Boardwalk celebration draws a crowd

Close to 100 people turned out for the ribbon-cutting celebrating the completion of the first phase of La Conner’s boardwalk, the dedication of a little park and pergola named for Fred Martin, and the start of the next phase that will take the waterfront feature the rest of the way through town.

Elected officials and local dignitaries gathered on May 28 and patted each other on the back for their roles in a project aimed at boosting the local economy.

“All of Skagit County is going to benefit from this boardwalk,” said La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes standing before the crowd of business owners, former mayors, port, county and state officials.

Absent from the ceremony were former state Senator Mary Margaret Haugen and Senator Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor, whose work to secure a total of $2.35 million in state funding to pay for the boardwalk made the project possible.

For decades, visions of travel magazines with words like “stroll along the boardwalk,” “meander along the Swinomish Channel,” and “perambulate past boardwalk shops” danced in the heads of elected officials and shop owners alike like sugarplums at Christmas.

Town Administrator John Doyle and Mayor Hayes trolled the corridors of the state capitol for years during the “great recession” lobbying legislators for funding to build the boardwalk.

They found one door after another closed until they walked into the office of then Senator Mary Margaret Haugen.

“Mary Margaret Haugen was the only one that championed our cause and really got support from her fellow legislators and got funding for the first phase… she was very, very supportive,” said Doyle. Due to her efforts, $750,000 was added to the state’s capital budget to fund the first phase of the boardwalk completed in December.

While that project was underway, Hayes and Doyle traveled to Olympia again, seeking another $750,000 for the next phase — which would have brought the boardwalk mid-way into the retail section.

This time, they had all three 10th District legislators backing them including Reps. Norma Smith, R-Clinton, and Dave Hayes, R-Camano Island.

Then Sen. Bailey said they should ask for enough to finish the whole thing, Mayor Hayes said. “She was adamant. It was important to her, and us, to have a complete project, maybe not to the south part of town, but to the Calico Cupboard, tying into the retail sector,” he said.

So the state agreed to fund $1.6 million to finish the boardwalk this year.

The grant includes the cost of removing creosote pilings and decking material that will allow sunlight to filter in, encouraging natural vegetation — some main reasons the project was funded.

“This project shows that doing what’s right for the environment and the economy is not mutually exclusive. We can have both,” said Rep. Hayes, who attended the dedication

The pergola in the new little waterfront park at the end of Washington Street was designed by architect Bo Miller and paid for by the Rotary Club of La Conner.

The Rotarians were on hand to dedicate the park to Fred Martin, who was the town’s pharmacist for some 50 years and a former Mayor and one of the club’s first members.

Family members of La Conner’s boardwalk pioneer Don Olson were also present for the dedication. Olson developed the section of boardwalk north of Morris Street in the mid-90s.

Don, a unique character, understood the nature and atmosphere of La Conner that we are trying to hold onto and preserve as a tourist destination,” said Doyle.

The town anticipates that work on the next phase of the boardwalk, which will take it south from the Lighthouse building to the Calico Cupboard, will begin in mid-July.