City nixes $475,000 grant, Waterfront Park may be up for transfer

Published 4:37 pm Thursday, April 9, 2009

By TAD SOOTER and SEAN ROACH

Staff Writers

The city’s crown-jewel Waterfront Park could be in park district control sooner than expected.

On Thursday, the city confirmed it would return a $475,000 Aquatic Lands Enhancement Account (ALEA) grant that would have paid for a shoreline restoration and trail improvement project at the park. The city would have had to muster $700,000 to match the grant.

The shoreline project was one of two major complications that need to be resolved before the property could be transferred to the Bainbridge Metropolitan Park and Recreation District. The city still must decide whether it wants to hand over the Bainbridge Island Senior Community Center Property as part of the package.

Waterfront Park is set to be included in a long-planned transfer of open-space properties from the city to the park district that will begin this year. City Administrator Mark Dombroski said the city is in the midst of categorizing the roughly 170 acres of city land being considered for transfer.

Parks that are rife with complication – primarily Waterfront Park, Pritchard Park and Strawberry Plant Park – have been set aside for special attention.

“Waterfront Park was to be handled separately, because of the senior center there,” Dombroski said. “I don’t see it necessarily as a fast-track item. It’s a large property and it’s complicated by a lot of issues.”

Removal of the ALEA grant will kill a city project that would have removed bulkheads, restored shoreline and rerouted trail networks in Waterfront Park. It’s not yet clear whether the park district would carry through with any elements of the project.

“I am disappointed because it is a really good project, but considering the financial situation I’m not surprised,” said Kelly Dickson, the lead city planner on the park revitalization project.

But not all are be sad to see the work stalled.

“That was seen as a controversial project,” said Council Chair Kjell Stoknes. “It would have removed a seawall which would have removed trees. We didn’t object to stopping it.”

The ALEA grant was received in October 2007, and would have expired in 2010 if it were not used.

But an uncertain funding strategy and uncertainty over how the city’s finances will hold up through 2009 and into 2010 led to the city administration recommending refunding the grant.

“We would have to do some sort of debt in 2010 to finish that project,” Dombroski said. “And there are questions of managing all the (debt) interest and completing that project.”

According to Dombroski, the city could save roughly $75,000 this year, and over $580,000 next year by scrapping the project.

Thus far, roughly $40,000 of the ALEA grant has been spent, which the city will have to repay.

To some council members, the ALEA grant is an example of grant-driven culture at the city.

“Grant acquisition is setting policy at the city,” council member Debbie Vancil said. “Grants are not always positive, there is a downside. They can reprioritize our projects and they can play havoc with a budget.”

Of the city’s major capital projects over the next two years, most of the big ticket items have grants attached to them, from the Blakely non-motorized project, to the ever-contentious Winslow Way reconstruction project which has about $6 million in grant money attached to it.

“On the face of it, ALEA is a good thing, it looks like free money,” Vancil said. “But they come with costs.”

Park District Executive Director Terry Lande said the transfer of Waterfront Park would be simpler if the improvement project were scuttled.

But the bigger question is whether the city wants to keep the senior center. The park district already staffs the facility.

“Whatever way works easiest for them – it’s in the city’s court,” Lande said. “We can go either way with it.”

The entity that ends up with the center may have to facilitate its expansion.

Plans rebuild the center have been in the works for several years and the city has bonded $250,000 to pay for 30 percent designs for the new building. That money has not been spent.

The possible transfer has raised many questions about the future of the expansion project, senior center President Tom Kilbane said.

“The city has the right to give the property to the park district,” Kilbane said. “We don’t question that. The senior center is concerned as to what the park district’s plans would be.”