PORT TOWNSEND – Shifty Sailors sang colorful sea chanties, politicos praised project supporters and community leaders on Thursday hailed the official “cake-breaking” of the $8.2 million Northwest Maritime Center.
It was a project that naysayers once said would never leave the dock, but today it is moving full-speed ahead, being constructed on the waterfront at the end of Water Street.
The seaside community celebration drew about 300 Thursday to Pope Marine Park, adjacent to the 2-acre maritime center site where Carlsborg-based Primo Construction already is building the foundation.
The center is expected to be completed in September 2009.
“It seems like we’ve been working on this for generations, almost,” quipped U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, launching laughter from the crowd.
Dicks was a key federal fundraiser for the project, along with Washington U.S. Sens. Patty Murray, D-Freeland, and Maria Cantwell, D-Mountlake Terrace.
Reps. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, and Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, also spoke of the state’s role in generating a special appropriation of $2.25 million to match the $1.8 million federal contribution, along with a U.S. Housing and Urban Development loan of $1 million.
Kessler and Van De Wege, along with state Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, represent the 24th District, which includes Clallam and Jefferson counties and one third of Grays Harbor County.
“Congress has the power of the purse,” Dicks told the audience, which included sign-carrying Port Townsend Peace Movement and Code Pink anti-war representatives, and Dicks’ Port Townsend opponent for the 6th Congressional District, fellow Democrat Paul Richmond.
