INDIAN ISLAND – Naval Magazine Indian Island officials tentatively plan to hold open houses to tell Jefferson County residents about recent developments at the West Coast’s largest munitions storage depot.
Sheila Murray, Naval Magazine Indian Island spokeswoman, said on Friday that plans are in the early stages for Navy open houses in Port Townsend and elsewhere in Jefferson County.
Times, dates and locations are to be determined.
The Navy would provide information boards and illustrations, with experts on Naval Magazine matters available to answer residents’ questions face to face.
The event would take a “scoping meeting approach,” not a public forum with microphones, Murray stressed.
“It’s not a soapbox forum. We want people to engage one-on-one with us,” said Navy Region Northwest spokesman Sean Hughes, who joined Murray on Friday in Port Townsend.
“It’s bringing our story out to the public.”
Added Murray, who is Navy Region Northwest’s environmental public affairs officer: “We’re a neighbor behind the fence and we want to reach out.”
The primary focus would be educational, to allay confusion or misconceptions about the 2,716-acre Naval Magazine, Hughes and Murray said.
“We want to bring in experts to address peoples’ concerns,” Murray said.
“We know that with 9/11, the outside look of Indian Island has changed, but its mission remained the same.”
U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, who recently toured the base to get a better feel for what is proposed there, told the Peninsula Daily News last week that he had urged Naval Magazine officials to reach out to the community.
Port Townsend City Council and Jefferson County commissioners last month sent letters to U.S. Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter, requesting such a study under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Dicks last week said that Winter’s response to those letters was “imminent.”
Dicks, a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, declined to comment on his views about local support for an environmental impact study at the Naval Magazine.
