Posted on May 12, 2016
By Luke Whittaker, Chinook Observer
The Ilwaco Marina hasn’t reached a crisis stage, but Ilwaco Port Manager Guy Glenn Jr. isn’t going to gamble.
“I’m just trying to make them [state representatives] aware that our infrastructure is aging,” said Glenn, standing beside the Ilwaco marina last week. “And I don’t know if the same [legislative] priority has been given in infrastructure [funding] to marinas.”
In an increasingly muddled arena of voices fighting for state and federal funds, Glenn is on a mission to make the marina’s needs better understood. On Tuesday, May 2, Glenn, along with local fishermen, met with state Rep. Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen to discuss the issues directly.
“People don’t always understand,” Glenn said. “They don’t see the bottom.”
The bottom Glenn is referring to is silt, which continues to accumulate at ports around the county. Annual removal of acres of silt becomes necessary to allow bigger vessels — from commercial fishing vessels to tall ships — to simply enter and navigate within the marinas.
Dredging season in months away, but the bill lingers for years.
“When we finished setting up our new dredge, everything together was just a little under $500,000,” Glenn said. “We have payments every year for 10 years, plus our annual operating expenses for the dredges, which can be a couple thousand a day.”
The port typically dredges for two to two and half months when migrating salmon are unlikely to be present.
“We could dredge the full four months but we have to be mindful of our budget and we have other things our crew has to work on as well,” said Glenn. Dredging is the most expensive form of routine maintenance and largely goes unseen.
A five-man crew is responsible for much of the marina’s upkeep.
“Our maintenance crew does a great job of keeping things safe and functional, but after things get a certain number of years old, it becomes hard to keep up with ordinary maintenance,” said Glenn, as he radioed to report a water leak. “At some point, they [the docks] need to be replaced and you want to be mindful of what the needs are today with boats getting longer, wider and more powerful.” Many of the Ilwaco Marina’s facilities were constructed in the 1960s and ’70s, according to Glenn.
But in spite of aging docks and a growing need for bigger slips, the biggest burden isn’t above the water, but what’s beneath.
“Everything in the marina hinges on dredging,” said Glen, “It’s been a large investment of our resources. It costs a lot. If we didn’t have to dredge every year, we could use that money for other things. But without dredging, it doesn’t matter if you have good docks.”
Source: Chinook Observer
