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Subject: Bush Point Boat Launching Ramp
As a 23 year resident of Bush Point and owner of a business for 21 years at Bush Point I think it is time to get some facts straight.
The Boat Launch project was put into play and funding for this project was designed and brought into fruition with the help of many in the community.
The important thing for all concerned citizens to remember is that the approximately $579,000 I.A.C. Grant (funded by gas tax revenue by boaters) is very specific. It is for the use of boaters, for building boat launch facilities. It does not include piers, parks or other ancillary projects related to the boat launch. There is no trade off! The money is to build the launch ramp, provide parking and restroom facilities. Any other, i.e. pier, park, etc., is only if there is money left over after the launch is built.
Any groups lobbying for this project are making things difficult for the port of South Whidbey and the Washington State Department of Fisheries Engineering Department by putting forth their own agendas first.
This grant money is specifically designated to build the launch ramp, period! Let the people who want anything else stop muddying the waters. The people of Bush Point and the citizens of Whidbey Island want their money spent properly and quickly on the launch so we can go fishing, and most certainly do not want a fishing pier in conjunction with the boat launching ramp project.
There are miles of public access in the Keystone area with plenty of parking for fishing off the beach for the same fish that pass Bush Point. That is where they should fish, not Bush Point, with its limited access and private tidelands.
A pier is totally incompatible with a launch ramp at this location as 80% of the current flow at this spot is from the NE to the SW. A pier would prohibit coming into the dock at the ramp site safely. Anyone who every launched on the old railway cart system should know this.
I have in my possession the I.A.C. Boating Facilities Program Plan of March 1995. Anyone interested enough to know the real facts behind all the misinformation being put out by pier and beach fishermen should read this! It says nothing about fishing from the beach or a fishing pier. It is about boat launching facilities.
Contact the Interagency Committee for Outdoor Recreation, P.O. Box 40917, Olympia, WA 98504-0917 for a copy.
--Lawrence K. Schneider
Bush Point
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