PORT ANGELES — Replacing the boat launch floats at John Wayne Marina is on a timeline that, if all goes well, will have the structure ready for the spring crabbing and fishing seasons in 2025, Environmental Manager Jesse Waknitz told Port of Port Angeles commissioners.
“We’re going to procure the floats in January through August 2024 and then the port facility maintenance team or crew will install the floats, hopefully in November or December 2024,” he said Tuesday.
Port staff will also handle demolition of the old floats.
Waknitz said the existing floats were past their useful life.
“The boat launch floats at John Wayne Marina were installed in approximately 1985 and they’ve served the public well, providing a great access point to Sequim Bay and the Strait of Juan de Fuca,” Waknitz said. “The port facility maintenance team has done an excellent job of keeping these floats up over the last 30 to 40 years, but they need to be replaced.”
The new structure will have a metal frame, enclosed polyethylene floats and grated decking.
The $343,000 project is one of the capital expenses scheduled for this year out of a $14.196 million plan the commissioners passed in November. A state Recreation and Conservation Office grant of $257,000 will fund 75 percent of the project, and the port will provide $85,750 (25 percent) in matching funds.
Commissioners unanimously voted to maintain the same leadership from 2023: Connie Beauvais, president; Colleen McAleer vice president; and Steve Burke, secretary.
Executive Director Paul Jarkiewicz agreed to represent the port on the North Olympic Peninsula Recompete Coalition that recently was named a finalist in Phase 1 of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration Distressed Area Recompete Pilot Program.
The NOPRC received a Strategy Development Grant of $500,000 and will move on to the Phase 2, where it will compete with other finalists for federal awards of $40 million to $50 million.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
