Grant PUD discusses Crescent Bar tonight

QUINCY — Crescent Bar residents, boaters and others who use Priest Rapids Project land for recreation can start learning more at 7 p.m. tonight about Grant County PUD’s draft shoreline management plan.

The plan is required by the PUD’s new license to own and operate its Columbia River dams.

The plan also provides land use guidance on the Priest Rapids Project, said Kelly Larimer, the utility’s lands and recreation manager.

Tonight’s meeting at the Quincy Community Center, 115 F St. S.W., gives residents a chance to hear presentations about the plan and Crescent Bar.

Crescent Bar Island is of particular concern to some because the Grant PUD lease, which allows people to live there, expires in 2012.

Then after the presentations, there’s time to ask questions at information stations, Larimer explained.

People can submit written comments about the plan and their thoughts about Crescent Bar via e-mail and regular mail. The deadline for comments is Sept. 14.

At the Sept. 14 PUD commission meeting, there will be an opportunity for people to provide public testimony about the plan and Crescent Bar, said Dorothy Harris, a utility spokesperson.

Also at Crescent Bar, the PUD is also talking about raising the water surrounding the island in response to the state Department of Ecology’s request for additional water storage. Raising the water would flood part of the trailer park on the island.

No decisions have been made about Crescent Bar’s lease or water raise, but it was required by the plan to include improvements as the property is within the shoreline management area.

People have started writing commissioners about their concerns regarding Crescent Bar.

Quincy resident George Nutter wrote that “Crescent Bar was a wonderful place for families to enjoy the water and area. As time and development took over the ‘Bar,’ the locals were slowly squeezed out until today there is very little if any open area for the ‘public’ to enjoy this diamond in the desert,” according to public documents obtained by the Columbia Basin Herald.

Crescent Bar homeowner Mary Vandehey stated her main concern is how many people live there full-time.

“There are several families who live there full-time. They would be homeless,” she wrote.

Vandehey stated she would be “more than willing to work with the county to make it (the island) more public usable.”

Bonnie and Al Schroder of Quincy sent a letter to commissioners that they sent to newspapers.

In the letter, they told commissioners “you have an opportunity here to right a grievous wrong that was done to the permanent residents of Grant County. Return this gem that is Crescent Bar to the public — and rate payers — that you serve.”

On the other end of the spectrum, some Crescent Bar homeowners have a plan to run the island as a nonprofit operation.

When formed, the residents’ group would partner with the PUD and have a charter including “substantially enhancing public access and recreation at Crescent Bar,”  according to resident Doug Caton, who spoke to the Columbia Basin Herald in May.

Aside from land uses, the PUD is required by its new license to upgrade project facilities with new boat launches, new trails and make improvements to restrooms and day use parks.

“I think people have a say in what our priorities are, or what they want to see early on based on their interest,” Larimer said in May.

Comments can be submitted online at Grant PUD’s Web site at www.gcpud.org/resources/resLandWater/smp.html or by mail at Grant PUD Lands and Recreation Department, P.O. Box 878, Ephrata, 98823, ATTN: SMP Comments.

A draft version of the shoreline management plan can be found online at www.gcpud.org/resources/resLandWater/shoreline.html.

Find the heading “Land and Water” on the left hand side of the Web site and click on “Shoreline Management Plan (Draft).”

Also, for more information, people can call 509-754-0500 or e-mail lands@gcpud.org.

The remaining shoreline management plan meetings all start at 7 p.m. and are set for:

• June 9, Grant PUD commission room, 30 C St. S.W., Ephrata,

• June 25, Mattawa Elementary School, 400 N. Boundary Road, Mattawa,

• July 9, Grant PUD’s Moses Lake office (auditorium), 312 W. Third Ave., Moses Lake.