PORT ANGELES — The Clallam County commissioners have approved a loan and a grant that will go to the city of Forks.
Commissioners on Tuesday held a public hearing for the loan of $260,000 and an Opportunity Fund grant for $675,000 for improvements at the Forks Industrial Park and for electrical upgrades.
Forks City Attorney and Planner Rod Fleck told commissioners the loan will be for repairs at the main building while the grant will be to work with the Clallam County PUD to upgrade the capacity and infrastructure associated with the main building and to get the main building wired to the substation on state Highway 110.
Both the loan and the grant are contingent on the city successfully executing a lease with Riverside Forest Products USA, according to the agenda memo.
Riverside is looking at investing $12 million to $13 million, Fleck said.
“They are looking at employing, at the beginning, 48 to 50 jobs with an average of $31.80 an hour,” Fleck said. “That’s roughly $3 million benefit to the West End community.”
Riverside will then start a second shift and raise the number of employees to between 60 and 65, he said.
The city and Riverside are both working diligently to have a long-lasting, multi-decade agreement, Fleck said.
“The Opportunity Fund is this county’s tool for economic development,” County Administrator Todd Mielke said. “The Opportunity Fund is used for strategic investment for the creation and retention of jobs in this community.”
Commissioner Mark Ozias asked Fleck when the last time this level of investment happened in Forks or in the West End, to which Fleck said it’s been at least 15 years.
“This will have a huge economic impact,” Fleck said. “Also, at ReCompete, our goal is to create jobs. I work with employers to create jobs in primary-age employment.”
Fleck said the Olympic Peninsula’s proximity to Portland, Ore., and the Interstate 5 corridor made it attractive to Riverside, which is a Canadian company looking to open a new branch in Forks.
During the public hearing, comments focused mainly on why a Canadian company was being considered, so Commissioner Mike French asked if there were other companies that expressed interest in a lease for the Forks Industrial Park to which Fleck said no.
“The other companies have mills in other locations,” Fleck said. “There are not a lot of companies that do mill work in the United States. There are companies that do it, but they have their assets already deployed. This was a company that came kind of unsolicited, started talking to us roughly a year ago, and so we’ve been working in that regard.”
The city owns the Forks Industrial Park and leases the space out to companies, which is why the loan and grant will go to the city.
Another approved item during Tuesday’s meeting was an amendment to the $2.9 million Emergency Operations Center grant the county received from FEMA in 2023.
“(The grant) was originally for the construction phase,” Mielke said. “It had the first cut-off date for using the funds so we petitioned FEMA to change the scope of the grant to move it toward the front end of the project, not the tail end of the project. They have given us the green light to do that.”
Instead of using the funds for construction, the county will now use them for expense reimbursement, according to the agenda memo.
Commissioners also approved the county six-year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for 2026-2031. The TIP identifies current and planned transportation improvement projects under the provision for adequate funding for the next six years for roads, bridges, non-motorized trails and other improvements related to county-managed transportation facilities, according to the agenda memo.
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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached by email at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.
