PORT TOWNSEND — Port of Port Townsend crews have dismantled two sections of the dilapidated Quincy Street Ferry Dock, leaving the wooden piles standing as a de facto wildlife refuge.
“We are keeping the piles. They are very scenic and historic, and people love them,” said Deputy Port Director Jim Pivarnik.
“But this was a safety hazard, especially with the city redoing Quincy Street,” he added, referring to the dock that was removed.
“We worried that kids would jump off and hurt themselves.”
Quincy Street dead-ends at Port Townsend Bay.
The city refurbished the adjacent Pope Marine Park, and the last phase of the project, due for an August completion, includes finishing a paved area behind Elevated Ice Cream and installing a thoroughfare parallel to the waterfront.
The sections removed Friday were a dock that extended out from Quincy Street.
They were towed to the Boat Haven, where they will be cut apart and put in the landfill, Pivarnik said.
The dock was used for ferries until the construction of a new terminal in the 1980s.
After its retirement from ferry service, it was seen in movies such as 1999’s “Snow Falling on Cedars,” based on the book by Bainbridge Island author David Guterson, and the 2002 Jennifer Lopez thriller “Enough.”
The city owns all the property up to a concrete barrier, while the port owns a 4-foot-wide strip of land behind a second concrete wall.
“We own that part, but we don’t know what we could do with it,” Pivarnik said.
Pivarnik said the port and the city have worked together on this project for many years, and the port is now storing the pavers that will be used at the end of Quincy Street.
“This will be a nice public gathering area down here,” Pivarnik said.
“It will still have the same scenic look as before, except it will be safe.”
Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
