Port Plans Trails, Soccer Field

By Rachel Pritchett
rpritchett@kitsapsun.com
PORT ORCHARD
Life’s not all work.
To prove that, Port of Bremerton CEO Cary Bozeman wants a soccer field and jogging trails in the port’s industrial park to make workers happier and maybe even attract a few new ones.
Some 740 people work for about 30 employers in the port’s remote Olympic View Business and Industrial Parks off Highway 3 near the Bremerton National Airport. “And there’s no place for them to jog or walk or have some kind of recreational opportunity,” Bozeman said.
About $50,000 to build the trails and soccer field has been included in the proposed 2010 port budget that’s being drawn up now. Port leaders are hoping for some grant money.
By next year, employees from businesses like Safe Boats International, Fred Hill Materials and Waste Management could be jogging the trails or kicking a soccer ball around, taking a few moments off from the job to stay healthy.
The facilities, which would include bathrooms at the soccer field, could be used by the public, too, Bozeman said.
He believes the additions would make empty port properties more attractive to potential employers looking for sites that have a little something extra for their workers.
“Currently, our park doesn’t offer any those amenities,” he said.
In other news, port leaders are reviewing eight bids to immediately begin building the first leg of a new road planned to run from Highway 3 around the north end of the airport runway, then south, hooking up with Old Clifton and Lake Flora roads.
The road would take several years to complete and would provide access to the port’s now-vacant South Kitsap Industrial Area. It also would allow for airport-related development just east of the runway.
The low bidder at just more than $2 million was South Kitsap-based Stan Palmer Construction, and Tim Thomson, the port’s director of industrial park development, anticipated the Palmer bid would win.
A favorable bidding climate caused all the bids to come in much lower than predicted, and port leaders now figure they’ll be able to double the initial road construction from 2,000 feet to 4,000 feet.
The work could start in mid-October, according to Thomson.
Some $3 million in federal stimulus money is funding work on the first leg.
Future funding has not yet been identified. Planners estimate a second, final leg could cost three times as much.
Low-impact-development techniques will be used for the road, allowing rainwater to seep into nearby ground instead of Puget Sound.