P.O. forces pair out of home for $1.4 million for pathway

Published 1:30 am Saturday, October 29, 2022

A longtime holdout of the Bay Street Pedestrian Pathway extension project vows to continue speaking out against Port Orchard officials who he said forced him from his home.

The purchase was made to further construction of the pathway, designed to run from the Kitsap transit center in Port Orchard to the Annapolis ferry facility.

Tensions have run high ever since the project’s inception in 2005, when homeowners and business owners realized the project could force them out of the area.

That’s what Randy Jones said happened to him and his partner, Frank Rusk, when the city spent $1.4 million to acquire their overwater house in July. About $735,000 of that was spent purchasing the property, while the remaining funds were used toward relocation.

It was not the way Jones wanted to leave the house that he bought at just 18 years of age and lived in for around 45 years. “I never really wanted to sell right up to the day that I signed papers,” he said.

The property was not just the home of Jones and Rusk, but the location of Venture Charters Inc., their charter boat and vacation rental business. “We never intended to leave, and I have 250 five-star reviews on my vacation rental,” Jones said.

The property was one of several that city officials said they would acquire using eminent domain if necessary to continue the project slated for construction in 2024. Not completing the project would lead to millions of dollars in federal and state grants for the construction of the trail being paid back by the city.

Jones and Rusk spent years fighting for the house, refusing to sell to the city at any price. Jones even ran for City Council in 2021 in an attempt to campaign for the property to remain theirs.

During the campaign, and since their relocation to a house in Bremerton, Jones said the response from the community and fellow business owners has been a big help. “I have people in letters they have sent blasting the city for doing it,” he said. “One guy wrote a song about it.”

Jones said the anger he and Rusk feel is not directed at the city as a whole, but at certain public officials. Those include former Public Works director Mark Dorsey, who Jones said was thrilled that the acquisition was to happen alongside his birthday. “I thought that spoke volumes,” Jones said. “If I had known Mark Dorsey was leaving, I would never have signed the papers. I would have risked it.”

Even the search for a new home was rough for Jones, who said the city was unwilling to budge when earnest money was needed to secure one of the potential houses. “They wanted me to come up with $8,000 to buy a house that the city would buy for me to sell my house,” Jones said.

Overall, Jones said there were mixed messages from city officials, and he plans to use his experience to educate others who are in danger of losing their homes. “I want to be there for anyone that wants to know because the laws are tweaked, too,” he said. “The system is rigged… and I want this to be transparent.”