subtle about that eh? So, the reservation is expanding to Carlsborg. Be the first to put your car on blocks.

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    4. "The county has already printed a map of the area calling it, "New Jamestown." Nothing subtle about that eh? So, the reservation is expanding to Carlsborg. Be the first to put your car on blocks."

      Nothing racist in this comment, eh?

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    5. While I agree that there is a high probability of the comment at 6:23 PM being racist (or at least being perceived as racist), I let it through because, really, it's probably a pretty representative view from the white folks in Clallam County. Not a nice view, not a polite view, but a representative one.

      As an aside, I have seen some of the dirtiest, poorest, lowest-functioning white folks get their White Pride all puffed out when they do things like, say, badmouth some of our current Olympians of color. It's always funny and pathetic when people who've never done anything other than meth and making babies with their cousins in the family double-wide look down on other people based on their skin color.

      But hey, enough about Trump voters, eh?

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    6. Wait a minute, I'm sure there are more cars on blocks in front of white folks homes than any other minority so don't pull that race card. Think about the density of homes in an area where the people work low-wage jobs and are forced to subsistence living. The reference to cars on blocks was a nod to poverty--not racism. Almost everyone in my family has a car or two on blocks for some part of a year. I'm white, and poor.

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    7. Nice try, but the whole tone of the post is less than First Nations friendly.

      But, I do agree with the rest of your comments.

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  13. Is that biomess thing even working? There have been a lot of times over the last 6 months that I've seen no smoke coming from any of the stacks at Nippon. Like yesterday.

    I didn't think an electrical power plant was supposed to be on sometimes, and off at others.

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    Replies
    1. Biomass burning Co-gen plant is still working and supplying electricity to Northern California--none for the locals.

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    2. Stop your complaining. Locals get the traffic and emissions from the power plant. It's not like we get NOTHING...

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    3. @ Anon 1:06 How can it be "still working", if there are is no smoke coming out the stack?

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    4. A better indicator of whether it''s working is if the fuel conveyors are moving. Under certain rH and ambient temperatures, there is no visible steam plume-see an adiabatic chart if you want to educate yourself.

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    5. Check a psychometric chart, it may be.

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    6. Anon 9:12 says: "Under certain rH and ambient temperatures, there is no visible steam plume-see an adiabatic chart if you want to educate yourself."

      Umm, did we forget the "biomass" plant BURNS WOOD to create the steam you are referencing? The stack from the boiler spews smoke from burning the wood. Sometimes that smoke is black.

      Or, should I educate myself so I understand under what conditions the steam spews out black?

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    7. It would only spew black if the electrostatic precipitate is illegally off, something easily verified. If that's what you see-report it and Nippon will pay the price.

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  14. I know a little off topic. But, notice how Delta Dental is already carpet bombing communities and businesses to help influence the fluoride vote months from now. From the "smile" ads in the paper to large donation at Olympic Peninsula Humane Society advertised today. Never really heard of them and now the seem to be really pumping money into the community. Glad they are helping but suspicious of ulterior motives as trying to influence future votes.

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    Replies
    1. holy shit, we should have gotten the fluoride out of the water months ago! Think of the money we can squeeze from Delta Dental. Great. If they want to toss money around, encourage them to toss some more.
      Lets get as much of the Delta Dental money out of them that we can. Then vote against fluoride in the 2017 election.
      Come on Delta Dental, if you wanted to really HELP poor people, and the working poor, why don't you pay for every power bill in the winter? You got the money.
      Why don't you pay off some of these struggling young families saddled with ridiculous student loans?
      Why don't you fund, for a decade, the after school program that the city just CUT?
      How about putting your fake "concern" into some real dollars. Not the pittance you've tossed around, so far.
      Delta Dental I challenge you to actually spend some of that blood money in your war chest, and do something that would really mean something to the people of Port Angeles.

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    2. wait until the 2017 candidates are announced. Watch the $ pile into some candidates donations from Delta Dental. There will be yard signs, and buttons, and door hangers, and whatever else, everywhere.

      They are going to try and buy our candidates, and our votes.

      Ask yourself "why?" Do they think we're that stupid? Are we whores -- for the right price?

      Clearly, there is big money in it for them to do so. Same reason there are the notoriously unfunny "humorists" who run around cussing out people, and spreading vile. Tossing fluoride from the water, cut their inflow of money.

      It's all about money folks, not concern for your health.

      And, whenever people start saying "for the children" you know it's really for their wallets. Always been the case, always will be.

      When exploiting our concerns for "the kids" don't work they'll find a way to say that it saves "kittens and puppies".

      OH WAIT...is that why DD is giving money to the Humane Society.

      Don't be suckers....and don't be swayed. Don't be bribed, or bought. We aren't slaves to Delta Dental. The gush of cash tells you how much they think that we are easily manipulated, stupid, mindless, money-grubbing sluts.

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    3. I saw an article in the Sequim Gazette today about how Delta Dental was on a three day tour of town, giving out awards to those in the community pushing their agenda, and infiltrating the Boys and Girls club to spread their "message."

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  15. well I say good riddance..We may have to hit rock bottom before we can start to build up this town in the NEW CENTURY.......but perhaps our kids will see the benefit.Get sustainable and environmental..timber associated industries need to be gone....read the novel Bareskins....this has been going on for 3 centuries....

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  16. This won has what, less than 20,000 people? We've got a higher percentage than average of senior citizens and retired people. In other words, between kids and retirees and people on the dole, probably half of the town doesn't work already. Adding 100+ people from Nippon to the unemployment figures will be a huge load. This is going to be a profound shock to the system here in many ways.

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    Replies
    1. I think you meant to say "town"? As in, "this town has..." Yes?

