Comp. plan on Port agenda

The Port of Whitman County is in the process of working on its comprehensive plan, with plans to continue discussion of the draft of the plan at their meeting today and adopt it.

At their last meeting, Jan. 21, the commissioners decided to take the draft home to read through it and be ready to discuss it in a hearing today.

Port Executive Director Joe Poiré said that by law the Port is supposed to have a harbor maintenance developmental scheme, which has adapted “language-wise into a comprehensive plan for the Port.”

The Port of Whitman County Comprehensive Plan is for 2016-2020 and currently is a 57-page draft, which is built off of the previous plan and plans prior to that.

The plan is split into seven sections, which include the introduction, goals, policies and objectives, on-water development, off-water development, county-wide development, implementation and appendices. The plan is a continuation of the previous plan, with changes marked throughout the document. Some changes include noting that there have been only 13 commissioners since the Port of Whitman County was organized in 1959, a change that was made to reflect Tom Kammerzell's service with the Port.

“Everything that we're involved in is all in there,” Poiré said. “It tries to paint a roadmap for why we are what we are and why we are where we are.”

Poiré said the plan is written generally enough to allow the Port staff and the commissioners to make decisions on the things they would like to accomplish, without being so set that they have to do certain things by certain dates or on certain timelines.

“It outlines how the commissioners want to tackle things for the next five years,” he said.

Poiré added that the plan is something that guides his work.

“I think about that thing every day,” he said.

Once completed, the plan can be viewed in its entirety at the Port of Whitman County office at 302 N. Mill Street or online at portwhitman.com.

The hearing today is scheduled for 11 a.m. and is open to the public.