EVERETT — Logs and rootballs swept along by the flooding Snohomish River caused as much as $80,000 damage to the dock used to bring visitors to Jetty Island off the city’s waterfront, Port of Everett officials said.
The Port of Everett commission declared an emergency Tuesday so that the agency could hire someone to fix the dock immediately rather than spend time seeking construction bids.
The port’s Scott Grindy said the dock was jammed with “a massive amount” of trees and stumps that destroyed a floating dock segment, pushed over a support piling and also silted up an area that had been dredged just two years ago to improve navigation.
Port director John Mohr said port employees did great work to remove much of the debris prior to a minus tide. “If it (the low tide) had occurred, it would have destroyed the entire dock,” he said.
Mohr said the repairs need to be done soon to ensure that boaters can use the island and that the city’s annual summer recreation program there can continue in 2009.
He noted underwater work is typically not allowed between Feb. 15 through September to help protect juvenile salmon, which migrate into the saltwater during that period. He said the dredge work and the repairs to the dock and damaged pilings need to be done before mid-February and then a new dock section can be built on land and added later.
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