Sam Fletcher reports on the prospect of an Oak Harbor Port District for the Whidbey News-Times.
Funding for Oak Harbor’s future projects may not be attainable without the creation of a port district on North Whidbey, a type of district that hasn’t been created in Washington in nearly four decades.
The Oak Harbor Port District, which requires a supermajority vote, could be on the ballot as soon as November.
Oak Harbor’s 50-year-old marina is silting in, and the breakwater and dock systems are failing. Harbormaster Chris Sublet estimates repairs and renovations to cost at least $75 million. A port district may be one solution to this problem…
They Said It
…council members such as Jim Woessner say that the new district would reach much farther than the Oak Harbor marina.
“(Port districts are) the catalyst that makes things go,” he said. “They typically take in a larger area when determining where the money’s coming from.”
…the Coupeville Port was a conduit for federal money for fiber optic MIDI to provide phone, television and internet services for the area, Woessner said.
The Port of Oak Harbor would essentially have the same boundaries as the Oak Harbor School District, Woessner said.
Skagit County’s port started with an airport: a small, single runway that the port used to build an industrial zone, a footprint that reaches into Mount Vernon and Burlington, Woessner said. Today, the area has infrastructure for businesses and now has a hotel and commercial office buildings and turned a profit.
Oak Harbor’s waterfront is a regional asset, not just a city one, he said. Woessner imagines a pier with buildings that connect to the harbor and a water taxi service between the marina and downtown, which would be an economic driver for both areas.
A port district could accomplish this, he said.
Despite no new port districts forming since 1988, Woessner remains optimistic about Oak Harbor.
“What communities have tried?” he asked. “It’s not the communities have failed it. I think a lot of communities jumped on that bandwagon immediately. The rush happened, and then everybody else is on the sidelines because for their community it may not be the right thing, and they just haven’t attempted it.”
“It’s a tough message to deliver,” Woessner said. “Some people just aren’t going to want to hear it because we are talking (about a) new tax, and I respect that too.”
