Port, Salmon Center make park progress

Kirk Boxleitner | May 12, 20220

Gordon Weeks count

A gull rests at the crest of a wave, in this case a sculpture, last week at Allyn Waterfront Park.

When the Port of Allyn followed up on Sweetwater Park during the port commissioners' May 2 meeting, Port Executive Director Lary Coppola said Kathleen Barrantes, the grant writer the Salmon Center hired, had come up with a plan for a series of grants from various agencies to fund the project.

"Because of the delays in moving this project forward, the cost has more than doubled, which is why a professional grant writer was brought in," Coppola said. He added that the local arborist, qualified under the International Society of Arboriculture's Tree Risk Assessment Qualification and whom the port had hired to mark the trees that needed to be either removed or trimmed, had finished and delivered his report.

"We then had the tree removal service we've used previously come in and do that work, which is also complete," Coppola said. "We are still waiting on the surveyor to find and mark the corners for us, so we know what property is ours to clean up, but once that's done, we'll move forward with the cleanup."

Coppola said the property will remain closed until the cleanup is finished, adding that the state Recreation and Conservation Office is aware of the matter and what the Port of Allyn is doing about it.

"In spite of the protests of one person about accessibility to the property, the RCO has agreed that our actions are both on the right track and totally appropriate," said Coppola, who cited the port's March 7 meeting, during which port officials discussed setting up a public meeting or work session to walk the property with representatives of groups including local law enforcement, fire and emergency responders, and the school district.

"I tried to arrange that, but it didn't go together for several reasons," Coppola said, recalling previous directions he'd received to conduct such a property walk "last month ... after the cleanup is finished."

However, Coppola then learned, the week prior to the port's May 2 meeting, that the Salmon Center would be closing on the Peterson property "in either June or July," and had been working with a volunteer organization to clean up that parcel.

"They are willing to clean up ours as well at the same time, but it won't happen until they do Peterson's," Coppola said. "The cost to us will be a lot less than having someone come in and just do ours. Until the Peterson parcel is cleaned up, though, it would be prudent to restrict public access anyway, so I don't see any reason not to wait."

According to Coppola, the cost of cleaning up the trash on the Peterson site will become an in-kind part of the matching funding for any grants the Port of Allyn receives for the project, once the Salmon Center takes ownership of that parcel.

Coppola summed up the Kitsap all-ports meeting April 25 as "interesting." He pointed out that "we're not the only ones battling the Army Corps of Engineers permit issue."