SEQUIM — Port Angeles City Councilwoman Cheri Kidd went before the Sequim City Council earlier this week asking for $2,000 to help keep Hurricane Ridge Road open year-round.
She came away late Monday night with $5,000 in lodging tax revenues after the Sequim council agreed unanimously to support it.
Council members said they saw how Sequim lodging establishments and retailers benefit from snow recreation on the Olympic Mountain ridge 17 miles south of Port Angeles.
“That nails it,” said an excited Kidd after the Sequim council’s action.
“I really think this $5,000 is going to put us on track.”
Raising money
It was not a hard sell for Kidd, who said $75,000 needed to be raised to meet the gap in funding to match a $250,000 federal Department of Interior pledge to keep the road opening daily, weather permitting, from late fall through the beginning of spring, on a trial basis.
Now the road is open only from Friday through Sunday from November through March, weather permitting. It is open daily in the summer.
“We have been turning away business for years to people for tourism on nice weekends,” Kidd said, referring to the winter season.
Kidd said fundraisers had $62,000 in hand as of Monday afternoon, plus the $5,000 from Sequim Monday night.
The Department of the Interior wants to determine if keeping the road open leads to greater revenue in winter months for area hotels and other businesses.
According to Kidd, if the North Olympic Peninsula partners can market the Peninsula’s main winter recreation attractions and show it leads to highter visitor counts to the ridge and Olympic National Park, then park officials will want to keep the park open year-round.
The council member said Seattle sources have told her that many from that side of Puget Sound want to come to Olympic National Park year-round
Council members Susan Lorenzen, Ted Miller and Laura Dubois all agreed that $5,000 was more appropriate than $2,000 toward keeping the road to Hurricane Ridge open, saying it was a small portion of the city of Sequim’s $150,000 in lodging tax.
City Manager Steve Burkett told the council that, although he would feel more comfortable with giving $4,000, there was enough in the city’s lodging tax reserves to go to $5,000.
“I’m willing to go to as big as $5,000 if we can squeeze it out,” Dubois said.
Ski packages
Kidd said hotels have pledged to market ski packages if the 17-mile road is open year-round.
Vicki Maples, Sequim Chamber of Commerce executive director who attended the meeting, thanked council members for their support.
In addition to Sequim’s Monday night pledge, contributions have included $20,000 each from Clallam County and the city of Port Angeles and $3,100 from the Olympic Tourism Commission.
Individual donations have ranged from $25 to $1,500.
A July 30 fundraiser at the R Bar tavern in downtown Port Angeles netted $9,000, Kidd said.
Another fundraiser is at 6 p.m. tonight at Bar N9ne, 229 W. First St., Port Angeles.
And another fundraiser is slated Friday, when $25 appetizers will be offered during a “pub crawl” of downtown establishments during the monthly Sequim Second Friday Art Walk.
CPI Provisioning Inc. of Port Angeles also is auctioning off construction of a fiber-optic network to a business and a year of free service, with a combined value of $12,000.
In addition, the Hurricane Ridge Winter Sports Club is collecting donations.
Funds available
The National Park Service will make the funds available next year, also, but the community will again have to raise $75,000 again, and possibly in 2013, when another $75,000 would have to be generated, unless federal government funding comes through.
U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, 6th District congressman who represents Clallam, Jefferson, Grays Harbor, Mason and Kitsap counties and part of Tacoma in Pierce County, said he is trying to secure funding to cover 2012 and 2013.
Donations can be made at Chase Bank in Port Angeles, 101 W. Front St., or online at the website of Washington’s National Park Fund — www.wnpf.org — by clicking on “Donate Now,” selecting Olympic National Park and specifying the donation is for Hurricane Ridge Road.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
