The Port of Tacoma, Puyallup Tribe of Indians and SSA Marine have said they will cooperate on development of the east Blair Waterway for shipping terminals.

And after two months of sometimes tense negotiation, they know what that cooperation will look like.

The port commission approved four key agreements Tuesday and officials from the port, tribe and SSA signed them immediately after the lunch-time meeting.

"Let's get this started, let's get this done and let's keep that trust level real high," said port commissioner Connie Bacon.

The Port of Tacoma announced last summer its plans to build a new, $300 million shipping terminal for NYK Line on the Blair-Hylebos Peninsula.

The Puyallup tribe and SSA Containers - a subsidiary of SSA Marine – have partnered to build another container terminal on the same waterway.

Under the agreements, the port, tribe and SSA will transfer and lease property, cooperate on needed roads and rail projects and widen the waterway.

The details include:

n The port's plan to sell the Puyallup Tribe three pieces of property. The tribe will buy two pieces for a total of $7.8 million to square up its own container terminal.

The tribe will buy a third property - Ole and Charlie's Marina - from the port for $4 million.

The port purchased the marina property in 2005 for almost $8 million to preserve it as an industrial space.

Port Deputy Director John Wolfe said the previous owners were considering selling the land to a developer and the port paid a premium to keep the property from becoming homes or condos.

As part of the marina's sale to the tribe, the port restricted its use to industrial – thus the lower price, Wolfe said.

Chad Wright, CEO of Marine View Ventures, said the tribe already owns other property near the marina and plans to keep the marina in operation.

n The port will lease property to the SSA. The port has already started building a ship berth at the site of the former Weyerhaeuser chip facility.

That property is adjacent to the tribal terminal and will give the Tribe/SSA project four ship berths.

The port plans on investing $52 million in developing the property and then earning revenue off of its lease to SSA Marine.

n The port will work with SSA and the tribe to widen the waterway. The port wants the waterway to be 850 wide at all points.

SSA Marine will manage the waterway widening project and port will reimburse the company for some of the cost.

n The parties will cooperate on road and rail infrastructure, permitting and share technical and project management information.

All parties noted that the agreements were a milestone in development of the Blair Waterway and fulfilled the dream of creating a tribal terminal that many have harbored since the 1988 Puyallup Indian Land Claims Settlement.

"This has been a long time in the making," said Herman Dillon, the Puyallup tribal council chairman.

The negotiations weren't easy.

At times SSA and tribe representatives were ready to walk out, they said.

But the common goal of developing the waterway for shipping kept everyone coming back to the table.

"This is a deal that benefits everyone," he said. "There is no loser in this transaction."

Boeing rival Airbus today raised the list prices for its airliners as the dollar continued to fall against the Euro and metal prices continued their rise.

The European aircraft maker raised prices across the board on its line of aircraft by 2.74 percent and then adjusted single-aisle aircraft prices upward by $2 million and wide-bodied aircraft by $4 million per plane.

Airliners are typically sold in dollar-denominated contracts, so that each time the dollar drops relative to the Euro, Airbus receives fewer Euros for each plane sold.

"The U.S. dollar is at its lowest rate in 20 years," Airbus said in a press release explaining the price hikes. "Over the last 12 months, the Euro versus the U.S. dollar exchange rate moved from 1.35 to almost 1.60 which translates to a devaluation of more than 15 percent. Prices for metal products have gone up at least 6.5 percent."

Airbus pays many of its workers in Euros and pays many of its European suppliers in that European currency.

Boeing, on the other hand, builds its planes in the U.S. so much of its costs are incurred in dollars.

The price raises may give Boeing a further advantage in the marketplace, but list prices typically are only a starting point for negotiations between airlines and plane makers. Most airlines pay as much as a third less than list prices for aircraft they buy.

Here are some example prices for Airbus jets:

A320 single aisle jet $76.9 million
A330-300 wide body $200.8 million
A350-8 new generation wide body $208.7 million
A340-500 long range wide body $237.1 million

For most frequent fliers, an occasional upgrade to first class or a periodic free trip to Tucson or Tulsa is the reward they get for hours spent waiting at airport gates and strapped into narrow airline seats.

For one Gig Harbor uber frequent flier, the reward for nearly 100 trips last year on Alaska Airlines between Sea-Tac and the San Francisco Bay area was something more substantial.

Greg Yob, a Gig Harbor resident who commutes weekly to the Bay area to run his commercial cleaning business, returned home Monday to be greeted by Alaska Airlines officials and his wife, Gigi, and the keys to a new Pontiac Solstice convertible.

Yob, who logged more than 70,000 miles between the two cities on Alaska last year, was Alaska's most frequent flier on that route.

The airline awarded him the car as a way of marking the inauguration of new re-timed and more frequent service from Sea-Tac to both Northern and Southern California.

