Poire reports on state ports meeting

Port of Whitman Executive Director Joe Poiré attended a Washington Public Ports Association session on telecommunications in Tacoma Jan. 9.

In a report to the port here last Thursday, Poiré noted good participation both by large ports like Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, Bellingham, and Vancouver as well as the smaller east side ports such as Whitman and Tri-Cities.

“It was a really dynamic group of people in that room,” Poiré commented.

Port of Whitman County is among the few ports already doing construction at this time.

Among presenters at the meeting were Brad Furlong, the attorney for the Port of Skagit; Randy Hayden, president for the Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB), and Mark Wilson, chair of the WPPA legislative committee.

The ports decided to form a broadband sub-committee for telecommunications under the WPPA Economic Development Committee.

“When a particular subject comes to critical mass, as this [telecommunications] has, we tend to get organized,” Poiré commented.

Poiré said he expects the spring meeting for the WPPA will include an election of officers to give the new sub-committee more structure.

The association has proposed a $20 million budget item from the legislature which convened Monday.

The WPPA also has advanced a couple of bill proposals to Olympia, he added.