“Locals Only”: A Special Kind of Crazy

(In which your local editor/columnist gets high on North Beach life. WARNING: Those sensitive to oblique allusions and/or hometown cheerleading should turn back, here.)

Over at the groundbreaking of the new “Garden by the Sea” community patch the other day, there was a certain something wafting in the air, and it wasn’t just the grilled hot dogs (tantalizing as that was).

The bracing breeze coming in off the ocean also carried a certain invigorating scent. It smelled like optimism, to me.

A new community garden itself is an uplifting thing, the idea of folks from all parts of Ocean Shores coming together to work the ground, side by side. “Well, look who it is. How’re things done at the Jetty?” “Oh, tourist season’s starting early, but can’t complain. How’s everything on the lake?”

Seeds of hope, roots of relationships, etc.

But this is more than just a new garden, this intoxicating aroma seems to be over the entire North Beach, suddenly wearing a “come hither” perfume.

Driving up 109 (the best roller coaster in Grays Harbor?) after the ground-breaking, I was struck by two things: 1) what an amazing, exhilarating view, all these trees, then the sudden  cut-outs of the ocean; and 2) won’t be for long.

A few major developments are planned, between Ocean Shores and Moclips. I can imagine, in a few years, folks living at Seabrook complaining about “all this traffic from these fancy new houses . . .”

The key to new growth in the North Beach, just as is key to new growth in a garden: water. Lately, I’ve had water on the brain. (“No wonder he writes like that . . .”) Which is why it’s easy to see that the fuel that drives the North Beach growth might well be the new County wells at Hogan’s Corner.

After years of talk, the County is moving ahead on Hogan’s Corner. A bid was awarded last week, and, says County Commissioner Al Carter, “It will take a couple weeks to get rolling but we hope to break ground ASAP.”

For years, this newspaper has covered the on-going dance between the City of Ocean Shores and the County, regarding the former’s potential participation in Hogan’s Corner water. Ocean Shores scored $6 million in stimulus money for its own new water system, taking a pass (for now, at least) on Hogan’s Corner.

Rolling around the radio dial on my 109 drive, I landed on a country station. A song by Billy Currington came on:

God is great, 

beer is good 

and people are crazy

Tough to argue, with those three points.

Around here, people are a special kind of crazy. Why else would you look a $6 million gift horse in the mouth? (Savvy locals know to inspect anything that comes this way for a “Made in Troy” sticker.)

The Guest Editorial on this page is but one of many comments and concerns I’ve heard, regarding the planned Ocean Shores water treatment plant, a relatively new “MIEX” system.

Some people seem to feel the Ocean Shores water will never be right, and the city should have joined forces with the County. Some say Ocean Shores should put the $6 million it is receiving toward the County system.

Well, it doesn’t quite work that way. The $6 million, half as a grant, half as a loan at 1 percent interest, was approved specifically for the City’s own new treatment plant; it’s a use-it-or-lose-it thing, with Federal footprints that must be followed precisely.

Last year, the Brown and Caldwell consultants presented a study showing that residents would pay lower water rates, if the City went ahead with the MIEX plant. And that was based on $6.7 million bond at 6 percent interest, which would have been a total ball park cost (including interest) of $15-20 million. So, with the total cost reduced to a $3 million loan, and total payback of less than $4.5 million, rates should go down even more, according to Mayor Dean Bunkers. 

Ocean Shores had phenomenal growth in the 2000-07 period, even with Third World roads and campground-grade drinking water . . .

A new medical center in the works, street LID completion scheduled for this summer, there are plans for some actual sidewalks around town and the H2O dragon is being confronted by bold Bunkers and his band of water men.

In the much bigger picture, the world-wide monster, the Great Recession, seems to be ready to go back to the hot place it came from by year’s end (knock on wood). 

So one imagines that, with good drinking water at lower user costs and smooth roads on the horizon, the Shores will really be booming, this time next year.

While we’re not quite out of these dark woods, yet, the not-too-distant future smells like a  percolating pot of coffee, like freshly printed money, like home-baked bread, like . . .

(Here, the writer suddenly passed out, another victim of metaphoritis.)