Port 2 discusses comp plan

The Wahkiakum County Port 2 Board of Commissioners talked about updating their comprehensive plan, a coming kite festival, and a burn ban instituted at Vista Park on Tuesday.

Looking over vouchers, Commissioner Allen Bennett asked about the port’s new utility trailer. Port 2 Assistant Manager Terina Davis said it was a 6 x10 utility trailer from Cowlitz River Rigging and it was already proving to be useful.

She said staff were really busy at the park, cleaning, keeping it going, and keeping the campers happy.

“We feel like a revolving door,” Davis said. “It’s great.”

With the high temperatures and wind this past weekend, the port instituted a burn ban at the park which is still in effect.

“No flame,” Davis said. “It’s too dangerous, too dry. People are irresponsible and leave fires unattended. As far as barbecues, briquets are not allowed, but propane is okay. A lot of our tent sites don’t have water to them, so there is no way to get water down there.”

It’s quieter at Svensen Park on Puget Island, she added, where they’ve done a little weeding, but have been holding off on mowing.

She said a kite festival was on the schedule for 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on September 9. They currently have six vendors, one food vendor, and potentially the brewery, she said. They were talking to their insurance company to see if they are covered for something like that.

Davis realizes they don’t have a lot of time to get ready and told commissioners that they would be talking to people to see what more they can do to improve the event next year and in the coming years.

After a recent meeting with Washington State Senator Jeff Wilson, Port 2 Manager Sam Shogren has been thinking about how to update the port’s comprehensive plan, a 10-15 year vision for what the port is and what it can do for the county. He is hoping to give Wilson a more concrete answer to his question about what is on his list of things he wants to do, and why.

Shogren has been looking at old Port 2 comprehensive plans. Bennett suggested looking for ideas in comprehensive plans from other small ports.

According to Shogren, the port had some ideas in the 1990s to leverage the history of Skamokawa and draw people to Wahkiakum County and Vista Park. He said he was inspired by a recent trip to a historic district in a Michigan town, where the buildings have been preserved, and they get visited by 300,000 people a year.

“They spend money,” he told commissioners. “Lots of it.”

So he will continue to look for projects with potential positive economic impact, he said.

“It’s a race against time to get some kind of update done by December so that it is available to the State Legislature for their January session, when we go to them for direct spending,” he said.

Counsel Tim Hanigan pointed out that the comprehensive plan was a living document and hoped that the port would update it every year.