January 20th, 2018

** BREAKING NEWS **

In case you haven’t read or heard yet, the Washington State Legislature late Thursday evening passed a $4.0 billion Capital Budget, and Governor Inslee signed the bill Friday afternoon. The Capital Budget bill had been in flux and subject to negotiations for nearly a year because of a dispute over water rights brought about by a Washington State Supreme Court decision known as the Hirst Decision.

Included in the approved Capital Budget is a grant for the Longbranch Marina in the amount of $248,000. The grant covers three distinct projects; specifically, complete replacement of approximately 1,000 square feet of the float at the west end of Dock ‘A’, complete replacement of the dinghy dock, and construction of three finger piers replacing five boathouses that were recently removed. These upgrades address environmental and public safety issues the LIC and Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) agreed were a priority for replacement. The Longbranch Foundation was the grant applicant.

In the coming days and weeks, we will get more detailed information about exactly how to proceed, but we wanted to pass along this news as soon as we could. We are extremely pleased to be the recipient of this grant, as it will jumpstart the much-needed repairs and upgrades to the marina we committed to make when the LIC signed the new Aquatic Lands Lease with the DNR in 2017.

Barb Floyd, President                                                   Clark Van Bogart, President

The Longbranch Foundation                                      The Longbranch Improvement Club