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  17. So, what happens if nobody wants to buy Nippon?

    If they couldn't make a go of it, who can?

    We can't even get people to buy commercial property in downtown Port Angeles. (How long has the former Maurices' store been for sale, along with most of the rest of downtown?)

    Is Nippon going to shut down, if they can't sell? Then what?

    Will the State have to come in, and clean up the site? (Seems to be the pattern in this town: make money, then leave the clean up to the taxpayers).

    What is the City's plans, now that it can expect such a hit to it's budget? Go crying to the State for more handouts as "Poor Port Angeles"?

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  18. No worries. We have a great Economic Development council run by Randy Johnson, candidate for county commissioner. He has been on the EDC for years and created all these new jobs so surely he can swoop in and save the mill for all times. That is what a fully functioning EDC does isn't it, save the jobs and recruit industry? Oh, they haven't been doing that? But the fellow from Commerce said "visit your businesses and they will grow." If Bill Greenwood will just visit the mill a few more times all will be fine.

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  19. Port Angeles should declare itself bankrupt. We could clean house -- negotiate compromises with all our creditors, including bondholders and organized labor.

    Get out from under our "million dollar balloon" (and maybe prosecute the organizers of that fiasco). Renegotiate pensions. Trim down city staff.

    Our city budget is a mess.
    Why did we pay for Cherie's high priced ethics lawyer?
    Why do we fund the EDC?
    Why do we have a city manager who has no finance background?

    Why do the city staffers keep getting cost-of-living increases, and make 3x what the average person in town makes?

    The people cannot afford more increases to the utilities, no more fee increases. (It's bad enough that our property is way over-valued.)

    This town is as fiscally conservative as a drunken sailor with a wad of bills in one pocket on his last night of shore leave.

    For a town of 19k, we have a huge city staff, huge salaries with great benefits. Our City Manager makes more than the governors of most states. Our City Attorney makes more money than most State Attorney Generals with his $140k salary.

    Think about this: Bloor makes nearly as much as the State of Washington Attorney General. (Bob Ferguson's salary is $151,178.)

    How does this make any sense at all? A town of 19k, v.s. 7 million people (in the State of Washington). Who approved of this? OH YEAH! That's right. The staff recommended it, and the spineless, complicit council approved it.

    Our town's "leaders" are fiddling while Port Angeles burns. The city staff is the orchestra of the Titanic quibbling over what song to play next. The City Council are busy rearranging the deck chairs to get a better view of the Titanic orchestra. The smart people in Port Angeles are putting on their life-jackets and fighting over the few life rafts. The rest, are doomed to drown in debt, less services, and more misery.

    Our town needs to make some BIG decision, and quickly.

    Unfortunately this "old boys" network and corruption is all about them getting what they can, and to hell with the rest of us.

    This insanity that "some big industry" will come and save us is pathetic. Its how we get screwed by the likes of the "composites" clowns. Its how we fall for every single scam that comes rolling into town.

    Desperation is the hallmark of doom.

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    Replies
    1. A GOLD STAR posting...Thank you!

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    2. Actually the COPA city manager makes $165K and so does the city attorney. Compare this with the average per capita income for Port Angeles which is right at $19K.
      So how long can this last when the city manager and city attorney each make 8 times the average wage. They say the reason they have to pay so much is because of all the union jobs that pay so well. The managers have to make more than the workers or they won't respect you in the morning. Now, who approves the union pay scale--of course, the city council. Every time the unions get a raise they think they have to raise the city salaries to keep ahead of the union pay. A snake swallows its tail.

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    3. 2015 pay McKeen base pay 140,711 total comp 189,485. Fulton base 130,687 total comp 171,551.West base 119,436 total comp 166,748. Bloor base 126,711 total comp 165,374.

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  20. It's the second big (not) Sunday edition of the PDN today. Only a couple of new stories, with the lead story being about a woman who vanished 30 years ago. (Is that when any hope for the future of Port Angeles vanished, too?) No real new news stories of substance or import.

    They have a link to take you to a "letters to the editor" page. There is nothing there. Which kind of sums up the Peninsula Daily News overall, doesn't it? There is nothing there.

    Which will stop production first - the PDN or Nippon?

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    Replies
    1. Duly noted, PDN: After having your "new" old-fashioned interweb site up for a couple of weeks, without any letters to the editor under your "letters to the editor" tab, I see that, now that I have mocked you for that here, you've tossed a couple of letters up on that page.

      Still, the question remains: Who stops production first - the PDN or Nippon?

      Delete
    2. Yet there is a duplication of one of the letters, and the other doesn't have a signed name to it.

      Delete
  21. Was thinking about Marolees' post about the death of the town, particularly where she spoke of "iconic buildings" that sit for years, empty, un-used and un-sold.

    I don't know the names of all the different buildings in town, but there are a lot. And, new ones get added, quietly.

    Is Nippon going to be another? To join the Rayonier site, still sitting empty, after ?? years?

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  22. The Lower / Elwah tribe will end up with the Nippon mill site. After millions of tax payer dollars spent on clean up. Then a new casino-cultural center. So it is said-so it shall be :)

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    1. Shall it move at the pace of the Rayonier site remediation? If so, so shall it slow...

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    2. Things happen fast when funding tribal projects.

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  23. I thought it interesting that Nippon offered the site to the Port, but the Port of Port Angeles said they were not interested.

    With all the possibilities, all they can say is that they are not interested? Any wonder why this town has been stagnant for so long?

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  24. Like any addict, this town, which is addicted to 20th century industries, will never reinvent/redefine itself until it hits rock bottom. The financial crisis of 2018 isn't here yet.

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