By Sue Waldburger

Enterprise reporter

With her international business sense, love of sailing and cheerleader-like zeal for Edmonds, Marianne Burkhart appears to be a logical choice for president of the Port of Edmonds Board of Commissioners.

Burkhart, 60, assumes leadership of the five-member governing board as she begins the final year of her first, four-year term as a commissioner. Serving with her are Mary Lou Block, Bruce Faires, Fred Gouge and Jim Orvis.

The oversize flower pots dotting the Port’s waterfront promenade may be filled with a variety of blooms, but everything’s coming up roses, in Burkhart’s estimation, for the Port in 2007. Strategic planning that’s poised to pay off is key to the Port’s bright future, she noted. Both she and the other commissioners have big plans and expectations for the popular public amenity in 2007.

“This is a very exciting time for the Port … In 2006, we purchased five of the buildings in Harbor Square where we already owned the land. Next year we will begin making improvements to the landscaping and buildings to ensure that the tenants in Harbor Square have a quality experience and to protect the public’s investment,” she said. “We will also begin a three-year process of improving the landscaping of the Port property west of the railroad tracks …”

Burkhart said another priority this year is stepping up the Port’s preventative-maintenance program for the marina, which recently was named Marina of the Year by Marina Dock Age magazine.

“We are convinced we can lengthen the life of our infrastructure through preventive maintenance, thus holding down costs on the big ticket items,” said Burkhart, who is both a sailor and marina tenant.

Intent on giving marina tenants more bang for their buck, Burkhart said the Port plans to make WiFi available throughout the marina and give tenants the option of paying their bills by credit card.

This year the Port will complete an update of its master plan and Burkhart said the process already has begun in the Harbor Square area. “When a private party had a long-term lease on the … property, we had no control over its future,” she explained. “Now it makes sense for us to develop a vision for what it will look like in 15 or 25 or 50 years. We are working with the owners of the Harbor Inn, Harbor Square Athletic Club, the old Safeway property and Skipper’s restaurant to develop a master plan for a key, underutilized area of Edmonds that could be important for economic development and linking the waterfront with the downtown.”

Although redevelopment will not happen in the near future, she added, “we will have a plan in place when the time is right.”

Noting that a big chunk of the Port’s business is pleasure, Burkhart said the Port soon will be going out to bid for construction of a public plaza between Anthony’s restaurant and the guest moorage area. “We are a favorite walking route for the public and we plan to become next year a favorite place to congregate.”

Burkhart, the eldest of six children, is no stranger to challenges. She spent much of her life working for mercy organizations in the field of international women’s health in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.

Among the academic degrees she holds is a master’s degree in public health from the University of Hawaii. While a student there, the Midwest native said she had her first sailboat ride, literally learned the ropes (or more accurately, lines) and got hooked on the pastime.

The former vice commodore of the Corinthian Yacht Club of Edmonds and honorary member of the Edmonds Yacht Club now skippers her own Catalina 28 sailboat. It’s named Ska, she said, which means “cheers” in “one of the Scandihoovian languages.”

Friends of the Edmonds Library and Edmonds Welcomers club count Burkhart among their members. She also was active in the Washington Tea Party, which was formed to fight – successfully, as it turned out – the Brightwater wastewater treatment plant King County wanted to build in Edmonds.

That activism, Burkhart recalled, compelled her to run for Port commissioner. “A number of us thought we weren’t being properly represented” by a Port board that didn’t take a stand against Brightwater, she said. She bested incumbent Ken Reid in a race for the District 2 slot.

“I spent decades of my life managing million-dollar budgets,” Burkhart said of her qualifications for the board. “These are essentially public funds we are dealing with (at the Port.) I have a strong sense of being accountable to the public.”

Burkhart said she chose Edmonds as the place to which she wanted to retire because she has family here and besides, “Edmonds is perfect. It’s by the water … a nice, artsy community with wonderful friendly people.”