Port 2: Commission seeks new buoy sponsor

Commissioners of Port District No. 2 of Wahkiakum County repeated their desire to end responsibility for maintaining Grays Bay channel buoys when they met Tuesday.

Port 2 officials have said they have neither the expertise nor the equipment to maintain the buoys, which the district installed about five years ago after citizens requested the port mark the channel out of Deep River.

Last week, board members told the county board of commissioners they would work with the county, which contributed funds for the buoy project, to find a solution to the dilemma.

At their meeting this week, port officials said they hope they can find someone else to take over the project.

Port Manager Bob Robinson said he intends to contact personnel in the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife about the project. The state Fish and Game Commission earlier this month approved the purchase of a 56-acre parcel of land on Deep River that includes the Oneida boat ramp.

Dan Budd, WDFW real estate manager, said 25 percent of the private boat trips for sturgeon in the estuary originate at the Deep River ramp.

That activity, port commissioners said, should give that agency an interest in maintaining the channel.

Meanwhile, Robinson and the port commissioners are also dealing with the terms of their aquatic lands lease with the Department of Natural Resources, which allows them to place the buoys in the water and requires annual reports and maintenance standards for the buoys. Robinson said he intends to contact DNR officials to discuss that 30-year lease.

"I'm still concerned that the obligations to the aquatic agreement are greater than the capacity of the port district," he said.

He recommended the port pursue talks with the DNR about what is necessary to terminate the lease while it works to find another entity to assume responsibility for the buoys.

"It's not a good area for us to get invested in," said Commissioner Carlton Appelo. "It's not our problem."

"If the WDFW wants the boat ramp, they should be in charge of the buoys," commented board Chair Brian O'Connor.

"I think so, too," said Commissioner Kayrene Gilbertsen.

Skamokawa resident Mike Lynn said he had been following the issue and that he felt the commission should press the US Army Corps of Engineers to assume responsibility for the channel.

"They only maintain the main shipping channel and none of the side channels," he said. "Maybe the wheel hasn't been squeaky enough."

In other business Tuesday, representatives of Mad Dog Wifi presented a proposal to install the wireless Internet access at Skamokawa Vista Park.

It would cost about $5,650 for the initial equipment and $179 per month for the service, said Randy Caba of Mad Dog.

After discussion, port commissioners authorized Robinson to negotiate further with the firm to install a pilot project with just a small hot spot near the port office to see how the system would work. This would cut the expense considerably, Caba said.

Robinson presented a quarterly financial report and said the district is "reasonably healthy."

Total revenue for the first three months of 2011 has been $32,510.29, he said, and for the same period in 2010, revenues were $24,302.62.

First quarter, 2011, expenses were $30,0094.35, he said, and in 2010, they were $29,457.56.

Including restricted funds, the port has $74,668 total cash and restricted funds.

Robinson also reported that the Westside Water System has been billing the port as a customer. The port was a customer until the end of 2010, he said, when it completed improvements to the park water system and switched over to that system.

"Now we have our own source and our own operator," he said, adding that he would talk with West Side officials about the situation.