Apparently, months of emotional public testimony both for and against its Sustainable Energy and Economic Development(SEED) initiative were not quite enough for the Port of Bremerton.

On Wednesday, the port will host two town hall meetings to collect even more opinions from county residents regarding the controversial, multi-million dollar plan to build a clean-tech business park on port property near the Bremerton National Airport.

The key word being “more,” as in opinions from people the port has not already heard from.

“We will be asking to hear first from people who have not spoken before,” said Tim Thomson, the port’s chief operating officer.

This idea was brought to the port’s Board of Commissioners by citizen Dan Defenbaugh at the Oct. 14 meeting after Commissioner Bill Mahan suggested the idea of hosting a town-hall-style meeting “to hear face-to-face from those opposed to it and supportive of it.”

“Can I propose that you take steps to ensure you hear from others that you haven’t heard from before?” Defenbaugh then asked the commissioners, and Mahan agreed.

Both sessions of the town hall meeting will be Nov. 12 at Bremerton’s Comfort Inn and Suites hotel off State-Route 3. Thomson said that site was chosen both because it is centrally located within the port district borders and is easily reached from the highway.

Two session were scheduled — one at 3:30 p.m. and one at 7 p.m. — to “maximize the opportunities people had to attend.”

Thomson said both sessions will include the same 20-30 minute presentation on SEED, which he said will be given by port Chief Executive Officer Ken Attebery, Chief Financial Officer Becky Swanson and representatives from Mithun, the architecture firm hired to design sections of SEED.

“We hope to not only enlighten people, but to stimulate questions,” Thomson said. “The commission wants to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to voice their opinions.”

The following day, the port will hold its first meeting of the month, which was moved from Tuesday evening to Thursday.

“The whole point is to get public response before the (board votes on the budget),” he said.

The board already approved a preliminary 2009 port budget, which includes issuance of at least $2.58 million in bonds to match a federal grant from the Economic Development Administration, which will help build a 17,000-square-foot building that will serve as a small-business incubator. To use the funds, however, the port must match them.

After the board voted to accept the grant, nearly two dozen citizens gave the board their opinions already, testimony which largely boiled down to urging the port to proceed, but not without caution and commitment.

“This is an excellent opportunity for the port to directly invest in the economic development of the county,” said South Kitsap resident Tom Donnelly, who admitted that while there was risk involved, “there are no sure things, and (SEED’s) enormous potential makes it worth the rather low risk.”

Several other residents from across the county then voiced strong support for the project, describing it as a way to bring the “green economy” to Kitsap County and provide “meaningful, family-wage jobs” close to residents’ homes.

Many, however, worried that the plan represented ill-advised spending in tough economic times.

“I am very much in favor of green energy, just not on my dime,” said Bremerton resident Kathleen Seamans said, urging the port to not accept the grant. “And you might lose the grant money, but that’s our money, too.”