In March 2011 the Port of Coos Bay approved $1 million in exploratory studies to ascertain the feasibility of various proposed development concepts for the North Spit. One of these studies cost “$163,600 to PB Marine for a “Conceptual Alternative Study for the Development of a Bulk Export Facility” to take another look at developing a cargo terminal in Coos Bay.” At that time I argued that any terminal operator would do its own due diligence before investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Coos County.
Now, with PB Marine revisiting the economics of building a cargo terminal, with or without an adjacent LNG facility, a company like APM Terminals would still have to be enticed to move here because the Port has no claims to have no plans to be the operator. According to documents provided by the Port, APM has already invested in its own feasibility studies and it seems reasonable other firms will do the same before investing half a billion dollars in Coos Bay, so how do these expenditures benefit the Port? The April 2007 minutes indicate the Port agrees with this assessment.
No successful company will make a decision to site a project that costs hundreds of millions of dollars without considerable due diligence
They will not rely on comments or allegations made by individuals or even the Port without independent verification
Methods for independent verification are extensive – the larger the project the more extensive the effort to verify – the cost of a mistake is too substantial to overlook even the smallest of detailsOn the other hand, Commissioner Brady Scott, perhaps anticipating skepticism from the public asked questions of the PB Marine consultant, Mike Zachary, to justify the expense. The attached video clip may be of help in explaining the importance of this study.
Well, after asking for the results of the PB Marine results for months the Port community affairs manager, Elise Hamner informed Jody McCaffree that at some point the a decision was made to cancel the study for the exact reasons I articulated last year.
The Port canceled the proposed Parsons Brinkerhoff bulk commodity terminal study when it became apparent that the various entities that had expressed interest in the Coos Bay harbor for the movement of a variety of bulk commodities would be providing virtually the same information proposed for the Parsons Brinkerhoff study as they pursued due diligence in their pursuit of a bulk terminal concept for Coos Bay. Consequently, there is no Parsons Brinkerhoff document.
You may read the full letter here. This is where I get to say “I told you so” but a new question arises and that is when was the decision made to cancel the study and who made that decision?
So if yo Daddy says: “Sweetie, aw’l give you a million dollars a month until you finish your school work, what’cha gonna do? Huh? These clowns are masters at their craft. They buy a piece of shit, a huge big piece of shit, then tell us we have to pay for twenty years to take that piece of shit and turn it into a job. And these locals fall for it every damn time.
Shut the damn rails down, do not allow anymore boondoggle great projects that if finished, will rust into the sand just like the ferry,the t-dock,the second airline terminal we don’t need, yada yada yada. Repair the swing bridge and 125 tunnels or passage of water? Are you serious? And YOU will pay for their folly? THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN EVER ! STOP FUNDING THESE CONS.
That’s all I have to say about that.
My question as well, thank you coos bayb. If you have a couple thousand bucks, they’ll tell you.
We have to stop this madness.
And what happened to the $163,600?