2011 — A year of highs and lows

This year’s Top 10 list is punctuated with jobs — either creating or losing them. On one hand, the Harbor celebrated the grand opening of Cosmo Specialty Fibers in Cosmopolis, a rebound at the Port of Grays Harbor — which was named best in the state — and the beginning of the Highway 520 Pontoon Construction Project in Aberdeen.

On the other hand, Grays Harbor Paper closed its doors, Hoquiam Plywood closed its doors and many of our favorite restaurants and stores closed, too — all a victim of the economy, which continues to take its toll on the Harbor with another year of double digit unemployment. In fact, these past few months, as state and national employment pictures show improvement, local figures linger and the Harbor now has the highest unemployment rate in the state.

Those employment figures weigh on the minds of not just those putting together a household budget, but government officials putting together their own budgets and deciding whether to ask for tax increases or to cut more services. A double murder in Humptulips was a tragedy in and of itself, but a murder trial that could spell big bucks will put another strain on the county budget. And the controversy over the Wild Olympics proposal is all about jobs — will the plan create jobs or cost us jobs in the end?

Perhaps the best advice to give into the next year is to take it one day at a time, or in the words of medical great Dr. William Osler, “Live neither in the past nor in the future, but let each day’s work absorb your entire energies, and satisfy your wildest ambition.”

The list, as voted on by the staff of The Daily World:

1. Grays Harbor Paper closes

Grays Harbor Paper, LP shut down on May 25 after facing a weak paper market and a growing debt. More than 240 people were laid off, not counting an affiliated trucking business and contractors. The company’s closure had a ripple effect across the Harbor economy. The company has been placed into receivership in hopes of recovering the more than $25 million in reported debt, including unpaid bills to the Grays Harbor PUD, the city of Aberdeen and the city of Hoquiam. The court has appointed a receiver to find a potential buyer for the property, but, so far, there haven’t been any takers.

Although the workers did lose their jobs, the U.S. Department of Labor approved a broad range of re-employment benefits for them to get trained into new careers.

2. Cosmo Specialty Fibers opens

More than 750 people gathered at the grand opening for Cosmo Specialty Fibers on May 21. The mothballed Weyerhaeuser pulp mill was purchased with an agreement by Irish paper entrepreneur Dermot Smurfit, Canadian entrepreneur Richard Bassett and the private equity firm in the Gores Group of Los Angeles, which invested “tens of millions” of dollars into the mill. The company said it expects to funnel more than $110 million annually into the economy.

Re-opening the mill brought more than 200 jobs back to the community of Cosmopolis, in addition to local vendors and contractors. Although there’s been an odor in the air from the pulp making process, company officials are working on the problem.

In July, Cosmo shipped its first load of pulp from the Port of Grays Harbor, each bundle carrying the stamp “Made in the USA.” The pulp is used in China to create things like rayon for clothes.

3. Double-digit unemployment continues

With a 12.8 percent unemployment rate as of November, Grays Harbor had the highest unemployment rate in the state.

And with closures like Grays Harbor Paper, Hoquiam Plywood and several restaurants and stores throughout the area, things are not on an upward trend. Statistics on file with the state Employment Security Office show that Grays Harbor has had continual double digit unemployment rates since 2008. The highest the county has hit since 2000 was 15.5 percent in February 2010. Meanwhile, the state as a whole has been beneath double-digit unemployment rates since April 2010. The state now has an 8.3 percent unemployment rate.

4. Pontoon project begins

Work to build the giant pontoons needed to replace the 520 Floating Bridge started in Aberdeen last spring at the 55-acre pontoon project site on the Chehalis River near the Port of Grays Harbor. Kiewit-General was awarded the $367.3 million contract to design and build the casting basin and related pontoons that will support the Highway 520 bridge over Lake Washington connecting Seattle and its eastern suburbs. The massive project includes a casting basin that actually could fit the 1,000-foot supercarrier, the U.S.S. Nimitz. The project continues into 2012, and you can follow the progress online through a web camera at www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR520/Pontoons.

