City Council Approves $500,000 Grant Application for PenPly
PenPly would use this state Department of Commerce grant for purchasing raw materials, hiring 15 to 20 new employees and paying some overdue bills. Grant Munro, investor and former City Council member, said:
“Without this grant, PenPly may not make it. With this grant, PenPly will make it for another three to four months at least.”
Nathan West, economic and community development director, told the City Council that the Commerce Department plans to approve the grant and will get the money to the mill in the next few days.
“Without this grant, PenPly may not make it. With this grant, PenPly will make it for another three to four months at least.”
Nathan West, economic and community development director, told the City Council that the Commerce Department plans to approve the grant and will get the money to the mill in the next few days.
posted by Tom Harper at 4:03 PM
25 Comments:
Ah, yes. Grant Munro.
I can't believe ANY thoughtful person would think this approval of $500,000 to an obviously sinking ship, makes any sense. Even during times when the country wasn't in such dire financial troubles.
The Council approves a half million dollar gift to a failing enterprise without even seeing the paperwork or developing any terms for the deal?!? Deja Vu HarborWorks!
I guess the next thing we'll hear is that Jeff Lincoln has been hired to oversee Pen Ply's "recovery".
What a total waste of time and tax dollars. They can't pay the employees they have (or pay their state unemployment taxes), but, hey, let's give them a grant that requires them to...Hire MORE people???
Pen Ply has lied, jerked their employees around, sold equipment that they had used as collateral for loans, failed to pay their rent or their power bills...And on and on and on. All the while, utterly failing to attract any private investors of note (or size), and while sucking off the government teat constantly. They have subsisted entirely on government loans and grants, deferred rent, etc., etc. They have no business plan I've heard of, no leaders, and no clue at all. They seem to think that the tsumnami repairs in Japan are going to keep them afloat.
But it won't. Those repairs will be done soon enough, and so will Pen Ply. Look at the quotes from their own employees and investors. None of them expect this to last more than "another three or four months."
How many months could YOU live on $500,000?
How much computer equipment could be bought for our local schools for $500,000?
How many houses for poor families could we build for $500,000?
How many people could get health and dental coverage for a year with $500,000?
Instead, the City Council is spending $500,000 to keep a fantasy alive for a few more months. Thank god this is an election year. Register, people, and remember to vote.
And guess who voted against the PenPly grant!
You can't expect any wood mill to make a go of it unless it is fully modernized and as automated as possible and those kinds of mills hire fewer employees.
But Pen Ply will hire more, hahahaha.
Never mind, kiss your money goodbye.
Thank god this is an election year. Register, people, and remember to vote.
Only idiots run for government offices. Granted, they are intelligent idiots, or seem to be.
So how has that been working out for you?
I really feel I must shoot down this idea that I have been, or will be, brought in to oversee Pen Ply's recovery, as has been claimed here. Having done my time in Port Angeles, I have no wish to return there on a full-time basis.
However, I am available for consulting work, should the need arise. I do have a certain amount of expertise in extracting money from local governing entities, as some of you may remember.
XOX
Jeff
Talk about a "gift of public funds"
this is a clear violation of the Washington State Constitution
Maybe they ought to ask ACTI's Mr. Rauch for help, he seems to be running a good show up at the airport.........
I heard they have 40 more new job openings coming this summer.
"Maybe they ought to ask ACTI's Mr. Rauch for help, he seems to be running a good show up at the airport........."
ACTI relies on Government contracts, if I remember correctly. With the country finally facing it's enormous debt, and calls to cut spending, even in Defense, I wonder if ACTI will be affected?
$10 billion a month, spent in Afghanistan for 10 years now. And what do we have to show for it? The President of Afghanistan calling the US "an occupying force", and more anti-American sentiment in the area than there was 10 years ago.
And in Iraq? The extremist groups are already skirmishing with bombs and rocket attacks to position themselves as the US leaves.
And, we're left so in debt, we're cutting services to our own children.
And the impacts of that debt are only just beginning to be felt by the American population. There are years of drastic cuts ahead.
