As many of you may know Langley’s City Council and staff met in a joint session with the So. Whidbey Port Commissioners and their staff on Oct. 3, 2011. At that meeting the council charged the City’s staff to begin conversations with the Port and their staff around the City becoming a partner with the Port for the Marina expansion. Both staffs have been busy simultaneously working on this task. Although a discussion of the Marina was not on this week’s agenda, the Mayor has agreed to call a special meeting once the two staffs have something to share that the Council could consider.

Meanwhile, many members of the Council have met individually with Port Commissioners and interested constituents to talk in further depth about the possibilities. I welcome the opportunity to talk to anyone in the community about the Marina, just call me: 221-8566 or 360-547-3352.

The questions I have posed to the Port Commissioners are:

• Would the Port be willing to partner with the City and/or private investors to add to the current plan for the Marina?

• What would a design for the Marina look like if the City became a viable financial partner with the Port and adding more borrowing capacity to the proposed plan?

• What would be possible if a private partnership could be brought on board as well as partnering with the City?

Both the City and Port staffs are wrestling with these questions and trying to see how the currently proposed plan could morph over time, how much investment money would be needed for different aspects of expansion, and how potential changes would effect the engineering costs and permits.

I want to let the public know the City is talking in earnest with the Port and no one is letting this drop, but instead working hard to see what the possibilities are if the City were to become partners in the Marina.

I for one am very interested in this option. I believe that the City Council can look at our budget and try to carve out the funds needed to be a viable partner if we feel this would be a prudent economic investment in our community. Its my feeling that investing in the Marina is a critically important important thing to do to help our economy in Langley. That said, I really would hate to get a bare bones plan in place with no immediate plans for expanding. If we are to rely solely on the Port, I worry that as soon as they finish the bare bones plan they will have other parts of Whidbey demanding attention and that will be the end of the expansion for many years to come. Permits have a life span of 3 years so if we want to add more we have to be working on it right now in order to not have enormous delays waiting all over again for permits.

Here are some things to consider:

KINGSTON has 45 slips that had 2100 nights filled in 2010
Poulsbo has 120 slips that had 6,001 nights
Port Orchard has 70
Port Ludlow has 60
Bremerton has 55
Brownsville has 25
Langley has 39 now & the new plan adds only 10 transient slips

Granted the new plan has the ability to host larger vessels which is great. But overnight guests at the Marina would in my mind be very important for Langley. If the larger vessels are on their way somewhere else or touring the likelihood of them staying for the day and or night is less than if an individual boat or yacht club comes for overnight. So I would like to see us find ways to add more substantial docks to what the Port has already proposed so we can gradually expand over time as well as add hospitality slips that would add to our overnight crowd.

So for those who were worried the Council is dilly dallying and trying to kill this project, nothing could be farther from the truth. I, and I am sure many of my fellow Council members are committed to working closely with the Port and our City staff to move the Marina forward.

Again feel free to contact me at: 221-8566 or 360-547-3352

Thank you for the opportunity to serve this community, Rene Neff