"Greg leaves his family each week, flies to San Francisco to work and then returns home. He's flown more flights on Alaska Airlines in 2007 than any other customer between Seattle and the Bay Area, making him our 'West-Mostest' flier," said Steve Jarvis, the airline's vice president of sales, marketing and customer service. "We couldn't think of any better way to say 'thank you' than by giving him a new set of wheels to drive to and from the airport in style - along with a well-deserved vacation."

Alaska also gave Yob first class tickets on its new flight from Seattle to Maui, which begins July 17, along with a four-night stay at the Four Season Resort Maui at Wailea.

Alaska is tooting its horn about its California service because it faces new competition, Virgin America Airlines between Seattle and San Francisco and Seattle and Los Angeles and JetBlue Airways between Seattle and Long Beach and Seattle and San Diego.

One of the South Sound's largest design and engineering firms, Tacoma's BCRA, has temporarily transformed part of its parking lot to an urban park.

BCRA volunteers laid sod and planted greenery over two stalls in the company's South 21st and C streets parking lot to celebrate Earth Day and to emphasize the importance of green spaces in urban environments.

BCRA's park

Green spaces are not readily available to as many as two of three residents in some dense city environments, the BCRA team said. Urban parks provide gathering places for local residents while reducing the heat reflected from streets and parking lots.

The spot will remain a park for the remainder of April and then will be converted to parking spaces for environmentally friendly vehicles.

If your flight's been canceled, Portland's Conducive Technologies has a new electronic resource to help you find an alternate way to your destination.

Conducive through its Flightstats.com Web site has developed a new service that instantly displays available seats headed to your destination from the same airport where you're stranded.

The new Flight Availability search can help you find seats so that you can help your airline rebook your flight when you call or contact counter personnel.

The service shows all flights from your originating airport to your destination the same day you're traveling and lists how many coach and first class seats are still available.

With airlines running close to capacity, the seat availability search often shows just how few seats are still available for booking.

We looked at availability of empty seats from Seattle to Chicago's O'Hare Airport recently and discovered just between 5 and 10 seats still bookable on most flights.

The flight availability service is free at Flightstats.com and Mobile.flightstats.com for cell phones and portable devices.

The two-part (or perhaps three-part) auction of the estate of Steve Craig (chronicled in The News Tribune last week) began Monday with the sale of some 7,000 items in 500 lots. Craig, a Tacoma art figure and antique and collectible collector, left at least 20,000 items of local, historical and somewhat oddball interest.

Alan Gorsuch of Tacoma’s Sanford & Son Antiques is conducting the auction at Craig’s home, in a warehouse along Opera Alley (or Court C) near Tacoma City Hall.

Among some of the items sold Monday: a complete chrome and stainless steel soda fountain, $250 (yes, $250); a portfolio of autographed photos of vaudeville and burlesque stars, $650; an Art Deco barber chair, $10 (yes, $10); a Coca-Cola sign as big as a commercial satellite dish, $275; pinball machine, $250; hot tub, $1,300.

“Some of the best stuff went for absolutely nothing, and some of the goofy stuff brought good prices,” Gorsuch said late Monday afternoon, after the auction ended. He said the auction went well, overall, although “it’s so hard to get a good crowd to a brick-and-mortar auction because of the Internet.”

He estimated that 85 percent of the 350 or so people who attended were dealers.

Depending on how quickly items are sold next Monday, Gorsuch said he might schedule a third auction to complete the sale of the collection.

Among the 13,000 items up for sale next week: a deed to 125 acres near Boise, Idaho, signed by Woodrow Wilson; a leather-bound 11th Edition of Encyclopedia Britannica; a Bell System phone booth; the switchboard from Tacoma’s Hotel Merck; a serious collection of ephemera and such from the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition; an electro-shock therapy machine; a 1910 badge commemorating the dedication of Stadium High School; a copper 2-kopek coin dated 1798.

Diane Cecchettini, president and CEO of MultiCare Health System, has received the 2008 CEO IT Achievement Award from Modern Healthcare Magazine and the Healthcare Information and Management System Society.

Cecchettini was only one of three CEOs nationally, and the only CEO in Washington, to receive the recognition. The award recognizes healthcare CEOs who demonstrate leadership and a commitment to using information technology to advance their organizations’ goals, MultiCare said in a release.

Among the accomplishments earned during Cecchettini’s leadership, MultiCare is now one of few health systems in the nation to have system-wide electronic health records. Called MultiCare Connect, the system allows immediate, secure access to a single, comprehensive health record each time a patient visits a MultiCare hospital or doctor.

Interested in TEUs and a vision of what the Port of Tacoma is, was and may one day be?

The Port of Tacoma has posted its 2007 annual report online at www.portoftacoma.com/topstory.cfm?sub=69&lsub=1106

The document, according to the Port, offers insight into growth plans, environmental stewardship, cargo diversity, community outreach and the Port's financial plans.

As a bonus (and if you'll complete a short survey) you'll have a chance to win a $50 gift certificate (enough for a spiffy red poplin jacket) at the Port Pavilion online store.