COAST RIVER BUSINESS JOURNAL
Brokers increase
commission transparency
LONG BEACH — Changes
enacted Oct. 1 by Northwest Mul-
tiple Listing Service (NWMLS),
which shares real estate listings in
23 Washington counties includ-
ing Pacific, will disclose how
much agents representing buyers
make when houses are sold.
Coming in response to
class-action lawsuits elsewhere
in the country, the change will
increase transparency in negoti-
ated splits between agents. These
have previously been confiden-
tial. In theory, this knowledge
may empower home sellers to
shift part of the standard commis-
sion to buyers. And buyers will be
better able to see if they are being
shown properties based on how
much their agent hopes to make
on the sale.
“The person going house to
house with a would-be home-
buyer gets their pay from splitting
a commission with the agent rep-
resenting the seller, who’s usually
paid around 5%-6% of the total
home price,” the Seattle Times
reported on Sept. 30. “But gen-
erally, a buyer doesn’t learn how
much the seller is offering the
buyer’s agent who helps bring
home the deal — that figure is
hammered out between the seller
and the seller’s agent, and then
published in the Multiple Listing
Service’s database, which is only
accessible by real-estate agents.”
The NWMLS told the Times
its changes aren’t in response to
the allegations of price-fixing
contained in the suits. Rather, the
organization said in a statement,
the litigation “afforded NWMLS
brokers the opportunity to review
NWMLS rules and improve them
to allow brokers to continue to
innovate.”
PacifiCorp shifts to solar,
wind power
PORTLAND — PacifiCorp on
Oct. 3 disclosed its plans to shift
more rapidly away from fossil
fuels and make more investments
in new wind generation and trans-
mission, while adding significant
new solar and storage resources.
The 2019 Integrated Resource
Plan (IRP) can be found at www.
pacificorp.com/irp. Some of the
plan’s high points include:
OctOBER 2019 • 5
BUSINESS NEWS
• More than 3,500 MW of new
wind generation by 2025, includ-
ing resources acquired through
customer partnerships, and a total
of more than 4,600 MW of new
wind generation by 2038 in Wyo-
ming and Idaho.
• Nearly 3,000 MW of new
solar by 2025, including resources
acquired through customer part-
nerships, and more than 6,300
MW of new solar by 2038
• Nearly 600 MW of battery
storage by 2025 and more than
2,800 MW of battery storage by
2038
• 1,075 MW of new solar in
Oregon paired with 244 MW
of battery storage, phased in
between 2020 and 2033
• 814 MW of new solar in
Washington paired with 204
MW of battery storage, phased in
between 2024 and 2036
• To facilitate the delivery of
new renewable energy resources
to PacifiCorp customers across
the West, the plan calls for the
construction of a 400-mile trans-
mission line known as Gateway
South connecting southeastern
Wyoming and northern Utah.
• Of the 24 coal units cur-
rently serving PacifiCorp custom-
ers, the draft plan envisions retire-
ment of 16 of the units by 2030
and 20 of the units by the end
of the planning period in 2038.
The unit retirements will reduce
coal-fueled generation capacity
by nearly 2,800 MW by 2030 and
by nearly 4,500 MW by 2038.
Museum celebrates
75,000th visitor
RAYMOND — On Sept. 21
at 3:04 p.m., the 75,000th visitor
walked through the doors of the
Northwest Carriage Museum.
“We’re so proud to be bringing
so many people to Raymond and
the surrounding communities,”
said Executive Director Laurie
Bowman. The lucky visitor was
Anastasia Becraft from Mukil-
teo, Washington, who was visit-
ing the museum along with hus-
band Raymond Becraft IV, and
11-month-old daughter Loretta.
Anastasia was happy to
receive a gift basket containing
a museum membership, hat, mug
and a variety of other local prod-
ucts sold in the museum gift shop.
Raymond explained that they
Long-time Peninsula banker retires
PAtRIcK WEBB
there was applause from co-workers and customers, plus treats and cake
last week, when longtime career banker Lorna Batt retired from the Bank
of the Pacific in Long Beach. Batt had been with the bank since 2001, most
recently as a mortgage loan officer and previously as branch manager in
Ilwaco. Her career at other banks included 25 years service at branches in
Eastern Oregon and Spokane. Her husband Dave Batt is also a retired bank-
er. Her position in Long Beach is being taken over by Patrick Whealdon.
stopped by the museum because
as a child, he and his father would
pass through Raymond on the
way to Seaside, Oregon and kid
about the town being named after
him. He said he always wanted to
stop at the museum but never got
the chance to visit until Sept. 21
when he and his family took off
on their vacation down the Ore-
gon coast. Anastasia was thrilled
to learn that she was visitor num-
ber 75,000 and said return visits
will be planned in the future.
“This museum is incredible,”
Raymond said. “Who would have
thought such a great museum
would be found in such a small
little town.”
The Northwest Carriage
Museum opened in 2002 with
21 beautifully restored 19th cen-
tury horse drawn carriages. It cur-
rently houses 56 historic vehi-
cles including carriages, wagons,
stagecoaches, sleighs, and bug-
gies. The collection is nation-
ally known and considered one
of the finest in all of North Amer-
ica. “We can’t wait for num-
ber 100,000 to visit a couple of
years from now,” Jerry Bowman,
museum curator, said.
The museum has become north
Pacific County’s largest tourist
attraction open daily 10 a.m. to
4 p.m. year-round. Group tours
are their specialty. More informa-
tion can be obtained by visiting
www.nwcarriagemuseum.org or
by calling 360-942-4150.
New rules coming for
Dungeness crab fishery
OLYMPIA — Participants in
the Northwest coastal commer-
cial Dungeness crab fishery on
Oct. 2 learned the final outlines of
required changes to avoid whale
entanglements.
The National Marine Fish-
eries Service (NMFS) has con-
firmed increases in large whale
entanglements along the West
Coast in recent years. These
include increases in hump-
back whale entanglements in the
coastal Dungeness crab fishery,
some of which are listed under
the Endangered Species Act. In
response, the Washington Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife held
a couple of industry workshops
to identify and develop pro-
posed rule changes. The proposed
rules are available at https://
wdfw.wa.gov/about/regulations/
development#19-10-059.
Some changes would be
implemented from the effective
date of the final rule (estimated
to be around mid-February), and
would remain in place year-round
after that. Other changes are sea-
sonal and have specific annual
start dates to reduce the amount of
crab gear in the water during the
time when humpback whales are
more common off the Washing-
ton coast, and for ease of imple-
mentation during this first year.
The Washington Fish and
Wildlife Commission will be
briefed on the proposed changes
at their Oct. 18 meeting at the
Natural Resources Building in
Olympia. Public comment will be
taken as part of the October Com-
mission meeting and at a pub-
lic hearing Nov. 6 at the Mon-
tesano City Hall, with details to
come. Interested parties can also
provide public comment through
Nov. 6 by email to Heather Hall at
Heather.Hall@dfw.wa.gov or, by
mail to PO Box 43152 Olympia,
WA 98501.
In brief, the rule changes
include:
• Require only the amount of
line necessary. Slack line at the
surface can increase the risk of
entangling whales and this pro-
posed rule change would imple-
ment that best practices recom-
mendation through regulation.
• Require line marking spe-
cific for Washington to help tell
where whale entanglements occur.
This proposed rule change would
require that line be marked with
red in at least two places — at the
top near the buoy and at the bot-
tom near the pot — to identify it as
gear from the Washington coastal
commercial Dungeness crab fish-
ery. WDFW is coordinating the
line-marking requirement with the
states of Oregon and California.
WDFW staff will recommend an
effective date of May 1, 2020.