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Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.
C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.
John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.
Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.
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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."
