The Clallam County Economic Development Council is developing a Procurement Technical Assistance Center to serve both Clallam and Jefferson counties.

The Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) will assist businesses in competing for local, state and federal contracts and sub-contracts.

Clallam County is currently part of the North Olympic PTAC based in Kitsap County. Colleen McAleer, Clallam County Economic Development Council (EDC) director, said the county has not received the same support for local businesses that Kitsap County businesses have.

“We have received extremely limited support for the past few decades,” McAleer said in a recent letter to the Clallam County Public Utility District (PUD), requesting it increase the amount of its contract with the EDC from $10,000 to $20,000 to help support the program.

“Last year we determined the best course of action for our region’s businesses and labor force would be to apply for our own program from the federal government.”

PUD commissioners decided on Oct. 24 to discuss the request as a line item during upcoming budget discussions.

“Since we will be discussing the budget in November, I suggest that we table this topic until that time,” commissioner Rick Paschall said.

McAleer said on Oct. 26 that Clallam County has not received any support from the PTAC in more than 10 years.

“We had to go back 10 years to find any business in Clallam County that was supported by the PTAC in Kitsap or any of the Washington state PTAC programs,” McAleer said.

“I talked to the executive director of Washington PTAC and was basically told that if we want businesses in Clallam County to receive support to pursue these federal, state or local government contracts, we need to advocate for our own PTAC,” she said.

The cost of the program is $180,000 annually and requires local matching. Clallam County will get $145,000 in state funding to support the program.

Clallam EDC has hired Rebekah Miller to be the PTAC manager and counselor. She began work Oct. 1.

“Rebekah is currently going through training to help our local businesses apply for primarily sub-contacts, but also some professional service contracts in these very lucrative industry areas,” McAleer said.

PTAC programs provide technical assistance to businesses looking to sell their products or services to state and federal governments.

Often local and regional businesses struggle to get government contracts, and PTAC programs can help them through those processes.