POULSBO — Historically, agreements between the Port of Poulsbo and the City of Poulsbo have been sealed with a smile, a nod, and maybe even a handshake. Rarely has a signature been put to paper to formalize a pact.
The city and the port now are attempting to document their agreements on paper as part of an effort to find a home for a new maritime heritage museum in Poulsbo.
“What we are trying to do is clean all those pieces up, and through that process allow the [historical] museum to move into the Marine Science Center building,” Mayor Becky Erickson said.
The Poulsbo Historical Society, which operates a museum at City Hall, would like to open a new museum featuring the area’s maritime legacy. A room at the Marine Science Center in downtown Poulsbo has been eyed as a location for the new exhibit.
“They have been accumulating a lot of artifacts of various sorts,” among them a couple of historic boats that have been restored, Erickson said.
That’s the easy part to understand. Beyond that, things get a little complex. Public entities, such as a port and a city, cannot profit off of each other by law. Therefore, to shift costs between them, they have to justify it through trading value.
The historical society will need to pay rent at the center, which is owned by the city but leased by the Marine Science Center Foundation. The foundation does not pay for its lease, the trade being the free admission and educational programs it provides. The foundation subleases the second floor to Sealaska Corporation, and proceeds from Sealaska go to the foundation to help support science center programs.
One scenario has the foundation giving up space in the center for the maritime museum, and in exchange the port would negate the rent the foundation pays to moor a floating lab on port property.
“It’s a very complicated situation. You have four different organizations trying to work out some values,” Erickson said. “You have the city, [which] owns the building. You have the port that [the city] uses for certain things free-of-charge — like moorage for our police boats and recreational boats. And [the port] uses a piece of the parking lot which [the city] owns that is not open to public parking.”
Moorage for the police boat factors out to about $1,252 per year, and moorage for the city Parks and Recreation’s sailing program is about $4,200 per year. Rent for the floating lab comes to around $4,857 per year.
On the city’s side, the port’s storage, bathrooms and parking stalls are valued at $10,320 per year.
The values nearly cancel each other out. If it works, the center won’t have to pay moorage for its floating lab. That cost would then be transferred to pay for the maritime museum.
If you are left scratching your head, that’s OK. It’s taken the city and the port a couple months to formulate the trades in value.
If approved by the Port Commission and the City Council, Poulsbo could soon see a new downtown attraction.
“They need a home for the boats and they want to create a maritime heritage museum,” Erickson said. “I think it’s a fabulous idea.”
