PORT ANGELES — Proponents of seven-day-a-week wintertime access to Hurricane Ridge Road now have until mid-August to find $75,000 to make it happen.
The National Park Service on Thursday extended the beginning-of-August deadline by two weeks for fundraising organizers to generate $75,000 in additional funds to keep Olympic National Park’s only road to Hurricane Ridge fully open from November through March on a trial basis in 2011, park spokeswoman Barb Maynes said.
The goal: to determine if greater access to the park does indeed generate more visits, as well as overnight stays in North Olympic Peninsula lodging establishments.
“Will this create additional economic infusion to Port Angeles?” Maynes asked.
To keep the 17-mile, two-lane road fully open at least in winter 2012 and possibly in winter 2013, proponents would have to come up with additional $75,000 allotments for each of those years.
The funding would supplement the $250,000 the National Park Service is making available for at least the next two years in an unusual “cost sharing” arrangement with the North Olympic Peninsula community, Maynes added.
Hurricane Ridge Road currently is open full time in the summer months, but only from Friday through Sunday from November through March — weather permitting.
Visitor numbers
There are about 240,000 visits to Olympic National Park annually, only about 13 percent of which are during winter.
In July and August, Hurricane Ridge averages 54,000 visits each month, compared to 6,000 a month from November through March.
The Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Port Angeles Forward Committee are spearheading a Peninsula-wide effort to find the funding.
Forward Committee Chairwoman and City Council member Cherie Kidd and chamber Executive Director Russ Veenema will seek contributions from individuals, businesses and North Olympic Peninsula governments, they said this week.
Kidd presented the fundraising idea to the Port Angeles Business Association weekly breakfast meeting Tuesday.
“It’s a challenge, and I feel we can meet it, but we need some help,” she told the group.
“Let me know if you have any ideas. We have to pull together.”
Kidd and Veenema also hope to drum up support along the Interstate 5 corridor, they said.
Keeping the road open is vital to the area’s economy as a draw not only for tourists but residents, they added.
“My role is to push this along to create community awareness and to try to get other people excited about this happening,” Veenema said.
Make up difference
The $75,000 would make up the difference between the $250,000 that the National Park Service says it can spend to keep the road open and the $325,000 the agency says it needs to make that a reality.
The Park Service will make the funding available at least this year and 2012, Maynes said.
Veenema will put together press releases for Puget Sound media on the fundraising effort and will form a “speakers bureau” to talk to any groups that will listen, he said.
“It’s a long shot,” Veenema said.
“If we can’t do it this year, we will ramp it up for 2012 and have 12 months to do it.”
A delegation of city of Port Angeles officials, including Mayor Dan Di Guilio, City Manager Kent Myers, City Council member Patrick Downie and Kidd met with Interior Department Comptroller Bruce Schaefer in March to free up the $250,000 earlier this year, Kidd said.
Maynes said that’s all that was available in the Interior Department’s budget, and that nothing was available in Olympic National park’s $12 annual spending plan.
The city of Port Angeles has agreed to increase its marketing of Hurricane Ridge if funding is approved for at least one year.
Veenema said the park cannot accept in-kind contributions such as equipment and labor.
“If the city of Sequim or Port Angeles or Clallam County or the port wants to help, it’s going to have to be with cash contributions,” he said.
The city’s businesses have suffered because of the road closure, Kidd said.
For example, ski clubs have come to Port Angeles, found Hurricane Ridge Road closed, and vowed never to return, she said.
“If people can’t rely on coming all the way from the I-5 corridor and they meet a closed road, they will just write us off.”
One snow removal crew
The reduced access in winter occurs because the park has funding for only one snow removal crew, Maynes said. The $325,000 would fund a second crew.
The road is closed about 20 percent during the snowy season due to avalanche dangers, white-out conditions and other weather-related problems, Maynes said. That percentage probably wouldn’t change if the funding is found, she added.
The Ridge has slopes set aside for skiers and snowboarders and a rope tow and Poma lift to get them where they are going.
Port Angeles Downtown Association Executive Director Barbara Frederick said it’s vital the road be open year-round for winter-recreation enthusiasts.
“It will bring a whole new bunch of tourists that will come and eat in our restaurants and shop in our stores and get supplies,” Frederick said.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
