The Grays Harbor County commissioners have approved matching funds for an initial phase of the Gateway Center, a proposed business and visitor complex at downtown Aberdeen.
During the first regular meeting of 2017 on Jan. 9, the commissioners approved a matching amount of $55,000. Last year, the commissioners had been asked to uphold a pledge to match 10 percent of what the state gave to the project.
Early in December 2016, the commissioners considered the same match and agreement with the City of Aberdeen, but a motion to approve made by Commissioner Vickie Raines failed for lack of a second when neither Commissioner Wes Cormier nor former commissioner Frank Gordon seconded the motion.
Cormier has openly criticized the project for having too many questions left unanswered — specifically, not knowing who would own the building. He also has been opposed to the county taking over the building.
Commissioner Gordon echoed similar sentiments after he chose to not second the allocation in December.
By the end of the month, however, Gordon voted to approve the $55,000 match in the 2017 budget, saying the decision should be up to the commissioners next year. Gordon was not re-elected and his term ended in December. Commissioner Randy Ross won election to the District 2 position.
A vote for the agreement between the City of Aberdeen and Grays Harbor County, which included the $55,000 match, saw Cormier as the lone dissenting vote. Raines and Ross both voted for the agreement.
During the media information session, Ross said he supports the proposed project.
“This has been ongoing for a long time, and this is a great facility for the entire county,” Ross said. “Moving forward, I would hope to see that we get county involvement in the planning of this, too.”
Cormier noted that the agreement his fellow commissioners approved states that the city owns the project. Ross and Raines seemed unfazed by that revelation. Ross said his own vision on how to fund or develop the Gateway Center may not be as currently envisioned.
“What is the best form of ownership? Even though the city might own it right now, that may not be the best form of ownership going forward,” Ross said. “This could be a county property, but I see this maybe as a public facilities district, or something like that. But we need to get the county involved in discussing this.”
Raines said a public facilities district for the Gateway Center would be similar to the situation at the Ocean Shores Convention Center.
Raines has been supportive of the center since its inception before she was a county commissioner.
The city had requested $1.65 million from the state for the Gateway Center. The Legislature, instead, contributed $550,000.
Public meetings have been held in Aberdeen to discuss what the Gateway Center will look like.
Welch dies
Former county commissioner Herb Welch died on Friday, Jan. 6, at 79.
According to a death notice from Coleman Mortuary in Hoquiam, Welch served in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Toledo during the Korean Conflict. He had worked as a logger, truck driver and diesel mechanic, later becoming an insurance agent and preparing taxes.
He was a Grays Harbor County Commissioner from 2011 to 2015.
During the media information session, each of the current county commissioners offered their condolences to Welch’s family.