5. Wild Olympics controversy

Should there be more environmental protections around Olympic National Park? That’s the key question behind the Wild Olympics proposal, put forward by recreation and conservation groups and now largely supported by U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and Congressman Norm Dicks. Proponents say that the protections will help the watershed and the downstream shellfish industry, as well as increase tourist opportunities. Detractors say it will cost timber jobs, eliminate motor access to favorite hunting spots and be another layer of bureaucracy that a government will need to manage amid shrinking budget revenues. Although the issue had apparently been talked about elsewhere on the Olympic Peninsula since 2009, the issue didn’t strike a chord with local residents until March of this year when detractors made the issue public. That left proponents scrambling to find a supportive audience. A recent workshop in early December at a Hoquiam elementary school gym drew more than 250 people, proving the issue will likely still be up for debate into 2012.

6. Doppler Radar arrives

If there was one good thing that came out of the devastating December 2007 storm, it’s the new coastal Doppler Radar, which was dedicated in September. The radar is located on Langley Hill near Copalis Beach and was completed a full year earlier than originally planned by retrofitting a used Air Force Doppler radar with the latest technology. The Doppler is the first in the state to use a new “dual polarization” technology, which sends out both a horizontal and a vertical beam to create a 3-D model of the rain coming down. Without the radar, the Olympic Mountains cast a shadow over the region and Grays Harbor was in the equivalent of a weather black hole. U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell helped secure the $9 million for the radar. View the Doppler Radar at http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/wrh/faq/radar.php?wfo=sew.

7 Humptulips Murder

On Nov. 4, John F. Chase allegedly killed 88-year-old Ralph Aldrich with a crossbow outside Aldrich’s Humptulps home. He then went into the home and attacked Aldrich’s 83-year-old wife June with a hatchet. Court records stated Chase told investigators he feared “demons” were chasing him when he set out for the Olympic National Forest in early November. He later told a friend he had “killed the demons with a crossbow and a hatchet.” Chase is to under go an exam by a mental health expert. His trial is slated for 2012.

8. Inmate shooting

On Oct. 21, Grays Harbor Corrections Sgt. James Byrd fatally shot an inmate that had escaped while being treated at Grays Harbor Community Hospital. Inmate John G. Lies had allegedly tried to commit suicide the night before at the Grays Harbor jail. Undersheriff Rick Scott theorizes the suicide attempt may have been faked to give him an opportunity to escape. Lies was taken to Community Hospital, where he escaped and ran to the parking lot of the nearby Grays Harbor Health & Rehabilitation Center. He then took a woman captive, holding a sharp weapon against her throat. Byrd pursued and ordered Lies to drop the weapon. When Lies didn’t, he was shot and killed. Prosecutor Stew Menefee ruled the shooting justified.

9. Port of Grays Harbor

The Port of Grays Harbor celebrated its 100th birthday this year and was also named the Port of the Year by the Washington Public Port Association. Activity at the Port has been bustling — a rare sign in the overall economy. And these days, the Port is exporting more than just timber. The Port was on track to exporting more than 37,000 automobiles, courtesy of the Pasha Automotive Services. That figure surpasses the 21,162 cars exported last year. Increased traffic from the Imperium Renewables Grays Harbor biodisel plant, the newly opened Westway terminals liquid storage facility, Ag Processing Inc. and even the Cosmo Specialty Fibers helped the port increase its activity and generate jobs.

10. Fire at the Ocean Crest

The acclaimed Ocean Crest Resort in Moclips was hit with a devastating fire on June 20. The fire completely destroyed the resort’s restaurant and smoke damaged other portions of the resort. The lodge has since re-opened and co-owner Jess Owen says his family intends on rebuilding the scenic restaurant on the same hillside footprint, which he hopes will include a dining room downstairs and a larger banquet room upstairs. Follow the progress online at the Ocean Crest’s blog http://oceancrestresort.com/?cat=3.