The Port of Centralia Board of Commissioners discusses the site plan for O’Keefe Development’s grocery distribution center in this October 2018 Chronicle file photo.
The Port of Centralia will hire a private security firm to curb theft issues, after approximately $1,200 worth of port property was stolen, said Port of Centralia Executive Director Kyle Heaton.
“We have been having some issues in the last couple of weeks with theft and security around construction sites and on port sites,” said Heaton at the Port of Centralia Commission’s regular meeting Wednesday afternoon. “We have had some gates stolen, so we are replacing those and are going to bring in private security for a couple of weeks until things calm down a bit and hopefully that is going to calm it down.”
Heaton did not immediately have an exact figure of how much was stolen from the port, but said property probably amounted to around $1,200, in addition to building materials stolen from tenants.
“The port has had gates stolen off of port property, security gates,” Heaton said. “We believe it was last weekend. We have had some of our tenants — building materials removed from the job site overnight, petty theft kind of stuff. It is likely occurring on the weekend when it’s not a very busy place out here.”
Heaton said he doesn’t know what security firm the port will use yet, but that the port is calling for bids. There are two different firms the port is looking at right now.
