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Quinaults expand business operations to Westport

The Columbian
Published: July 17, 2014, 12:00am

Aberdeen — The Quinault Indian Nation announced this week it’s expanding its business operations to Westport. The tribe bought controlling interest in RPMM, LLC., a Westport Marina business.

The Port of Grays Harbor approved the transfer of RPMM’s lease to the tribe at a special meeting Tuesday. It’s the first upland lease between Quinault Tribal Enterprises and the Port.

“We’re just trying to start diversifying and start growing not only our economy but the local economy,” Quinault President Fawn Sharp said.

At its facility at Firecracker Point, RPPM buys and sells seafood, provides loading and offloading services for fishermen, hoisting services and offers fueling services. Sharp said the plan is to keep the business as-is for the time being.

“The numbers are working out well for us, we’ll look at those numbers and see how we can expand and grow in Westport,” she said.

Both the tribe and the Port hope the new acquisition helps strengthen the relationship between the two, which has been strained in recent months as the tribe has been a vocal opponent of crude oil facilities proposed at the Port.

“We saw this opportunity, it works well within our economic strategy,” Sharp said. “We’re hoping we can strengthen our partnership with the Port.”

“I think there’s been enough animosity and controversy,” Port Executive Director Gary Nelson said. “We’ve just been trying to use that as an opportunity to rekindle the relationship and improve communication on a variety of fronts.”

He said the hope is to work jointly on other opportunities as well as improve existing operations between tribal fishermen and the commercial fishing fleet.

“At the end of the day we have a lot more in common than we do different, historically we’ve worked very closely with the tribe. … They have fishing rights, and we also have commercial vessel traffic, and inevitably sometimes in the fall those can conflict,” he said. “And we’re just trying to find ways to mitigate the conflict and make sure everybody’s as safe as possible. I think they’re very committed to that, you certainly see how that benefits their members and doesn’t negatively impact their fishing rights.”

“We welcome the economic and employment opportunities this could mean for the region,” Port Commissioner Chuck Caldwell said. “The Port’s mission is to stimulate economic development, job creation and investment in facilities. Having Quinault Tribal Enterprises as an upland business partner will further our common goals. The Port looks forward to greater collaboration and involvement with the tribe.”

Sharp said the tribe has been looking to diversify its business interests and expand beyond the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino in Ocean Shores. That operation is currently attracting 200 to 300 new customers each week, she said.

“We’re maxing out on the beach resort, which is a good problem to have,” she said. On the RPMM purchase, Sharp said, “This fits within our overall strategy of diversification, but our primary focus is looking at resources we have at home.”

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