CLALLAM BAY — Getting to the beach at Clallam Bay will be a lot easier if Clallam County commissioners approve paperwork before them today.
Commissioners will consider authorizing a $75,000 acquisition of 7.45 acres of land north of state Highway 112 and a half-mile west of the existing Clallam Bay Spit County Park.
The new park, which will have 700 feet of beach access, is next to a one-acre parcel the county already owns.
“This piece of property affords us the ability to have year-round access, and really we don’t have to do anything like we currently do at Clallam Bay [Spit],” said Joel Winborn, Clallam County parks fair and facilities manager.
“The thing that they’re hurting for out there is the ability to get to the beach.”
Providing beach access has been a challenge for the county since 2001, when a storm wiped out a bridge landing at Clallam Bay Spit park.
“Since that time, we’ve been deploying a temporary gangway off the north end because that’s the only way you could access the beach,” Winborn said.
“In 2009, we couldn’t even do that.”
A 2009 storm blocked access again because there was no place to land the gangway. Winborn said the course of the Clallam River has been unpredictable in recent years.
“In fact, right now is the first time that I’ve ever seen the river actually dumping into the Strait from its historic location, way down to the west,” Winborn said.
“That’s one of the most dynamic areas out there I’ve ever seen. The area looks nothing like it did eight years ago, nine years ago.”
The county budgeted for the land acquisition from real estate excise tax revenue but hoped to pay for it with grants.
Clallam County earned a grant last year from the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program, which puts an emphasis on acquisition projects, but those funds were taken off the table amid the state’s budget crisis.
“We are in the process of currently looking for other grant solutions,” Winborn told commissioners in their weekly work session Monday.
The state Recreation and Conservation Office recommended a grant through the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
The county has until 2013 to find grants to replace any real estate excise tax revenue it spends on the land.
Winborn said the land acquisition is a “really good deal” for the county.
The current owner, Carmie White, was offered $4,000 more after the agreement was signed last year.
“He wanted it to be in public hands,” Winborn said. “He’s a very community-minded guy.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsula dailynews.com.
