Down at the Port: Time to fall back
Published 12:39 pm Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Well, this is the month all the leaves will turn color and get scattered about our neighborhoods and everyone will be blowing them around and raking them into piles for some sort of disposition. Here come the holidays.
If you have been following this column over the years, you know that I am a big fan of Daylight Savings Time. I like the extension of the delayed twilight into November. It has always seemed so final to set the clock backwards when there are still a few nice fall evenings to enjoy before that harvest moon in October.
At any rate, this year it is later than ever and we make the move at 2 a.m. Nov. 2. Ah! We finally get back that hour of sleep we lost in March.
Comings and goings
Down at the port, things keep moving along. Even though the summer cruising season is over, we still have weekends when the guest dock is nearly full. The Navy Yacht Club from Everett showed up in mid-October and boosted the economy a bit by patronizing our restaurants and shops.
Our loaner electric car had already been “repossessed” but if we had made that available it would have been used another dozen times. I think the final count on uses of the “car” was around 257 trips by visitors. Each trip represented a small boost to the economy of our town and allowed people to have a better look around at the wonderful place we live.
It’s great to see a couple of new businesses filling up some empty spaces downtown. Stacy Patrick’s “Clever” brings back that neat ability to buy unique gifts right here in town. The little Appletree Deli is also a great addition to the metropolis of Kingston. You can get breakfast there!
The fishing fleet will be using a lot of the guest dock space for the next several weeks as the salmon season comes and goes. And, the Kingston Cove Yacht Club will be holding the big fishing derby Nov. 1.
You may also notice several boats are tied up to the transient dock for a few months at a time. In order to keep port moorage revenues up during winter months, we rent out up to 14 of our transient slips for semi-permanent use from October to April. That still leaves plenty of room for anyone wishing to cruise here for a winter weekend getaway.
Getting ready for water-transit service
We keep progressing towards our ultimate goal of providing water-transit service between Kingston and Seattle. Several opportunities presented themselves recently and the port was able to purchase the barge and loading ramp used by the former Aqua Express operation. We picked up the barge for $50,000 and the ramp for $16,500. These pieces will now remain in place and be ready for use whenever the rest of the project (boats and operating revenue) is ready.
Had these items been removed by their previous owners, replacement and permitting costs could have been in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. It turns out it was a good bargain for the port. The funding to purchase this equipment will come from the federal transit grant awarded to the port by the Federal Department of Transportation and not from local tax revenues.
I was approached by a concerned citizen a couple of weeks ago, wondering if we are using his locally assessed taxes to start a passenger-ferry system that is destined to fail. I had to remind him it has always been the approach of this port commission to use federal and state funds that are dedicated to transit services for the development of our water transit. We feel it is just about time some of those funds were directed our way instead of being used solely for people who live on the east side of the Sound.
We are not planning to use local taxes to subsidize a service whose beneficiary population far exceeds the boundaries of the port district. We also plan to start a system that will be developed from the get-go to provide a reliable service for the customers that use it.
We have been working very diligently with many other groups within the Puget Sound region to make sure that when we start, the operation will work. We developed a viable business plan and have our local legislative representatives working with us to help make sure it will be successful.
Kayak facility, seawall a go
All of our projects down at the port continue to stay on track. Kitsap County has issued the permit for the kayak facility but now we have to wait for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to give their stamp of approval. It will take about two months to finish the project once all of the paper work is done.
The North Beach seawall project is also ready to go and bids should be opened sometime in November. As far as the project to level the west side lawns over by the boat moorings goes, the consulting engineer working on this for us has encountered a few issues and we are making our way through those. We’ve done a little painting in the parking lot and it shouldn’t be difficult for people to see where two-hour parking spots are.
In Irons
I have been developing a crossword puzzle for all of these terms and there will be six more appearing here before the game comes out. So here it is, the Nautical Term of the Month for November: In Irons – Having turned into the wind or lost the wind, stuck and unable to make headway while still afloat. Of course this term can describe situations that occur off the sea as well. Once in awhile we all seem to be In Irons but luckily, the wind is always changing and new opportunities show up and we are under way again. (I’m thinking kayak facility)
Well, there it is for this month. I hope I may have answered a question or two or explained something for you. Until next month, be safe and have a great Thanksgiving holiday. And as always, thank you for reading this stuff.
Contact Pete DeBoer, Port of Kingston commissioner, at pete@petedeboer.com.
