Port of Newport General Manager Kevin Greenwood provided an update to the port commissioners at their meeting Tuesday night regarding the port terminal. He explained that after not receiving the Connect Oregon money they are working on their other options. There was a meeting held between the port and the US Department of Transportation, the Economic Development Administration or EDA and the representatives from the TIGER grant program. He explained that Federal funds cannot be used to leverage one another, so both agencies are looking at where they could both work together. He said the reason this is important is both are offering federal money that can’t be co-mingled.

So Greenwood said they have to find the seam in the six million dollar project where the Tiger grant would pay only $2-million and another portion of the project that EDA would pay $2-million for. Greenwood gave a tour of the site and a presentation on the proposed project. He said the Tiger grant requires that the funding for the project be available before they will release the grant money. Greenwood told the Port Commissioners that he is continuing to pursue grants and other funding sources to come up with the remaining $2-million including looking at a low interest USDA loan. He said that Teevin is also willing to show a private sector contribution and would put $120,000 toward the project. All the financing needs to be in place by March of 2017.