PORT ANGELES — A check symbolic of $75,000 was given to Olympic National Park’s deputy superintendent Tuesday at a meeting of the Port Angeles Business Association as a public announcement of the end of this year’s successful campaign to keep Hurricane Ridge Road open year-round.
The check included $25,000 from the city of Port Angeles, $25,000 from Clallam County and $25,000 from a variety of sources interested in keeping the road to the snow playground open all week during the winter.
“We’re sending a message to the Department of the Interior: This community supports the park,” said Port Angeles City Councilwoman Cherie Kidd, who led the fundraising effort.
“Thousands of people gathered to ask Teddy Roosevelt for a park,” Kidd said.
Today, the people are asking to open the park, she said.
Volunteers are planning an expansion of ski lifts for more skiing this winter, said Rob Onnen, a PABA member.
There will also be efforts to open for weekday skiing, Onnen said.
Todd Suess, ONP deputy superintendent, accepted the symbolic check from Kidd and PABA President Kaj Ahlburg at the business association meeting.
The funds were in by the Monday deadline.
In the winter, Hurricane Ridge offers winter sports fun for families, including skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing and other snow events.
This is the second year of a pilot project by Interior to keep the road to Hurricane Ridge open seven days a week, except during storms, from late fall to early spring.
The road had previously been kept open on weekends and holidays during the winter.
In 2010, Interior agreed to provide the $250,000 for winter maintenance of the 17-mile road from Port Angeles to the snow area for two or three years if community members raised $75,000 each year of the trial.
In addition to the $25,000 each from the city of Port Angeles and Clallam County, other group, government or business donations included $5,000 from the city of Sequim, $5,670 from the Port Angeles Winter Ski Club, $2,500 from 7 Cedars Casino, $2,500 from PABA, $3,000 from the Olympic Peninsula Tourism Committee, $1,000 from Bed and Breakfast Association, $2,000 from CPI, $500 from Black Ball Ferry Line, $500 from the Red Lion Hotel, $200 from Sound Community Bank and $100 from Michael’s Restaurant & Steak House.
“There were also many individual donations,” Kidd said.
“This community has been amazing,” she said.
“When they have a vision, when they have a goal, everyone pitches in.”
This year, the road to Hurricane Ridge was opened all week long, weather permitting, in the winter for the first time since the mid-1990s.
“For years, we effectively didn’t have a park in the winter,” Kidd said.
What began with hundreds of signatures on a petition resulted in the agreement for a two-year matching-funds agreement between the parks and the community, she said.
Cooperation from Congressman Norm Dicks — who represents the 6th Congressional District, which includes the North Olympic Peninsula — and Bruce Sheaffer, comptroller of the National Park Service, were key to the process, Kidd said.
“We’ve already put out a notice for the people we need,” Suess said.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
