Owners of 70-year-old resort hope to preserve it for publicBy Jim
Casey, Peninsula Daily News March
18. 2007
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| SEKIU - On a clear day, you can see all the way to 1936. |
| That's when Arlen Olson's father, Alvin, built his namesake resort for sport fisherfolk on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. |
| Now Olson, at 73, has received a bid from a buyer who would raze it for condominiums, but he's not rising to the offer like a salmon to a herring. |
| He wants to preserve public access to its beach and boat launch. |
| Olson's wish captured the attention of Mike Doherty, Clallam County's West End commissioner who has clout with Gov. Chris Gregoire. |
| Doherty, D-Port Angeles, wrote to Gregoire and to the 24th District's legislators outlining Arlen and Donalyn's dilemma. |
| "The Olsons face a difficult decision," Doherty told Reps. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, and Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, and Sen. Jim Hargrove. |
| "After family operation for over 70 years . . . they must sell their beloved resort. Risk in a sale is that the majority of sport and commercial fishers use the resort's boat launch and marina to access . . . one of the state's most significant saltwater fisheries." |
| Closing its public access "would spell disaster to the remaining small resorts and other businesses in the Clallam Bay/Sekiu area," Doherty wrote. |
| No rush to sell |
| Arlen Olson last week said he's in no rush to sell, especially not with a salmon-fishing season starting next month. |
| "We'd as soon be here all summer," he said. "We have reservations. You can't just walk away." |
| Moreover, Olson doesn't want to walk away from the people who kept his family in business for seven decades. |
| "The sport fishermen are the ones who built this resort," he said. |
| "I'm trying to keep it for sport fishermen." |
| Olson isn't sure that the buyers would close the boat ramp and beach - and he doesn't want to take that chance. |
| "I'm just trying to make sure that doesn't happen," he said. |
| Donalyn Olson echoed her husband. |
| "The sportsmen kept us alive all these years," she said. |
| "Some of the places around here [including the Silver King Resort and Herb's Motel] have been sold to private parties, and that shuts it down to the public." |
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| 'Disastrous' impact |
| Shutting down is something Clallam Bay/Sekiu knows all too well. The Strait-side hamlets have watched their branch bank and grocery disappear. |
| Bill Drath, head of Clallam Bay-Sekiu Chamber of Commerce, said closing the resort would be "disastrous to the community." |
| "Olson's Resort has a large percentage of the beds available in the area," he told Peninsula Daily News. |
| "Not only would jobs be lost at the resort, but all the support industries would be affected as well. The Clallam Bay-Sekiu area needs all the jobs it can get." |
| The save-the-resort idea resonated in Olympia. |
| Doherty's letter to legislators sparked an almost immediate meeting among several state agencies Tuesday. |
| Brent Bahrenburg, a project development specialist with the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development, called it "just a preliminary meeting" - where agencies agreed to meet again in two or three weeks, possibly at the resort. |
| Besides the state, Bahrenburg said "players" in the issue include Clallam County's Economic Development Council, the Port of Port Angeles and at least two conservancy groups. |
| 'Bedroom' for new park |
| At Washington State Parks, planner Peter Herzog said Olson's Resort intrigues officials who are developing the nearby Hoko River State Park. |
| "We have a park in the early stages of planning," Herzog said, and the resort's 45 units might serve as its "bedroom." |
| Doherty's simultaneous plea to several state agencies also weighed in the resort's favor, Herzog said. |
| "It might not trip the trigger of each individual agency," he said, "but together there might be some sense in all of this." |
| Doherty's letter speaks of bald eagles and marbled murrelets, boating and kayaking, hiking and just soaking in the view. |
| "It is my hope that we can give the Olsons an idea of whether the state is a potential viable purchaser within 60 days," he wrote. |
| Meanwhile, people from Sekiu to Olympia are hitching up their hopes and trying to be optimistic. |
| "There have been literally generations of individuals who grew up fishing the Northwest Coast at Olson's Resort," said Drath. |
| "Hopefully this tradition will continue." |
| But Bahrenburg cautioned, "I wish I had a crystal ball and I wish could say we have all the money in the world, but we don't." |
| Donalyn Olson said, "At this point in time, it's hard to say too much. It's hard to say too little. It's hard to say anything else. |
| "We don't want Sekiu shut down. We're going to do what we can do." |
| Reporter Jim Casey can be reached at 360-417-3538 or at jim.casey@peninsuladailynews.com. |