Crescent Bar meeting Monday
File photo/Columbia Basin Herald<br> A view of Crescent Bar Island, on the Columbia River. Some residents have plans to manage the island as a nonprofit if Grant PUD renews a lease allowing them to live there. A meeting to share more ideas about the future of Crescent Bar is Monday in Ephrata.
EPHRATA — Monday is the public’s last chance to provide 3 minutes of verbal testimony about Grant PUD’s proposed shoreline management plan, or ideas about Crescent Bar’s Island’s future.
The day-long event is at PUD headquarters, 30 C St. S.W., Ephrata.
The utility is required by the requirements of its federal license to file a shoreline management plan with the Federal Energy Regulatory Comm-ission (FERC).
The FERC license allows the PUD to own and operate its Columbia River dams.
The plan guides shoreline use, some land use and planned recreation improvements within the PUD’s Priest Rapids Project.
Crescent Bar Island also is located within the Priest Rapids Project.
The Grant PUD lease allowing about 1,000 people to live on the island expires in 2012.
Commissioners are accepting comments about the future of Crescent Bar before they make a decision about renewing the lease “some months later,” according to the utility.
“A formal public hearing gives Grant County residents a voice on land use before the draft Shoreline Management Plan moves toward approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC),” Commission President Terry Brewer stated.
“We will also listen to public comments regarding their preference for the future of Crescent Bar Island. We take our responsibility to manage the Columbia River shorelines along the reservoirs created by Wanapum and Priest Rapids dams seriously and greatly appreciate the many written comments received to date.”
During the summer, Grant PUD Lands and Recreation staff met with a variety of groups during its outreach process, including several homeowners’ associations, Kittitas County commissioners, Mattawa Lions Club, Quincy Rotary, Grant County commissioners and Kittitas County commissioners, according to Dorothy Harris, a utility spokesperson.
PUD staff also appeared on Butch Bare’s morning radio show on KBSN and hosted a commercial building booth at the Grant County Fair.
Harris said she understands the PUD received less commentary on the draft Shoreline Management Plan and land use issues.
“Comments on Crescent Bar Island far outweigh these,” she stated. “Most comments on shoreline management voice support for the draft plan with a few providing specific land use suggestions.”
So far, written comments on Crescent Bar Island “range widely from those who would like to see a new lease with similar uses of the property to others who would like to see limited or no private use of the island,” she commented.
The deadline for written comments is Monday. They can be submitted either online, www.gcpud.org, via e-mail, commissioners@gcpud.org, or regular mail, P.O. Box 878, Ephrata, 98823.
For more information, visit www.gcpud.org/resources/resLandWater/shoreline.html.
Monday’s schedule
9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.: Sign in for speakers
10 a.m. to noon: Shoreline management plan hearing
1:15 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.: Crescent Bar island visioning
6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.: Expanded time for Shoreline Management Plan hearing
6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.: Expanded time for Crescent Bar island visioning