PORT ANGELES — The future of Clallam County in helping to build parts for the Hood Canal Bridge is unsure and uses for the Tse-whit-zen site should be decided by local residents, Gov. Christine Gregoire said Friday.
Gregoire said the state Department of Transportation’s priority should be fixing the bridge and not deciding where its parts are built.
“We will literally choke the economics of this region if we don’t get that bridge up,” the Democratic governor said during a news conference while on her first official visit to Clallam County since taking office.
Discussions between local, state and Lower Elwha Klallam tribal officials about the future of the site are on-going, she said, and they should decide what to do with the 22.4-acre site.
Gregoire said it could become a cultural center to help attract tourists to Port Angeles.
“I’m waiting for this community to come together with a common vision of what they want so that we can support that decision,” Gregoire said.
$60 million spent on site
About $60 million was spent developing the site for graving yard purposes. It was going to be used to build bridge pontoons and anchors before it was shut down after remains of an ancient Native American village were discovered.
Tests were run on the site to determine its archeological content before construction started, but those tests apparently turned up nothing.
An independent Transportation Performance Audit Board investigation into what happened with the doomed project is due before the Legislature meets in January 2006, Gregoire said, adding that she would pay close attention to its findings.
“If all these remains were there, why did it take us so long to find it?” Gregoire said.
“That was what consultants were brought on to do early, before any plans were made.”