Energy project developer has not followed through on plans for 6-Mile property

By Larry Persily

Sentinel writer

The Washington state developer who pitched a multimillion-dollar project to build a waste-to-heat plant, commercial greenhouses and water bottling plant at the former site of the 6-Mile sawmill has had no contact with borough officials for several months.

Dale Borgford, of Colville, Washington, presented his $87 million private-sector development plan at a public meeting in Wrangell last December. A month later, he said he was working on financing.

In January, he acknowledged “I would prefer a little help” from government grants to reduce the amount of money he would need to borrow for his project.

Borgford also said in a January interview with the Sentinel that he intended to make an offer to purchase land from the borough.

He has not followed through on making an offer, according to borough officials, nor has he returned several calls from the Sentinel, seeking an update on his plans.

The borough purchased the former mill property for $2.5 million in 2022, looking for private interests to develop the site for industrial or maritime use — most anything that would create jobs and add to the Wrangell economy.

This spring, the borough assembly approved a deal with Tideline Construction, a sister company of family owned Channel Construction of Juneau, to clear debris, wood waste, flatbed railcars and other leftover materials at the 6-Mile property in exchange for turning over about 10 acres of the 42 acres to Tideline.

The company expects to finish the clearing and cleaning work by fall. It is expanding its scrap metal recycling business at the site, in addition to stationing its rock crushing and construction operations there.

Borough Manager Mason Villarma said last week he has not heard from Borgford “since I broke the news of the exchange” between the borough and Tideline.

The entrepreneur has been working for years to develop a bioenergy system that would burn trash, wood waste and other organic material to generate heat. In Wrangell, he talked of piping the heat into large-scale commercial greenhouses — more than 70,000 square feet — to grow produce for sale in Alaska and out of state.

He embarked on a similar bioenergy venture more than a decade ago in Springdale, Washington, where he proposed burning wood waste from a lumber mill he had purchased in 2009 and reopened in 2010. The mill had been closed for five years.

When the mill reopened, it used heat from burning waste, instead of propane, the dry its lumber.

The full bioenergy project was estimated to cost close to $9 million, with a $4 million federal grant, $4 million from the Borgfords and a $540,000 loan from the state of Washington. The financing package also included a $230,000 state grant. The grant was later canceled, according to a Washington Department of Commerce spokeswoman.

The U.S. Forest Service backed out of the project, leaving the bioenergy venture short of cash to pay its bills and continue with the venture, Borgford said in January.

Borgford BioEnergy filed for bankruptcy in 2013. At the time of the bankruptcy filing, the company’s largest creditor was the state of Washington for the balance owed on the loan.

The bankruptcy case was dismissed in 2014 and the Washington Department of Commerce forgave the $539,984 debt on the loan in 2015, according to the department spokeswoman.