Corps Permit Opens Haulout Work in Bay

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Category: News

Created on Monday, 25 November 2024 15:52

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By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    After months of waiting, the city has received a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit to start work on the new haulout and boatyard at Gary Paxton Industrial Park.
    On Thursday, contractors started driving pile for haulout piers just offshore of the existing waterfront ramp at GPIP, industrial park director Garry White said.

Construction workers drive piles at the Gary Paxton Industrial Park this afternoon. Work began Thursday. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)

    “It was frustrating waiting so long to get the permit, but we’re happy to get it and glad to see the contractors could jump right into it,” he said.
    Planning on the haulout has been underway since the voters approved a ballot measure in 2022 to spend $8.2 million from the city permanent fund to build a marine service facility to replace the one formerly provided by a private company at the site now occupied by the cruise ship terminal in the 4500 block of Halibut Point Road.
    The in-water work was held up while the city waited for the Corps permit to be approved.
    After filing for the permit in January, the city expected to hear back within the federally mandated 135 days. But along the way, the city kept receiving followup questions from each of the “approval levels” that were needed for the permit.
    Some of the information and documentation requested by the federal government related to the Marine Mammal Protection Act, since noise in coastal waters frequented by various marine mammals is a major concern under the act, White said.
    White said he was somewhat surprised to receive the paperwork from the Corps six days ahead of the most recent schedule, since authorization for most of the other parts of the project were delayed.
    “We were first told in May we had submitted all relevant information to secure the (Corps) permit, then we were told in July and September we had the paperwork, and then we were told October 1 we would get it in a week,” he said.
    At each point, there were delays so when the permit arrived on November 20, he was “excited to finally get moving.”
White still expects the project will be completed, and open as scheduled by March 30, 2025. The contractor is Western Marine Construction of Seattle.
    A haulout facility is essential infrastructure for a busy fishing community, but listing the project as a legislative priority and several years of congressional funding requests were not successful “until citizens decided to control their own destiny by putting the $8.2 million from the sale of the hospital to the haulout,” White said. Other additional sources of funding have come in since then.
    The project is designed to haul boats up to 150 tons, with a concrete washdown pad and waste water filtration. There is an area set aside for a boatyard, but funding is needed for improvements such as electricity.
    The next hurdle on White’s work list is figuring out an operating plan, including scope of services and fees for service. The city currently is in negotiation with Highmark Marine Fabrication, of Kodiak, the only successful responder to the city’s request for qualifications by private companies to operate the boatyard.
    White and GPIP board members are continuing to field questions from members of the fishing fleet concerned about the fees for using the haulout.
    “No contracts have been signed, no fees have been set,” White said. “It’s our intention that it will be a community boat yard, with the GPIP board and Assembly approving any rates proposals.”