Will they impact ACTI? We'll see.
But, today, the Government still has $500,000 to throw away with Pen Ply.
ACTI has been beneficiary of some government financial help, too.... Not as directly as this, but there used to be a picture on the City's web site of a certain former mayor and ACTI folks, with a big check from the government ($250,000 as I recall) for something related to the company. The differences appear to be that ACTI has always been a viable company --- not in debt to its suppliers, not in arrears on its taxes and utility bills, with a modern production facility that produces products in high demand in the 21st century.
This $500K gift to PenPly must feel like a resounding slap in the face to those other businesses in town who are struggling to pay their bills and yet are meeting their financial obligations.
Goodbye, PenPly!
ACTI and Nippon are next!
I was talking to a lady at Lincoln Park this morning and she said someone had shot a young duck there with a blowgun. Then I saw it in the paper at breakfast.
ASSHOLE !!!! I have a blowgun and darts like that also, how would you like a few of them in your ass?
Actually ACTI never received public funding for anything. The Port received a grant to invest in its facilities, which ACTI has paid rent for, for over 15 years.
"Goodbye, PenPly!
ACTI and Nippon are next!"
You aren't the sharpest tool in the shed. This really should read-
"Westport and Nippon, see you overseas!"
ACTI is going to be fine, the expansion is going to be huge. Westport should have gotten out of PA last year, we will see what they have plans for. Nippon will get boughtout and possibly become a different company name. Penply, there never was hope...
The difference is that ACTI is viable -- they've received some new contracts and they certainly can make it. PenPly, on the other hand, is a sinking ship as Anonymous 5:10 put it.
On the front page of today's PDN, it is announced that PenPly is furloughing 50 employees even though they got the money.
Makes about as much sense as Harborworks (hat tip to Vote the Bums Out).
“Without this grant, PenPly may not make it. With this grant, PenPly will make it for another three to four months at least.”
If the city applies for the grant and gets it for them doesn't that mean that Pen Ply is obligated to pay them back what they now owe the city?
That and paying up the Port will pretty much wipe out the grant money. May as well shutter the doors now and tear that antique plant down.
ACTI will be the biggest private employer in PA within 5 years......trust me know.
"ACTI will be the biggest private employer in PA within 5 years......trust me know."
Well, we'll see. At the rate the country is declining, 5 years is a LONG time for such predictions.
So, tell me, who are ACTIs clients?
"ACTI will be the biggest private employer in PA within 5 years......trust me know."
What, bigger than Walmart? Say it ain't so!
A half a million dollars given to the city in a "community" grant. I'm sure glad the city passed it through to Pen Ply instead of doing something more directly benefiting the community --- like maybe repairing civic field or the swimming pool. No problem there, though. Residents who recognize the value of those things will opt to tax themselves to pay for such projects, freeing these big chunks of public money to be given to private enterprise.
How much will everybody's utility rates have to be increased to make up for the revenue shortfall caused by Pen Ply's hundreds of thousands of dollars of delinquent bills?
"Well, we'll see. At the rate the country is declining, 5 years is a LONG time for such predictions.
So, tell me, who are ACTIs clients?"
Do you read the paper in this town? That company has been in there numerous times, and for good reason...
But anyways, If I am correct, they do business with Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Bombardier.
Three very sucessful companies.
As well as:
Senior Aerospace
Korean Aerospace
Spirit Aerospace
&
Airbus
"Do you read the paper in this town? That company has been in there numerous times, and for good reason...
But anyways, If I am correct, they do business with Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Bombardier.
Three very sucessful companies."
Sigh. Yes, I do put a bit of effort to follow things in this community. I was asking/inviting other to .. participate.
And, who out there thinks these "very successful companies" owe a significant part of their "success" to government/defense contracts?
Geeezzz, this is so tedious.
Ah, yes Grant Munro.
Is that the same Grant Munro that is getting a sweetheart deal from the Port to move all the raw logs out to the Orient? With Public Works maintaining the road through PenPly to get the logs from barker to ship? Ever since we chased the S'Klallam off the beach, our city has worked this way. Get used to it.
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