PORT ANGELES — Clallam County commissioners said Monday they will finance a marketing survey and permit analysis for a proposed expansion of the Feiro Marine Life Center on the Port Angeles City Pier.
Feiro Executive Director Melissa Williams and Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary Superintendent Carol Bernthal requested $136,000 in county funds during the board’s work session Monday for preliminary phases of the planned expansion.
A more modern aquatic museum would become a magnate that would attract visitors to Port Angeles, Bernthal said.
“This allows the county to kind of have input into something that is of value to the region as a whole, and I would think that would be of interest,” Bernthal said.
Commissioners said they would finance the marketing study and permitting analysis, and would later consider funding a feasibility study.
The marine center is now 3,500 square feet. The remodeled facility will be either 10,500 square feet or 16,000 square feet, Williams said.
It will be slightly to the west and south of its present location on the city-owned pier at 315 N. Lincoln St., Feiro Development Director Deborah Moriarty said.
The total cost of the expansion will be $6 million or $12 million, depending on which of the two designs is chosen, Williams said.
“The city of Port Angeles is going through a number of waterfront transportation improvement projects,” Williams said.
“They’ve completed one, they’re almost finished with a second and the City Pier region is the third. And this would really tie those improvements together.”
Added Bernthal: “Port Angeles is really the gateway to the Olympic Peninsula.”
“We’ve got people coming across on the ferry, from Seattle,” she said. “This is a logical place to kind of tell them what they’re going to experience in this region.”
Moriarty said the estimated timeline of the project is five years.
The county board has decided in recent months to spend down excess reserves in ways that stimulate the economy.
Last week, Commissioner Mike Chapman said the Feiro expansion would be a worthy investment for the county.
Lodging tax revenue could pay for the marketing survey and permitting analysis, Chapman said.
Port Angeles Mayor Dan Di Guilio drafted an April 8 letter to commissioners requesting county funds for the Feiro expansion.
The City Council in May approved a memorandum of agreement with the Feiro Marine Life Center and the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary to “increase and sustain environmental stewardship, in part through a new natural resources sector that fosters science and education,” Di Guilio wrote.
Last year, the marine life center drew 22,000 visitors and provided education to 3,200 students.
“The expansion of this facility will not only enhance the educational opportunities available to Clallam County students, but will likely draw thousands more out-of-town visitors to marvel at the variety of marine life on display (including Ursula the octopus), see hundreds of examples of inter-tidal creatures, listen to naturalists and experience Feiro’s well-love touch tanks where kids and adults alike can get up close and personal with our areas’s marine life,” Di Guilio wrote.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
