Quincy shoreline meeting attracts hundreds

QUINCY — About 240 people filled the Quincy Community Center to hear how Grant County PUD’s shoreline management plan could affect their lives, their neighbors’ lives or impact recreation within the Priest Rapids Project and Crescent Bar.

There are two groups possibly affected by the plan when it’s adopted by the end of the year: between 80,000 to 100,000 tourists who use project shorelines and water, and an unknown number of shoreline landowners in the Sunland Estates and Desert Aire areas, according to figures provided by Grant PUD.

The shoreline management plan is currently in draft form and is being publicly reviewed and unveiled during workshops this summer.

The plan is required by the utility’s new federal license to own and operate its power-producing dams.

Residents of the Grand County PUD owned Crescent Bar Island on the Columbia River are worried about a related issue, the renewal of a lease that allows about 1,000 summertime residents to live there and between 50 to 75 people to reside there year-round.

The lease between Grant PUD and the Port of Quincy expires in 2012.

During the Thursday night meeting in Quincy, presenter Lisa Parks explained the past, present and future of Crescent Bar Island.

She said a large portion of the island is developed and designated for private use.

But the purpose of the original 1962 lease entailed a mutual obligation to promote development for public recreational uses, manage property for the highest and best public uses and be responsible to the public and to Grant County taxpayers, according to the presentation.

Since then, Parks said the PUD heard the following ideas for Crescent Bar, such as:

• Issuing a new lease to maintain existing private use and improve public access

• Developing a hydro-park

• Opening a request for proposals

• Or a combination of all of the above

Kelly Larimer, the utility’s lands and resource manager, said 55 plans and reports are required by the license.

There are a lot of exciting things coming in the recreation area, she explained.

The license requires the PUD to upgrade facilities with new boat launches, new trails and make improvements to restrooms and day-use parks.

After the presentation, Crescent Bar resident Marian Lucas said she would like to see unused land be utilized for public use. Residents take up 37 percent of the island, she claimed.

Linder said she would like to see more public restrooms and refuge containers on the island.

Crescent Bar resident Margaret Linder said the public is needed, but residents are better stewards of the island.

Linder also said everyone in Quincy had the opportunity to buy a lot in the 1970s and development was allowed to occur, she pointed out.

Susan Lacy, of Quincy, said her family’s home overlooks Crescent Bar and they know a lot of people there. She’s interested in hearing the different opinions, she said.

Susan’s husband, Ken Lacy, said he would like to see increased public access to the Crescent Bar beach area. He wants to take his grandchildren there to play. The private interests gained tight control and squeezed the public out, he claimed.

“The PUD needs to fix this,” Ken Lacy commented.

He claimed the public beach area is rocky because the private interests didn’t want it.

Crescent Bar resident Bob Linder is retired and lives on the island full-time.

“The lease could answer all my questions and solve all my problems,” Linder said. “Now the uncertainty is as bad as anything.”

Crescent Bar resident Aldene Duchscherer said she is also concerned about the lease. She lives on the island with her husband, but there are between 13 to 16 widows and widowers there too.

“This would be very hard on them to be moved,” Duchscherer commented.

The community brings a great deal of money to the area through tax revenue, she claimed.

Another aspect is how the plan could impact approximately 180 existing permits on Grant PUD-owned land for irrigation, landscaping and other uses, Dorothy Harris, a utility spokesperson, said on Friday.

They are similar to temporary use permits and they will need to be re-evaluated on a case-by-case basis if the draft shoreline management plan is finalized with this wording, she said.

Harris encourages people to attend a Sept. 14 commission workshop where there will be time for public comment.

But at this time, the utility needs written comments, she said.

Written comments can be submitted between now and the Sept. 14 deadline by visiting www.gcpud.org.

Thursday’s meeting in Quincy was the first of four planned this summer throughout Grant County.

The next workshop is 7 p.m. Tuesday at Grant County PUD commission headquarters in Ephrata, at 30 C St. S.W.