PORT TOWNSEND — Details of a proposed Fort Worden restaurant that serves alcoholic beverages could be among the plans developed during a two-day strategy session that winds up today.
Some 45 people are discussing ways to increase the use and visibility of Fort Worden State Park, especially during the “shoulder season” from April to mid-June, by developing programs that will keep the park busy year-round.
The new restaurant, The Guard House, has been in the works for some time, but Dave Robison, executive director of the Fort Worden Lifelong Learning Center Public Development Authority, hopes to nail down planning so it can be opened this summer.
Robison added that he expects other concrete ideas to come from the strategy session.
Those will be analyzed and presented in a public meeting likely to occur by the end of May.
Norm Tonina, a public development authority board member who moderated part of the meeting at Fort Worden Commons on Thursday morning, said he hopes the brainstorming session is productive.
“One of my favorite things to do in the summertime is to visit the park early in the morning during the Jazz Festival or the Acoustic Blues Festival, sit down at one of the tables in the commons and feel that fantastic energy,” Tonina said.
“I hope we can find a way to capture that energy year-round and hope some of the plans we put together today go toward creating that.”
Among those participating in the meeting are representatives of businesses and agencies at Fort Worden, city government, State Parks and the public development authority, or PDA, as well as design experts, many of whom have worked on prior park projects.
Last May, Washington State Parks ceded management of the campus portion of the 434-acre park to the PDA.
Under the terms of the 50-year agreement, State Parks will continue to manage the camping, beach and recreation areas.
The campus portion of the park includes the Centrum arts organization, the Port Townsend School of Woodworking, the Port Townsend Marine Science Center, Goddard College, Peninsula College and the Coast Artillery Museum.
As the agreement begins its second year, PDA officials are looking to develop new programs, Robison said.
“We had to take over operations and get through the first busy year,” he said.
“Right now, we have a little bit of time before the next busy season to be little bit more strategic and start plotting a road map to future development.”
Thursday’s session began with an introduction of those present, each asked to come up with three words to describe how they’d like Fort Worden to look in the future.
After going around the room, the words filled five large sheets of paper taped to the wall, including such terms as “interactive,” “generational,” “historic,” “fun,” “diverse,” “inspiring” and “welcoming.”
Some people needed more than three words.
“We are the keeper of the story here,” said Kevin Alexander of the Coast Artillery Museum.
“We need to stay aware of preserving the natural resources here.”
Robison said one of the PDA’s goals is to better connect Fort Worden to downtown Port Townsend
Another priority is to encourage new partners to set up shop in an underutilized building, of which there are many on campus.
“We need to restore some of these buildings while protecting the historical integrity of the campus,” he said.
“Over the next day and a half, I hope we can come up with a blueprint about how we can really foster and promote the arts, culture and education opportunities here,” Robison said.
Whatever is added must generate revenue, he said.
“We can’t just go ahead and put together all kinds of arts, education and cultural programs without looking at the bottom line,” he said.
“We need to find the public-private partnerships that will be sustainable over the long term for the use of this great public resource.”
Not all of those using the facility must be businesses or agencies fixed to the campus; some can just rent space to present temporary programs or one-time events, he said.
On Thursday, participants broke into four smaller discussion groups and were expected to report those findings in the evening.
Today, participants are scheduled to examine the process of selecting new tenants and partners and the prioritization of improvements, according to the meeting agenda.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
