Story/photos/video by Tracy Record and Patrick Sand
West Seattle Blog co-publishers

This morning’s Westside Awards breakfast was a celebration of West Seattle’s “thriving” business community, as WS Chamber of Commerce board chair Hamilton Gardiner put it, and of people/businesses making a difference here.

Nominations for the awards (announced last week) set a record, he said – more than 110. Also up: Attendance for Chamber events – 30 percent increase for the monthly lunch meetings, 15 percent for the monthly After-Hours gatherings.

The breakfast turnout was bigger than last year, too, with a wall-to-wall crowd in a waterfront banquet room at Salty’s on Alki (WSB sponsor), there to mingle as well as to applaud the winners and to hear a newsmaker keynote speaker – Mark Tabbutt, the West Seattleite who is chair of Saltchuk, parent company of Foss, whose two-year lease of nearby Terminal 5 has made national news, with Shell among its clients as the oil company anticipates resuming Arctic drilling.

But T-5 was only a small part of what Tabbutt talked about. Before touching on the Terminal 5 lease, Tabbutt went through a backstory of the company, described as now in its “third chapter.” Here’s our video of his entire presentation:

Its companies’ services include domestic shipping, air cargo, trucking, marine resources, trucking, petroleum distribution, international shipping. And he talked about Saltchuk’s status as a family-owned business: “That allows you to challenge yourself and your family to work out problems and try to do better for the company. We reinvest 90 percent of our earnings back into the company, and that has allowed us to grow.”

Tabbutt said Saltchuk has “a strong, long-term desire to protect the environment.” They’re converting vessels to run on natural gas, in a $100 million project: “We will reduce the amount of oil in (what equals) taking 38,000 vehicles off the streets of Puget Sound.” The company is also building the first two container ships in the world to burn natural gas.

A focus of his presentation was Seattle’s ties to Alaska, to which he attributed 113,000 local jobs, and “$6 billion in local labor earnings,” tracing back to the Gold Rush days. Then in the pipeline-building days, so many barges were on the water, “you could almost walk across Elliott Bay.” Now, “all freight bound for Alaska goes through the Pacific Northwest.” The pipeline traced back to the early ’70s energy crisis and was built in 4 years, he said, but “the oil coming out of Alaska is declining because there hasn’t been significant exploration.”

Then, to the Terminal 5 lease. “It obviously sparked quite a debate locally,” he said, while also thanking Port Commissioner Bill Bryant, one of the lease’s supporters, who was announced as being in attendance. He said that Shell “made many mistakes” in its first try, including relying on Gulf of Mexico contractors; this time, it’ll be local contractors, including Foss.

His slide deck switched to an image of the drilling platform Polar Pioneer, as Tabbutt said, “Here’s what’s coming to your neighborhood pretty soon … It’ll get a lot of notice.”

(Foss has not announced an expected arrival date for Polar Pioneer, being sealifted from Asia, but MarineTraffic.com shows an April 12th estimated arrival off Port Angeles; the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza is trailing it in the open Pacific and chronicling the trip here.)

He briefly defended the project as his speech wrapped up: “You can’t live here and not be an environmentalist. The debate can’t be on who’s a bigger environmentalist than anyone else. It should be who’s doing more to reduce oil consumption. But (in the meantime), where are we going to get our oil?” Tabbutt said Alaska oil is “the most environmentally friendly oil you can get,” and compared it to the current production boom in oil derived from fracking elsewhere in the U.S. “The environmental damage that’s being done by fracking (is sizable) compared to what we’ve been doing in Alaska.”

And now, the Westside Awards – each one accompanied by our video of the introduction and acceptance speeches:

EMERGING BUSINESS OF THE YEAR: This time last year, Laura Schneider was getting ready to open Meeples Games at California/Charlestown. This morning, she accepted the Westside Emerging Business of the Year award, after Elizabeth Pluhta from South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) introduced her with praise for Meeples’ community collaboration:

Schneider said her gaming café has “accomplished what we set out to do – create a third place” for the community.

NOT-FOR-PROFIT OF THE YEAR: Past board chair Nancy Woodland joked that since Clay Eals took over as Southwest Seattle Historical Society executive director, all of West Seattle has “become history wonks – everybody cares about history.” Eals accepted the award:

“History connects. When we are connected, we care,” Eals said, “We’re all here because we love where we live … It’s all about passion, and wearing it on your sleeve. With that passion and with your help, we’ve accomplished some amazing things” just in the past year-plus. He recalled the 1,000-plus turnout for the totem pole unveiling/dedication and looked ahead to events including historic-home tours as well as the ongoing Words, Writers, West Seattle literary event. “To do all this, we stand on the shoulders of giants,” he said, also recalling local heroes old and new, and supporters who were at the SWSHS table. And to spotlight what’s yet to come, the restoration of the Alki Homestead/Fir Lodge and renovation of the Admiral Theater, Eals pointed out Dinah Brein, the “creative and energetic manager” of The Admiral, and the new owner of the Homestead, Dennis Schilling. This fall’s gala theme will be “Coming Home to the Homestead,” Eals revealed.

WESTSIDE BUSINESS OF THE YEAR: Nucor Steel won this award, accepted by Matt Lyons:

Gardiner spoke of the recycled scrap metal on which Nucor’s work is based, as well as the plant’s status as an employer of 325 people and as a gateway to West Seattle, so prominent along the bridge. Lyons noted that Nucor has been in the same North Delridge/Youngstown location for 110 years.

WESTSIDER OF THE YEAR: Tenacious, a leader, visionary, dedicated – words that Josh Sutton of the West Seattle YMCA (WSB sponsor) used to describe Jim Jackson of Jackson, Morgan, & Hunt PLLC (also a WSB sponsor), honored as Westsider of the Year.

Jackson said the award was “a big surprise.” He paid tribute to the firm’s employees, his partners, and their hundreds of clients. Helping people “with their dreams and their aspirations” is a description of work that he heard some years back, and for him, Jackson said, “it stuck.”

Wishing the breakfast attendees a great day, Chamber CEO Lynn Dennis thanked them for being present to “share the best.”

SIDE NOTE: The Chamber has an all-new website that it promises will be updated frequently to share news from the organization and local businesses – check it out at wschamber.com.