Joel Cummins will represent the west side of Centralia on the Port of Centralia Commission effective immediately.
Centralia Port Commissioners Ally Pickard and Peter Lahmann interviewed and promptly appointed Cummins to fill the District 1 seat vacancy on the port commission during a meeting Friday afternoon.
The district represents virtually all of the port district's territory west of Interstate 5 and a sliver of land to the east of the interstate and north of Reynolds Avenue.
Cummins' appointment puts an end to the search to fill the commission’s vacancy within a 90-day deadline, which started June 12 — the effective date of former Port Commissioner Kyle Markstrom’s resignation.
The Port of Centralia Commission started its Friday meeting by interviewing Cummins before entering a 30-minute executive session and announcing Cummins’ appointment upon returning to the public meeting.
“We appreciate everyone who took the time to participate in this process and put their name forward to serve our community,” Lahmann said in a statement announcing the appointment. “Joel Cummins brings valuable experience and perspective to the port commission, and we look forward to working together to continue advancing the port’s mission.”
Pickard also welcomed Cummins during the Friday meeting, while also briefly commenting that he would need to tone down his use of artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT.
Cummins was the fourth nominee for the position and the only one nominated by the general public. The commission previously interviewed and nominated three other candidates for consideration, each of whom submitted applications directly to the Port of Centralia.
Keeping with the process established at the start of the search, the commissioners asked Cummins the same five questions as the previous candidates. The questions covered the role of the port and its challenges or opportunities as well as what Cummins brings to the role, what his priorities will be, and how he will handle disagreements.
Responding to the first question over the role of the port in industrial development, Cummins described the port as a “facilitator” and “organizer.”
“It just blends together, you know, the resources of our community, the skilled labor, and the infrastructure,” Cummins said. “It just optimizes all of those things to work together harmoniously.”
Cummins noted he doesn’t have any governing experience but said he instead brings industry experience from a variety of roles. In his response, he said he is currently working in oversized truck hauling and helping his father operate the garbage services for Ryderwood, a census-designated town just over the county line in Cowlitz County at the western terminus of state Route 506. He added that he has also worked in construction and as a contractor for Amazon in the past.
Cummins said securing reliable energy and more space for smaller businesses on port land would be his highest priorities as a port commissioner. He revisited energy again when discussing opportunities and challenges for the port in the future. He often mentioned the TransAlta Centralia site, voicing support for its natural gas transition and hopes for a small nuclear reactor at the site.
Cummins also mentioned messaging and communication as a major challenge for the port, noting that many people he knows are unsure of what the port does and often associated it with marine ports.
His response received nods from some in the room, likely familiar with the misunderstanding around land-based ports, but also received brief pushback from Pickard, who asked, “is that the only challenge?”
Then Cummins shifted to recent discussions around warehouses in Centralia and pushback from the community, describing opposition as “a minority group, a fairly negative group.”
“I don't know how best exactly to go about that, but I guess just communicating the truth of the situation, because it's an emotional reaction to a loss of something,” Cummins said. “Change is scary.”
Cummins also asked a question of the port commissioners before concluding his interview, asking about the relationship between the Port of Centralia and the Port of Chehalis. Pickard responded, describing them as something akin to team members with different strengths.
Providing an example, she noted that the ports often send businesses to one another that better fit the other port district, with the Port of Centralia having more industrial space for smaller businesses and Chehalis having more space for large-scale businesses and development.
“We have quite a few smaller properties that, and smaller buildings, and they don't,” Pickard said. “They have a lot of open land, and so they will send us those.”
The District 1 port commissioner seat was previously held by Markstrom, who resigned from the seat in June. Markstrom was appointed to the position by the Lewis County Board of Commissioners in 2020 after then commissioners Julie Shaffley and Lahmann were unable to agree on an appointment. He was then elected to the position in 2021.
Markstrom succeeded former District 1 Port Commissioner Dan Keahey after his own resignation.
