Port gets approval letter to apply for study grant

The Port of Whitman County received a letter recently, informing them the Port has been accepted “to apply to plan” for a study grant to replace the docks at Boyer Marina, reported Executive Director Joe Poiré.

This letter follows a series of public meetings conducted in February to determine the needs at the marina. Once those meetings were concluded, the Port sent that information to the State Department of Recreation Water Resources to be considered for a study grant.

“This means we are now qualified to apply for a study grant,” Poiré said, adding the application would be sent in this summer and the Port would find out about the grant in November. “We'll turn that in this fall, and if awarded, we would be awarded to plan.”

That funding, which Poiré said would be available next July, would allow the Port to complete a year-long study into the docks at the marina.

“And then you apply for your construction based off the study grant,” Poiré explained. “In July of 2019, we could be awarded funding to replace the docks.”

Poiré said he is “pacing” himself, knowing the project is still a while off , but there are a number of things to accomplish first.

“We're looking at construction in February 2020, or 2019 if everything just went wham-bam,” he said. “We will be working on it for years. It's just an intricate thing.”

Poiré explained the marina project would be for replacing the docks and upgrading things such as electrical, water and lighting there.

“The docks are coming to end of life,” he said. “They're 25, 30 years old.”

He said the docks can be maintained in the meantime, but when it is time to replace them, everything will go.

“There's nothing reusable,” he said. “I picture somebody pulling out the pilings, hauling them and new ones being put in the water.”

Poiré said at the Port meeting last week the project to replace the docks will likely be around $2 million. He also said the Port is completing the application as a planning process so that funding, if approved, comes through when the docks are ready for replacement.

“Now we've got to write the whole application to see if we can get approved for funding,” he said. “It's all part of the process. We apply to apply.”