EGLON – In a taxing district where porta-pottie maintenance is a major expenditure and the annual levy is $19,400, a race for office has caught residents by surprise.

The unexpected race is for an open seat on the Port of Eglon board, which oversees a boat ramp, picnic area and parking lot midway between Kingston and Hansville.

Recently retired commission member of 20 years Marion Kling couldn’t recall a port seat being contested during her tenure. Neither could Warren Nielsen, who served on the board from 1981 through the early 1990s.

“Usually you’re finding someone in the district who is willing to take it on,” Nielsen said.

This year there are two.

Incumbent Joyce McClain is a longtime Eglon resident who stepped in for a retiring commissioner in 2005. Her challenger, Marcus Croman, spent his childhood in Kingston and moved to Country Woods Lane with his family five years ago, according to his campaign Web site. District 2 commissioner David Roberts is running for reelection uncontested.

Croman has not responded to two emails and three phone calls from the Herald. The first email was sent on Sept. 11.

Croman wrote on his Web site that if elected he would “find solutions that are not only beneficial to Eglon, but the entire Kitsap Peninsula.” He wrote that his goals for the position would include instituting an annual performance audit of the port, promoting its facilities for recreational use, pursuing money for port improvements and promoting an active roll for the port with the county Department of Community Development and the Greater Hansville Area Advisory Council.

McClain was surprised to learn Croman was running.

“I just wanted to do something for my community,” McClain said. “I love my community, it’s wonderful here. I didn’t even know someone else was interested.”

McClain’s family has owned property in Eglon since the 1920s and she vacationed there as a child. She said her time spent roving North Kitsap beaches led her to a career as a fisheries scientist. As a port commissioner, McClain said she wants to study ways of trapping pollution runoff from the parking lot, provide new ways for the port to communicate with its neighbors and maintaining the port’s simple facilities.

“People just like to go and feel they’re somewhere that’s not like everywhere else in the world,” she said.

The Port of Eglon wasn’t always sleepy.

Like many Puget Sound towns, Eglon was a stopping point for the “Mosquito Fleet” ferries. Its port was established in the 1920s.

The ferry runs eventually ended, but Eglon remained a popular launching point for recreational salmon fishers until the 1990s. Nielsen recalled summer days when cars and trailers would be lined up for two miles down the road to the port. As the salmon runs declined, so did business at the port. Today it sees a trickle of boat traffic and the picnic area is still a gathering place for holiday gatherings.

For a little port, its taxing district is large. It stretches south to NE Little Boston Road, north past Pilot Point and west to include Port Gamble.