U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden stopped by the Port of Coos Bay to discuss plans to bring a shipping terminal to the port while visiting Coos County on Saturday.
While meeting with port CEO John Burns, board members and representatives from North Bend, Wyden said he was confident this time the port can pull off bringing in a shipping terminal.
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt more positive about the South Coast than I do right now,” Wyden said. “We’ve been on a roller coaster with economic development. For some reason, they didn’t come together. I’ve never felt more positive. You guys are really doing a lot of things right.”
After his introductory comments, Wyden turned to those in attendance, asking the, what they would like to see him working on to make the idea a reality.
North Bend City Administrator David Milliron told Wyden the one issue that won’t go away is a big one – housing.
“Housing’s not going to happen without a lot of government intervention here,” Milliron said. “The city of North Bend doesn’t have much space, so we have to build up.”
Milliron said the city has been quietly locating potential properties and has 19 developers interested in building in the city, if things can be worked out.
“The port project, we have an opportunity here on the Southern Coast to be on the national stage,” Milliron said. “That’s huge, but they have to live somewhere.”
Milliron said North Bend has been working with the county, other cities and the two Indian tribes to look for answers. Two he mentioned were possibly turning Bangor Elementary School into housing along with the old county annex the North Bend Urban Renewal Agency purchased with the idea of building a mixed-use development.
“We have seen all the properties over the last six months,” Milliron said. “When Sen. Merkley’s staff came down, we actually toured all those properties.”
Merkley said when he heard 19 developers, his interest was immediately piqued. He said he would immediately have his staff and the Senate Finance Committee, which he chairs, begin to work with North Bend.
“I’d like to assign somebody in D.C., so you’ll have a point person in D.C.,” Wyden said. “I’m all in because usually the housing challenge is how do you whet people’s interest. Here, we’re in a really strong position. You have people like Secretary Pete, Sen. Merkley, Congressman DeFazio and myself, and we’re all in. We’ll start right now. I’m all in and you’re giving me a lot more to work with than I’m used to.”
Wyden even volunteered to virtually attend a meeting with the potential developers to discuss ways the government can help.
North Bend Mayor Jessica Engelke said if the shipping facility can be brought to life, it could be huge for the region.
“This part of the economy, with family wage jobs, solves a lot of problems,” Engelke said. “We have an opportunity to have industry here that can solve not only people’s problems and take care of their families but other problems as well.”
Burns, who is spearheading the shipping terminal project, told Wyden there are many ways he can help, but one in particular. He said deepening and widening the channel must be done, but the hiccup for years has been federal permitting.
“Senator, we have been working over 15 years to get the permits to deepen and widen the channel,” Burns said. “We need help to keep things moving in a positive fashion.”
Burns said the port works the the Corps of Engineers, and every time a new person takes over, the process moves back to step one. He said the port is always told it’s a big bureaucracy and just moves slow.
“I don’t find over the years very many people at the Corps get up and say, I want to be rotten to Coos Bay today,” Wyden responded. “But what we do here is, you know, it’s such a big bureaucracy. If you would like at some point to have us work with you to have an agreed upon plan with dates and times, we can do that.”
Wyden said such a plan would keep things moving forward even with staffing changes.
Port Commission President David Kronsteiner said the shipping terminal could revitalize the entire region.
“It brings our first step back of over 40 years or so of being in the depression,” he said. “It will require more than one project, but we have people who are interested already. We need to reinvest here. This is the best opportunity we’ve had. I think we’re in a great position to turn the economy around.”
Wyden said he agreed and was excited to work to help the port and the community.
“The West Coast needs us,” he said. “We’ve never been in this position before. We’ll get started on housing right away. We’ll have our staff, the Finance Committee staff available to you. We’re off and running. Nothing is ever easy. But this time the South Coast is going to thread the economic needle. Things are really well positioned.”
