Nasty surprises in Moore Clark cleanup

The rats are gone, but it turns out the mountain of refuse left at the site of the 115-year-old grain warehouse on La Conner’s south end waterfront was just the mess on the surface.

Triton America, which is working to cure the horrendous eyesore that is the historic Moore-Clark property, found “a lot buried under there,” said Triton Chief Financial Officer and Controller Ron Halterman.

The junk in the ground included busted concrete and old creosote poles and other hazardous materials, he said. Halterman estimates that the cost of the cleanup has gone up to $135,000 — much higher than the original estimate of $80,000.

Triton, which also owns Pioneer Point Marina south of the Rainbow Bridge, bought the three-acre Moore-Clark parcel two years ago to pull it out of foreclosure for La Conner Associates, which had been trying to develop it for 15 years.

Triton leased the property back to La Conner Associates principal Vaughn Jolley to give him another two years to get his project off the ground. Meanwhile, Jolley continued leasing the property to Alpac Components, a manufacturer of walls for buildings. The town shut down Alpac’s operation last May, after issuing a third stop work order over the company’s failure to haul its trash away.

Two years ago, Triton paid $2.34 million for the property, paid up three years in back taxes and about $80,000 in excise taxes when it purchased the land.

Triton took control of the property in April, when Jolly’s lease expired. This month Triton has had refuse hauled from the site by semi truck loads.

So far, one of the buildings on the property has been found to be savable, Halterman said. A building at the Third and Caledonia streets is being renovated now.

And the company still has hopes of saving the house on the property, the concrete refrigeration building next to Maple Hall and the big waterfront warehouse built in 1898, he said.

A prominent feature on La Conner’s waterfront, “big blue,” as the old warehouse is known to people who can remember when it had paint, has been crumbling and decaying.

Now it is empty and trash free for the first time in years, but its fate is uncertain until a structural engineer who’s experienced in saving old warehouses similar to this one examines it later this week and gives a prognosis.

In the next week or so, we’ll know if “big blue” will pull through.

“We will save it if we can,” Halterman said.