To check in on the chunk of change the federal government invested into the Point Hudson breakwater project, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell came to town on Tuesday, Oct. 4.

Cantwell arrived in Port Townsend to take a brief tour of Point Hudson and the construction at the north jetty before sitting down for a roundtable with officials from the port, the city, the county, and the state.

Washington Representative Steve Tharinger hadn’t planned to attend, but happened upon the group while touring the project and decided to join in. Almost magically, a representative for each of the factions who helped to fund the project were then represented.

Cantwell helped to get a $7 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, while Tharinger played a part in getting $3 million from the state, which together make up the better portion of the $16.2 million total funding the port managed to secure for the project.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

While unrelated to the economic activity of the marina, part of the work on Tuesday that Cantwell was able to observe included using the old rock that had been removed from the north jetty to build a habitat feature.

“We wanted a place for all of those critters to go who are being displaced,” said Eric Toews, deputy director for the port.

As otters, crabs, rockfish, and other wildlife had burrowed homes into the jetty that is no more, the port recognized the importance of recreating that habitat in order to have as little environmental impact as possible.

“There’s currently a housing crisis in Jefferson County not only associated with people, but also marine wildlife,” Toews joked.

Another important piece of environmentalism has been the removal of the creosote soaked wood piles which will be replaced with steel piling. Creosote has been used as a wood preservative since the mid-1800s, but poses risks to fish and invertebrates when used in aquatic structures, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Toews estimated that 300 tons of creosote had been removed from the north jetty.

“You can smell it,” said Jeanette Widener, a monitor for environmental compliance on the project.

PROJECT PROGRESS

After the tour, the group met in the Point Hudson Pavilion Building for a roundtable where the value of the project and desire for further government assistance was driven home.

“This is a very special part of our state and I’m happy to be here, happy that the Department of Commerce Economic Development Agency was able to help in the repair of such a vital asset to the community as the marina is,” Cantwell said.

“I wanted to see firsthand how the progress was going on making improvements and talk about the rich maritime culture here and what else we need to do to continue to work given the infrastructure investments we’ve made as a nation to continue to use our best assets as resources for growing our economy,” she added.

County Commissioner Kate Dean then highlighted what comes next.

“I’ve always called Point Hudson the front porch of Port Townsend,” Dean said.

“Something I would love to talk about today, and I’ve spent a lot of time working on recently, is trying to better understand how we can best access the unprecedented federal funds that are available,” Dean continued, delving into the CHIPS Act and the maritime and “blue” economy.

“Is there a role for rural communities to be at the table in innovation around those issues?” Dean asked. “We have not figured out how to make economic development in rural economies work post-extractive industry and we want to be a great model of that, but we need some help.”

Cantwell’s reply moved the conversation in the direction of innovation.

“Where is your R&D capacity in this community? Where is it? You don’t have the access to that R&D capacity, yet there could be a brilliant R&D idea that could be executed here,” Cantwell replied as she named how CHIPS and the RECOMPETE Act could provide the money to help implement those new ideas.

Cantwell credited U.S. Representative Derek Kilmer for his work to fight for the RECOMPETE Act which was tailored to communities like the Olympic Peninsula which once had economies fueled by natural resources and now were becoming distressed as the labor market has shifted.

“We don’t want people not to be able to contribute on what could be great solutions just because they don’t have that R&D infrastructure to evaluate some of these ideas that might help transition your economy,” Cantwell said. “We’re saying that we get that you don’t even have the resources to do the evaluation, and so that’s the first step, to give you the resources to evaluate somethings.”

DWELLING ON DWELLINGS

Of course, even if new economic strategies were to be discovered, that would still leave the problem of finding workers to implement them.

Emma Bolin — Port Townsend’s new director for planning, permitting, and community development — brought up the city’s work on that problem with the Evans Vista project.

“We have, hopefully, federal appropriation for a sewer lift station that’s critical to serving the units. We could support so many more units if we can get that appropriation so we’re following the federal budget,” Bolin said.

Port Commissioner Carol Hasse said there was a need for just such affordable housing to maintain the maritime industry in the area.

“When they come out of the boat school, they’re ready to go work in the Boat Haven, but what they don’t have is affordable housing. That’s the big thing here,” Hasse said.

“I don’t know, Senator Cantwell, if you realize how Point Hudson is pretty much the only thing left on the Salish Sea that hasn’t been condominimized, turned into private sloughs, made a mockery of its former self. This is the heart of what the Salish Sea’s historic area was, so the protecting of it, bringing more people here, is, I feel, a vital thing to our community.”

Sarah Hanke, whose family was recently awarded the Wooden Boat Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award for their work in the maritime industry with their business Puget Sound Express, agreed.

“Every year everybody needs workers and it’s really hard to be able to pay a worker enough to get nothing for housing. And so we can’t compete at some point with what housing is going for here,” Hanke said.