Port 2 abandoning Grays Bay buoys

Commissioners of Port District No. 2 decided Tuesday to cease sponsorhip and maintenance of navigation buoys in Grays Bay.

At the urging of citizens several years ago, the port purchased and installed buoys to mark a channel from the mouth of Deep River across the bay's shallows to the main channel of the Columbia.

They are not part of a regular shipping channel, so they aren't maintained by a federal agency such as the US Coast Guard or US Army Corps of Engineers.

The port purchased buoys; boaters familiar with the bay marked the channel, and the port worked with a fishing company to place the buoys.

This winter, one broke free of its concrete anchor and drifted upriver. It was pulled ashore, but port officials have made no move to reinstall it.

Instead, on Tuesday, a majority of the commission voted to take steps to end association with the buoys.

At the recommendation of Port Manager Bob Robinson, Commissioners Kayrene Gilbertsen and Carlton Appelo voted to contact the state Department of Natural Resources to terminate the aquatic lands lease needed for the buoys.

"We originally entered in the program to show support for constituents in the Westend," he said. "However, legal obligations for maintenance and operation are dramatically greater than what we anticipated. We have to check the locations for depth and condition three times a year and write formal reports.

"I can't see why we ever went down there."

The port district doesn't have a boat, he added, so port personnel have no way of accessing the buoys, and the channel changes as the shoals move.

"Commissioner Gilbertsen asked me to check with the DNR for options on early termination," he said. "They want a formal request from the port."

Robinson added that the time and money port staff would spend maintaining the buoys could be better spent on needs at the port's parks.

"I recommend that you sign the letter," he said.

"I'm willing to sign the letter," said Commissioner Appelo, who was honored Monday at the state port district convention for being the longest serving port commissioner in the state. Gilbertsen seconded Appelo's motion to sign the letter, and it passed 2-0.

Commissioner Brian O'Connor didn't arrive at the meeting until after the commission had gone through its business and adjourned.

In other business, Robinson announced that he expects to award a bid for repairing the park's old restrooms on March 23; that he has invited the company making the lower of two bids to provide wi-fi service at Skamokawa Vista Park to present their proposal at the port's April meeting, and that the port staff are continuing to plan a one day fair at Vista Park on July 30 to celebrate the port's 40th birthday.