Clallam County business owners say their supply chains with the Puget Sound area won’t be completely disrupted during the six-week Hood Canal bridge closure that begins Friday.
“We’re pretty much set up,” said Rand Thomas, owner of Thomas Building Center in Sequim, on Tuesday.
Thomas said the suppliers of the store’s lumber and hardware — which are located in Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia and elsewhere — will send trucks up U.S. Highway 101 from Olympia during the closure of the bridge while its eastern span is replaced.
“There’s no supplier that said, ‘We won’t supply you during this closure,'” he said.
Thomas said delivery rates won’t change for the store, although delivery dates may be affected.
“What we’re looking forward to is all those shoppers staying in town,” he said.
Howie Ruddell, owner of Ruddell Auto Mall in Port Angeles, is banking on that.
Ruddell said the dealership has increased its inventory, hoping that more people who want to buy a car will do their shopping on the Peninsula during the closure.
“We have the understanding that sometimes people will go to Seattle to shop for a car, but they are not going to drive 10 hours round-trip to go look at cars,” he said.
“We’ve had more stuff on the ground now than we have ever had on the ground before.”
Stocked and ready
Members of the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce say they have stocked up on supplies or will make the longer trips to the Seattle area during the closure, said Executive Director Russ Veenema.
Vickie Maples, Sequim-Dungeness Chamber of Commerce executive director, also said that members have plans for dealing with the closure.
Rick Mathis, owner of the downtown Port Angeles Restaurant, Rick’s Place, said the closure will be business as usual for him.
“I’m very optimistic,” he said.
“Everybody, the food service has a plan. They’ve been working on this for months.”
Alex Fellenz, Food Services of America transportation supervisor in Kent, said the trucks that transport food to all the company’s approximately 40 customers in Clallam and Jefferson counties will drive south to Olympia and back north up Highway 101.
Fellenz said the trucks will leave earlier and should arrive at about the same time.
“The only difference is, we are going to do is go around [Highway] 101,” he said, “and start a little earlier.”
Fellenz said the company is not charging its customers extra for the additional transportation costs.
What about tourists?
While commerce is willing to make the longer trip, the jury is still out on whether tourists will do the same.
“It’s hard to say,” Veenema said. “I don’t know if it’s going to drastically affect the tourism side or if people will just drive around.”
In order to counteract any dip in tourism — and therefore tourist-related spending — from the Seattle area, Peninsula communities are reaching out to potential visitors who might not ordinarily use the Hood Canal Bridge to get to the area even if it were open.
Peninsula communities are taking part in the “No Bridge, No Problem” Web site, www.nobridgenoproblem.com/, which offers information about how to get to the area, what it has to offer and discounts for businesses once visitors arrive.
It offers information about Quilcene and Brinnon, Port Ludlow, Port Hadlock, Port Townsend, Sequim, Port Angeles, Forks, Clallam Bay, Sekiu and Neah Bay.
Through the Olympic Peninsula Tourism Commission, the organizations have funded an advertising campaign in the Olympia and Portland, Ore., areas known as the “southern strategy piece.”
For the last two weeks, the Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau — which is the administrative side of the tourism commission — has been placing six-page advertising inserts in newspapers that serve those communities, said Diane Schostak, visitor bureau executive director.
The inserts list the “top 7 reasons” to visit the Peninsula — which include the scenery, festivals and outdoor activities.
But the ads, which cost a total of $20,000, don’t mention the bridge closure.
“We definitely timed it to hit before the bridge closure to inspire travel,” Schostak said. “We can’t dictate when they come, but we’re hoping they will look at coming over the next couple months.”
The advertisements also list all the festivals that will run through the closure — such as Sequim’s Irrigation Festival, Port Townsend’s Rhododendron Festival, Brinnon’s Shrimpfest and Port Angeles’ Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts — and the rest of the year. The North Olympic Discovery Marathon also will be held during the closure.
Irrigation Festival
Joe Borden, chairman of the Irrigation Festival — which will run from May 2 through May 10 — said festival organizers have done more to attract local vendors this year due to the closure. That includes adding a merchant street fair on Washington Street.
“We’re getting more local merchants involved rather than just vendors that come from out of town,” Borden said.
“We’ve always wanted the local community to be more involved,” he added. “With the bridge closure, we have been able to get them more involved.”
Borden said he doesn’t expect a change in the number of people attending the festival, because most of the attendees are Peninsula residents.
Twilight tourism
Forks Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Marcia Bingham said she doesn’t expect the bridge closure to do much to limit Twilight tourism — which she called the biggest industry in the West End town.
“It may inhibit some of our visitors from getting here,” she said. “We assure them that it is worth it to be here.”
Although a good portion of supplies and merchandise for businesses in Forks comes from the south via Highway 101, Bingham said that Forks merchants all have plans to ensure that their stores are not disrupted.
Jefferson County
Port Townsend business owners say that they expect the bulk of summer tourist traffic to come after mid-June, when the replacement of the bridge’s eastern half is completed.
Kelli Conrads, co-owner of The Public House, said she has prepared for an expected dip in business.
“We aren’t upping the staff level or the inventory until later in the year,” she said. “But we are doing some things to advertise and make the locals aware we are here.”
“I think we are ready for it,” said Kristen Nelson, president-elect of the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce and owner of Siren’s Pub in downtown Port Townsend.
Some businesses that are shipping goods out, such as Port Townsend Paper and logging companies, will use the so-called “twilight ferry” provided by Washington State Ferries Sunday through Thursday nightly between Port Townsend and Edmonds.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
