Harney View Dock History
The Harney View neighborhood was created in 1979. Our dock was built by the original developers, and was an integral part of our neighborhood from its beginning.
On Saturday, August 8, 2020, Roland Hachee noticed damage to one of the two steel pilings that anchor our dock’s float. This allowed the float to swing with the tide and wakes, and made the ramp unsafe. The dock was immediately closed, and the ramp and float were later removed.
We retained Jen-Jay, the premier water-structures consultant on the island, to conduct an underwater survey and advise us on next steps. Jen-Jay determined that the steel pilings, which were only 18 years old, had rusted through prematurely. The pilings were epoxy coated, a material that was commonly used at the time but that has proven to be subject to early failure. Jen-Jay also surveyed the creosote wood pilings supporting our pier, and determined that they remain sound.
Budgets meet regulations
On January 16, 2021, we held a special members’ meeting to discuss the future of the dock. Based on advice from Jen-Jay, we estimated the total cost for consultants, permits and repairs to be $90,000. To cover this expense, the members overwhelmingly approved, by a vote of 21 to 1, a Special Assessment for Dock Repair and Improvements of $385 per lot per year, assessed annually for 6 years. Following this vote, we put a contract in place for the repair work, and we had hopes of accomplishing the repair in February 2021. All that we needed was final approval from the Army Corp of Engineers.
Unfortunately, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) objected to our Army Corps permit. NMFS based their objection on an unforeseen, newly-instituted NMFS policy that repair projects in the Salish Sea must provide mitigation similar to that required for the construction of new marine facilities. In our case, NMFS required that we mitigate the float’s shading impact on the sparse eel grass over the 40-year useful life of the new pilings.
This new mitigation requirement blew our original budget. On June 26, 2021, a majority of the members voted to increase the dock assessment to allow the repairs to proceed, but the vote was less than the 2/3rds needed to approve a special assessment.
This was followed by a “Plan B” effort to create a voluntary dock association of members who would pay the dock repair costs, in exchange for the exclusive right to use the dock. This effort foundered after some members objected to various aspects of the proposal.
Enter Suzie Holte
Suzie and her family have been part of our community for nearly 30 years, and she could not imagine our losing the dock. Suzie launched a donation drive and soon raised enough contributions from our members to cover the increased cost. Showing broad support for our community dock, we received voluntary donations from over 75% of our members, as follows:
| Member | Contribution |
|---|---|
| Abrahamson, Scott & Cindy | $7,500 |
| Crowe, Gordon & Maureen | $7,500 |
| Lind, Anne | $7,500 |
| Thieme, Dan & Carla | $7,500 |
| Bloxom, Jack & Connie | $5,000 |
| Griswold, Sheppard & Janet | $5,000 |
| Holte, Suzi and Brian | $5,000 |
| Jenkins, Jim & Beverly | $5,000 |
| Retief, Jacques | $5,000 |
| Schulman, Alan & Mary | $5,000 |
| Thompson, Wendy | $5,000 |
| Zukin, James & Hellen | $5,000 |
| Harboe, Ellen | $3,000 |
| Holtzman, Doug and Holly, Nguyen | $2,500 |
| Glass, Gail | $2,000 |
| Hachee, Roland & Alice | $2,000 |
| Andrew, Stewart & Cynthia | $1,000 |
| Blake, Russell & Jacqueline | $1,000 |
| Carrasco, Ken & Mariann | $1,000 |
| Hagans, Elizabeth Griot | $1,000 |
| Jarecki, Diane | $1,000 |
| Palmer, Claire | $1,000 |
| Quinn, Jeff & Mary | $1,000 |
| Russell, Dave & Hazel | $1,000 |
With this additional funding in hand, we submitted an amended permit application to the Army Corp on December 21, 2021. To address NMFS’ new mitigation requirement, our application proposed to (a) purchase and install a new, grated float to allow light penetration, and (b) pay $21,600 to the Puget Sound Partnership to purchase mitigation credits.
Dock repairs were delayed for a year due to permit issues, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cleared repairs to proceed on March 2, 2022. Wooden pier repairs and new dock float construction have been completed.