Posted on March 3, 2020
CHARLESTON — The International Port of Coos Bay held a meeting at the Charleston Marina on Thursday morning to discuss construction plans for a new ice plant.
The discussion comes in response to the Dec. 20, 2019 equipment failure that caused the Charleston Ice House to burn down.
At the meeting the port announced that it hopes to rebuild its ice plant, and have it operational by this coming June.
“June is our goal, that’s what we’re shooting for,” International Port of Coos Bay spokesperson Margaret Barber said. “At this point that seems feasible, even though it is aggressive, that is our goal time frame.”
According to Barber, the meeting was well attended and many of the folks who showed up were members of Charleston’s commercial fishing fleet.
The old ice plant was insured, and one of the reasons it’s taken a few months since the fire to get rebuild plans together is because the port was waiting — and still is — to figure how much it will receive from insurance for the plant.
“There was a period of time where the insurance company was still doing their inspection, so we couldn’t even touch the docks for about a month,” Barber said. “The amount that we’re likely to spend for the rebuild is in all likelihood going to exceed what we receive from the insurance. We don’t know exactly what we’re going to receive in terms of coverage right now.”
In the plant’s absence, folks from Charleston’s fishing fleet have turned to local processing plants like Hallmark Fisheries for their ice, while others have headed up to Winchester Bay’s ice plant.
Commercial shrimping season will begin in April, and many commercial fishers will have to find another way to fill up on ice for shrimping.
“For shrimp season, people are likely going to have to work with the local processers, or go to a different location to get their ice,” Barber said.
Design plans for the new ice house are approximately 30% complete, Barber said. The new equipment that is currently being built for the ice plant will have more capacity than the port’s old ice-making equipment.
“We’ll be able to make more ice faster. In the really high peak seasons, the old facility might run out of ice when a larger vessel comes. Some of the smaller vessels would then have to wait for more ice to be produced,” Barber said.
The port’s plans for the new ice plant are to redesign some of its features, but largely the new plant will have the same footprint.
Source: theworldlink.com
