Breaking News!

Green light for La Conner boardwalk!

Official word came from Olympia last night:

Haugen announces proposed funding for major district projects

            OLYMPIA – The Senate’s proposed capital budget funds a number of projects of major importance to the 10^th Legislative District, Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen said today.

“These projects will improve our communities and at the same time provide jobs that are dearly in demand,” Haugen said. “They not only promise a better future for our community, they will provide real jobs and wages that our residents and our communities need today in these difficult economic times.”

One project preserves and opens to the public a 60-acre property owned by Seattle Pacific University on Whidbey Island...

...Another key project in the proposed budget provides for the first phase of a project to transform the La Conner waterfront with a 2,780-foot-long boardwalk that travels over existing structures, on uplands and across new areas over the water.

“This is a 30-year dream that wouldn’t have been possible without the work of Sen. Haugen, and it’s finally going to be realized,” said La Conner Mayor Ramon Hayes. “I’m at a loss for words almost. La Conner has been talking about the boardwalk for 30 years.”

“The commitment that Sen. Haugen has had over the years to the district and the Town of La Conner is just amazing,” Hayes said. “She has been a friend of La Conner, and we appreciate it.”

Hayes said the project will create family-wage paying jobs and boost tourism and the level of economic activity exponentially. “The folks of the town of La Conner also benefit in a huge way, gaining waterfront access, but this is first and foremost about jobs and economic activity.”

In contrast to the state’s operating budget, which uses tax revenues to fund the operation of state government, the capital budget uses bonds to pay for physical improvements to buildings, facilities and public lands.