Coast Guard outpost to remain

Associated Press

LAPUSH — A Coast Guard station at the mouth of the Quillayute River will remain open after all, partly because of five recent deaths near this coastal hamlet, agency officials have decided.

A proposal to close the remote outpost in July to cut costs "has been eliminated as an option for the immediate future," Adm. James M. Loy , the Coast Guard commandant, said in a statement released Wednesday by Sen. Patty Murray.

Capt. Carl Bromund, the agency’s district readiness planner in Seattle, said "the first thing on our minds" in the decision was the loss of four Eastern Washington men whose 17-foot Boston Whaler capsized Aug. 30 off Little James Island, less than a mile from the station. Three bodies have been recovered and the fourth remains missing and is presumed dead.

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Eight days earlier, a Seattle man died when his 28-foot boat lost anchor and was dashed on the rocks around the island.

"We want to make sure we are doing everything we can to prevent future deaths," Bromund said. "We want to look at the recent incidents hard and identify what can be done so they don’t happen again."

Forks Mayor Phil Arbeiter and City Attorney-Planner Rod Fleck, who learned of the reprieve Wednesday while heading for Washington, D.C., said they would ask Coast Guard officials and members of Congress to make the decision permanent.

The Quillayute River station, established in 1929, is responsible for a 45-mile stretch of the Pacific coast between Queets, about 45 miles north of Hoquiam, and Cape Alava, near Ozette,

Coast Guard officials said last summer the shutdown proposal was based on a review that indicated marine risks were increasing along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the north side of the Olympic Peninsula, and declining around LaPush.

The equipment and 26 personnel now assigned to LaPush would have been transferred to Coast Guard stations at Neah Bay, Port Angeles and Port Townsend.