Dredge that sank last month is working fine again now

PORT OF ILWACO – Port of Ilwaco Manager Mack Funk has announced that four people have applied for a vacancy on the port’s board of commissioners. Jim Stiebritz announced his resignation from the commission last month, effective Jan. 1.

The applicants are Chuck McNeill, owner of Doupes Hardware in Ilwaco; Richard Siefert, a retired Weyerhaeuser Co. employee; Milt Gudgell, owner of Pacific Salmon Charters; and Don Sheldon, who has owned Doc’s Tavern in Ocean Park for 28 years.

Commissioners Frank Unfred and Dick Watrous will interview the applicants in mid-December and make their decision by the end of the year.

The port was featured in a six-page spread in Sea magazine’s June issue.

The commission approved sending Funk to a three-day marina management course at the University of Wisconsin next October. He said he had received a scholarship for the $845 tuition and asked approval by commissioners for travel and lodging funds.

“This is a good opportunity for me to meet others in the industry so we can communicate if we have a problem or need,” Funk commented. “It’s a small investment for what we will get back,” Stiebritz said.

Funk reported that the port’s dredge, which sank last month, began operating and again on Nov. 4.

“It’s working better than ever,” he said. A local businessman has asked the port’s permission to haul away dredge materials for fill on property he has purchased north of Ilwaco, Funk said. Commissioners will consider the request.

“If we don’t get rid of it, we’ll have to pay to have it hauled away,” Watrous said.

The port’s six-year-old waterfront master plan needs an update, Funk said. He said a grant agency is requiring the update before they will consider awarding a grant. Public meetings will be necessary on the update and a local person will be sought to complete the work.

“There have been lots of changes in six years,” Stiebritz remarked. Commissioners will discuss the proposal at their next meeting Nov. 29. “We need to get the whole community involved in this,” Funk said.

A brush-clearing project at the east end of the airport’s runway has been completed, Funk reported, and the port has been 90 percent reimbursed for the work. The next big project at the airport is re-paving the runway, and Funk said he wants to hire a local engineer for the planning work as well as for designing hangars at the facility.

Commissioners again discussed the problem of abandoned boat trailers at the port and possibly charging for trailer parking.

Funk said the port has been asked by the Pacific County Friends of Lewis and Clark to be the lead agency in a proposal to bring a keelboat and a pirogue from St. Louis next November. The vessels could be moored at the port for two to three weeks. “The Ilwaco Merchants Association wants to do this,” he said. “It will bring people here.”