The Port of Grays Harbor has received a $50,000 grant from the Washington State Community Economic Revitalization Board for the Westport Marina Modernization Project Plan, which aims to replace the marina’s float infrastructure and help support the state’s major commercial seafood landing port in the coming years.
The money, which the port plans to augment with an additional $30,000, is expected to fund the plan’s efforts for improving the marina with an updated float design, layout and configuration plan, consolidating and refurbishing assets and other related work.
The marina is a longtime base for tribal, commercial, charter and recreational fishing in the region, with activities from the marina and the uplands generating almost 2,300 jobs and more than $227 million annually in rural Southwest Washington, according to the port.
Over the last 10 years, more than $9 million has been spent improving the marina’s old infrastructure, including reconstructing the bank line, stabilizing the breakwater and dredging the marina for the first time in four decades, the port said. Float replacement is the next phase of improvements.
“We are very grateful CERB chose to once again partner with the port to ensure this important initial planning step is accomplished as a critical piece of the large marina modernization project,” said Port Commissioner Tom Quigg, adding that the plan “is so vital to helping us strategize as we look to leverage funding opportunities and minimize impacts to marina users as improvements are made.”