PENINSULA POLL BACKGROUNDER: Raucous meeting with Kalakala owner, who rejects dive park idea
The Kalakala rests rusting at a dock in Tacoma. The former state ferry and fish processor is owned by Steve Rodrigues, below.
A state-city split?
An underwater dive park proposal off Port Angeles' Ediz Hook has strong city backing, but the idea is meeting resistance from state agencies.
"I would say we didn't get the most pleasant comments," Nathan West, Port Angeles community and economic development director, said Wednesday of agencies' initial reactions.
The proposed project, which would be about a mile from the heel of the spit, is stalled while proponents, among them diver Bill Roberds of Port Angeles and the recreation division of city public works, decide whether it's worth applying for a conditional use permit no matter where they want to site the park, West said.
The project would have to pass muster from the Army Corps of Engineers, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, the state Department of Natural Resources and the state Department of Ecology.
The city parks commission unanimously approved the idea in 2008, and the city planning department approved the land-use aspect of the proposal last August as a less involved shoreline substantial development permit.
Then Ecology stepped in, saying it needs a conditional use permit. That means the city planning commission would hold a public hearing and recommend a course of action to the state Department of Ecology.
Peninsula Daily News
An underwater dive park proposal off Port Angeles' Ediz Hook has strong city backing, but the idea is meeting resistance from state agencies.
"I would say we didn't get the most pleasant comments," Nathan West, Port Angeles community and economic development director, said Wednesday of agencies' initial reactions.
The proposed project, which would be about a mile from the heel of the spit, is stalled while proponents, among them diver Bill Roberds of Port Angeles and the recreation division of city public works, decide whether it's worth applying for a conditional use permit no matter where they want to site the park, West said.
The project would have to pass muster from the Army Corps of Engineers, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, the state Department of Natural Resources and the state Department of Ecology.
The city parks commission unanimously approved the idea in 2008, and the city planning department approved the land-use aspect of the proposal last August as a less involved shoreline substantial development permit.
Then Ecology stepped in, saying it needs a conditional use permit. That means the city planning commission would hold a public hearing and recommend a course of action to the state Department of Ecology.
Peninsula Daily News
By Paul Gottlieb
Peninsula Daily News
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Sink it.
That way, it could be the main attraction in an underwater dive park proposed off Ediz Hook about a mile from the entrance west of downtown, participants said after the nearly two-hour, invitation-only meeting at Smuggler's Landing restaurant in Port Angeles.
But Rodrigues will not consider that option, which would require expensive sandblasting and complete detoxification of the vessel, "until full funding efforts are done in 2010 and 2011," he said in a later interview.
"There is no such alternative until after we exhaust preservation above water," he said of the proposal, offered at the meeting by Andrew May, horticulturist and Peninsula Daily News' gardening columnist.
Rodrigues has suggested refurbishing the Kalakala so it's usable as a multipurpose entertainment vessel that would call Port Angeles Harbor home -- though the permitting process would be long and complex, and Rodrigues did not divulge business plans outlining how he would achieve his heartfelt goal or a source of funding to get there.
He estimated it would cost about $15 million to make the vessel usable, meeting participants said.
The Kalakala ran Puget Sound and Port Angeles-Victoria routes from 1935 to 1967 before being decommissioned and sold to become an Alaskan fish processor, and the splotchy hull -- returned to Seattle 11 years ago -- has not been maintained.
Rodrigues, a 58-year-old Tacoma-area civil engineer, bought the art-deco-style vessel for $136,560 in 2003 in a bankruptcy sale in Seattle.
But Wednesday's meeting was about more than the ferry.
Rodriques' presentation
Participants were as upset as much by how Rodrigues presented himself as they were by his plans -- or lack thereof -- for a vessel whose mural-drawn visage graces the side of a building in Port Angeles.
They left lunch literally shaking their heads and saying the dive park proposal may be the only way to make Port Angeles the Kalakala's final resting place.
At one point, a frustrated Rodrigues referred to "the frickin' community." He was referring to the North Olympic Peninsula community, said participants Terry Neske, Allan Bentley, Charlie Ferris and Bill Zynda, all of Port Angeles.
"It was not at all that community," Rodrigues said later, insisting Wednesday's meeting participants "were focused on one thing, sinking my ship."
Asked how the meeting went, Rodrigues said, "not good, not good."
Indeed, the get-together "was chaos," Neske said.
"We asked a bazillion questions, and he did not answer one of them. The only thing he wanted was community support, but he did everything to prevent it."
Said Bentley: "He made an assumption that we were all on the same sheet of music as him. It went over everyone's head. He rambled."
Ferris' take: "I felt alienated. I've never seen a project that needs a front man more."
On his way out, Bob Harbick said, "Making [the Kalakala] seaworthy at this time is not practical."
Apology, business plan
Zynda, a longtime Kalakala preservation supporter and organizer of the meeting, said Rodrigues apologized to the group.
Rodrigues finally did agree to make public a business plan, Zynda said, pointing to Rodrigues' "great love and passion for that boat" as "his good side."
City Manager Ken Myers said after the meeting that he plans to set up a meeting with proponents of the Ediz Hook dive park so they can discuss the Kalakala option.
"At least we'll get some answers to [the dive park] question," Myers said.
Rodrigues plans to be in Port Angeles again on Feb. 18 to kick off his "Walk of Hope" national tour to drum up support for restoring the vessel, he said.
________
Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: January 21. 2010 12:10AM
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