The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

Invested in his work at Wahkiakum County Port 1, Commissioner Gary Quigley has found himself in a contested race for the position and admits that he isn't ready to let go.

"The port has so many things going on right now," Quigley said. "It's really exciting. I was on the board before, years ago when I lived downtown. It seems like it has really started to evolve in the last two years. It used to be that you'd go in for a half hour and sign vouchers and leave, but now the meetings are longer and more interesting. I think there are a lot of good things happening."

The good things happening include the purchase of a dredge and general maintenance around the port and an opportunity to work in cooperation with the Town of Cathlamet.

"We don't have to have an exotic dredge," Quigley said. "I think it would save the port a ton of money. Dredging is really expensive. Instead of going through the permit process every 10 to 15 years, waiting until you can barely get through there, we could do it ourselves and it wouldn't cost much to keep it maintained."

He hopes the dredge will not only be a benefit to the port, but to the rest of the community as well.

"I think we could hire it out and do some service for Skamokawa and other local areas who have a hard time getting dredging done."

Quigley cast one of two votes for the brewery at the port in August 2013 and he is pleased with the outcome.

"We had a lot of people against the brewery down there," Quigley said, "for what reason I have no idea. A lot of people thought we should save that property for something else, but what else? It's a perfect location. So far it has been a huge success. I think everything we do from this point is going to revolve around something to do with that, to complement it."

Qne enhancement that Quigley envisions is the possibility of more food carts at the marina.

"Years ago we had Shilo Inns interested," he said. "We had all these people come down and do a market survey. There is just not the people and not the infrastructure to support something like that. We had people that wanted to invest in it, but after the market survey, something like that was not going to fly."

"There are always people coming to the port meetings and wanting us to do something," he continued. "We've got to weed through the good and the bad but there is good, there is a lot of stuff coming through there that will benefit the port and everybody in town."

He shifted to other topics.

"The main thing right now is trying to get something going with the sewage lagoon," Quigley said. "We need to try to get something going with the city, something we can both agree on."

He was pleased with the recent Harvest Days Vendor Market at the marina and hopes that the event will grow bigger and better each year.

Quigley graduated from Wahkiakum High School and studied automotive technology at Lower Columbia College. He is a log truck owner operator and a commercial fisherman.

"I think the fishermen that are left down here want a voice at the port because it was actually put in here for commerce," Quigley said. "At the time it was gillnetting. I still want it to remain a working port, along with sport fishing and everything else. So far we are keeping on track with that, but it could easily go the other direction. Commercial fishing is part of our community. To be able to have these guys come down and buy fish out of the port is a big thing. I want it to stay that way."