By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The last concrete for the new boat launch has been poured and the parking lot is almost finished. Construction crews have finished tweaking the little things on the shiny new marina. And the Port of Alsea’s venture into retail is almost ready to reopen its doors.
Port manager Roxie Cuellar is ready to christen her baby – a nearly $3 million makeover of the Port’s boat launch and marina — and will open Wednesday.
And what a makeover it is.
New gangways and 8-foot wide walkways lead to 38-40 slips for boats, there’s a long crabbing float away from boat traffic, a sturdy metal handicapped accessible fishing and crabbing area high above the water, and a separate area for commercial crabbers and shrimpers.
Soon to follow will be a separate kayak launch. The Port applied for a $30,000 grant from Travel Oregon to make it fully handicapped accessible, but won’t know if it gets it until April 30.
The whole project started in 2018 when voters in the port district – which stretches from north and east of Waldport to Yachats – approved a $2.5 million bond to replace the rusting and rotting marina.
Then came additional help – the Port won Oregon Marine Board grants of $325,000 for the two-lane boat launch and $28,000 for the kayak launch, and $100,000 from the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife for the multi-use platform.
Bergerson Construction of Astoria, which specializes in marine projects, is the project’s contractor.
The Port had initially planned to begin the project in November 2019, but difficulty in getting permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers delayed the project for a year. It finally closed the launch and parking lot Nov. 13 and Bergerson began removing the docks and pilings the next week.
Not everything is in the water. The project includes repaving the parking area immediately in front of the new boat launch, and extending the asphalt to the west and south where once there was only gravel. There are also two new fish cleaning stations and boat rinsing areas there.
When it opens next week — after a week’s delay because of weather and material delays to seal and stripe the parking lot – the new boat launch will be much easier and quicker to use as the two lanes are separated by a floating dock down the middle.
“It will mean a new traffic pattern for boaters, but they’ll figure it out,” Cuellar said.
There will be 23 or 24 boat slips 20-feet deep and another 15 are 25-feet deep.
While the daily launch fee will remain at $7, the annual launch fee for port district residents will increase to $60, a $10 increase, and the annual fee for out-of-district users will go to $70. Fees for renting moorage spaces – which have not gone up since 2015 – will increase 20 percent for district residents and 50 percent for people outside the district.
At the entrance to the slips Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue will eventually have its first boathouse to have its rescue boat and two WaveRunners ready for water emergencies.
Dockside crabbers will move to the east floating 10-foot wide walkway, allowing some separation – and lessening conflict – with boaters.
Bergerson dredged 16,500 cubic yards of sand from the marina entrance.
The port is also spending $25,000 to place 20 safety ladders around the dock, so that when – not if – people accidently fall into the water they are able to climb out.
“We’ve never had them, but we should have,” said Cuellar. “They’re not required, but why wouldn’t you do it?”
Port taking over store’s operation
There are changes elsewhere as well.
The Port’s five-member board has decided to take over the retail operation of the Dock of the Bay, the store at the east end of the marina which rents boats and crab rings and sells almost anything else needed for recreation in the bay. It also re-opens Wednesday.
The port owns the land and building and until last summer leased the operation to Bill Tennyila. But Tennyila died in July, leaving the business to two employees, including Robby Hensen, who worked part-time for the Port.
The Port bought the business and its inventory, including its boats, motors and crab rings. Hensen has become a full-time Port employee and will split his time running the store and doing maintenance.
Cuellar will also move from working four days a week to working full time.
Cuellar said the store had been a good source of lease revenue for the Port. Keeping it operating will increase that revenue, which the Port plans to use for future dredging.
“The first year we’ll change very little … just do what Bill did, and then re-assess next January,” Cuellar said.
