By Barbara Clark, bclark@kitsapsun.com
September 17, 2005

Kitsap and Mason county leaders came together Friday to envision how the long-dormant corridor between Gorst and Belfair could function as a residential, commercial/industrial and recreational area in a couple of decades.

The meeting at Selah Inn on Hood Canal was hosted by the Port of Bremerton and attended by about 60 people. It had been planned for a few months, but most of the diverse projects outlined have been in the works for years. The event attempted to paint an overall picture of how the two counties' adjacent rural areas can deal with expected growth.

Port CEO Ken Attebery was buoyed by the reaction the event received from county commissioners, Port of Allyn officials, city managers and at least one South Kitsap property owner, among others. Legislators and U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks were invited, but the only one able to attend was state Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, who also is a Mason County commissioner.

The program, "Estuary to Estuary: Hood Canal to Sinclair Inlet , a Recreation and Employment Corridor Briefing," covered everything from sewer systems to transportation to the potential for a looped walking trail encompassing both Gorst and Belfair.

The end result was sort of a call to arms: Keep meeting, keep talking and, most important, come up with a set of goals that can be accomplished.

"Our family tried to take the lead with Mason County in developing some plans," said David Overton, whose property just inside the Kitsap line is proposed as the site of a NASCAR track. He alluded to a Highway 3 Belfair bypass route that became derailed, in part, due to a "transition in leadership." He said a two-county effort would require a "visionary document" that "the next generation of leaders" could follow.

Sheldon said the bypass received state funding this year only because the groundwork for it was "on the books."

"You have to go from project to project to project," he said. "But what we leave out sometimes is the importance of the individual taxpayer. You have to take a hard look at that (in planning)."

Even good plans will fail, agreed Kitsap Commissioner Chris Endresen, "if the community doesn't share the vision."

Port commissioner Bill Mahan asked that the professionals who presented briefings volunteer to meet with a smaller citizen group to discuss their individual efforts and "get back within a short period of time."

One speaker, Pat McCullough, president of Engineering Services Associates and Selah Inn owner, described a proposal in Belfair that he said would recover a portion of water-cleansing salt marsh.

He later said the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group and Pacific Northwest Salmon Center have applied for a $500,000 Salmon Recovery Funding Board grant to buy and restore some 40 acres adjacent to the Theler wetlands trails. Another piece of the existing farm could become the future site of the PNWSC, an interpretive and research center, he said.

Other speakers were Peter Battuello and Jeff Peacock of Parametrix Engineering, on the effort to bring Gorst into water quality compliance and improve the tidelands; McCullough and Joe Simmler of Otak, on Lower Hood Canal water quality and salmon enhancement; Lisa Berntsen, GEO Engineers, who discussed potential wetlands trails and associated recreational opportunities in the corridor; Dave Reynolds of CH2M Hill and John Poppe of Karcher Creek Sewer District, who addressed sewage treatment options; and Loren Sand of Perteet Engineering and Port of Bremerton, on Highway 3 improvements along the corridor and through Belfair.

From the pages of the Kitsap Sun, September 17, 2005