Recreation improvement plan presented to PUD board

EPHRATA — After more than four years of off-and-on work, Grant County PUD commissioners received a draft plan for recreation improvements at Crescent Bar at the regular meeting Tuesday.

Public lands and recreation manager Shannon Lowry also reported the boat launch at Crescent Bar should be repaired and ready for use by March 1. The PUD removed gas tanks next to the boat launch, requiring some repairs.

Lowry said approving a recreation plan doesn’t mean construction work will begin anytime soon, or even this year. The plan is subject to approval from the Federal Regulatory Energy Commission, and PUD officials have been waiting for FERC consideration since October. There’s no indication when the FERC board will consider the PUD’s application. The work does have to start relatively soon, she added, or the PUD could be in danger of missing its federal license requirements.

The planned improvements include better walking trails, swim beaches, picnic areas and day-use areas both on the island and along the shore, and improvements to the boat launches on the shore and the island, as well as the on-island marina. Cost estimates in the draft plan are $29.1 million for work on the island, and about $12.3 million for the shoreline work, said Chuck Allen, PUD public information specialist. "We're in the preliminary design stages and those numbers likely will be modified as we get closer to a final plan," Allen said.

The nine-hole golf course will stay, at least for now. Board member Terry Brewer asked if retaining the golf course now meant the PUD was committed to keep it permanently. Lowry said the PUD could remove it later if circumstances change, and the whole rec plan will be reviewed and revised as necessary.

But the first step is FERC approval. The FERC board has the shoreline part of the plan, but not the entire plan. So PUD officials will submit the whole plan once it’s approved.

The application is subject to review for 30 days, and people and organizations can file objections, called interventions. There are interventions attached to the current plan, but Lowry said most of those are addressed in the draft plan. Probably new interventions will be filed when the new plan is submitted, she added.

Commissioners also discussed but didn’t come to a conclusion about fire protection at Crescent Bar. The land is in Grant County Fire District No. 3, and the district had a fire truck at Crescent Bar in an existing building that’s being torn down as part of the recreation improvements.

Commissioner Tom Flint said fire district commissioners had asked him about the PUD contributing to the cost of a new fire station. The fire station was discussed at a recent meeting of the island leaseholders association, the Grant County fire marshal, PUD and fire district officials. Among the options discussed was a Local Improvement District (LID), which would assess the leaseholders. The cost of a new fire station is estimated at $1 million to $1.3 million, and fire district officials said they have access to about $400,000. Flint said fire district officials said they could offer a bond to fire district voters for the rest, but they don’t know if a bond would be approved.

Commissioner Larry Schaapman said he was concerned the PUD would set a precedent if it got involved in building a fire station. He explained he would prefer the fire district explore other options first.

The current water system also is inadequate to fight fires, Lowry said, which is something planners must take into account when upgrading the system. Leaseholders on the island and PUD officials reached agreement in a longstanding dispute in April, and upgrades of the water and wastewater treatment systems were among the settlement terms. The leaseholders will pay 90 percent of the cost.