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The following week, with incoming Commodore Henry's blessing, Burwell went down to Anderson Island and talked to Bill and Vivian Frazer. They indicated that yes, there where actually two sites available. They had previously subdivided half their property, giving their two daughters, their son, and Bill's brother one lot each. The son had immediately sold his to TYC. The brother was living on his, and now each daughter was willing to sell hers. While each of the sisters' lot had 150 feet of waterfront, the one next to TYC was preferable to us because the lot was pie shaped yielding more water area for moorage. The upland area was approx one acre. Willow Frazer, who was living in Tucson, owned that lot. The Frazers provided her phone number, and we contacted her immediately (we knew that DIYC was also interested). She wanted $75,000 for the property, which included tidelands, and was willing to carry a contract. She did not want the deal concluded until the following Jan. for tax purposes.
A proposal to buy the property was put together, and presented to the E-Com. on 14 Sept. 1992 where it got unanimous approval. At the following general meeting (21 Sept), a presentation with slides and a flyer was made to the membership to buy the lot for the asking price of $75,000. (We had members volunteering to provide the necessary $5000 earnest money to ensure we got the deal nailed down). At that meeting a motion to buy the property was made, with the vote scheduled for the 5 Oct meeting following the required member written notification. The motion passed unanimously at that meeting.
The deal was closed, as requested by the owner, in early Jan '93. We paid 30% down, and the remainder over a 5-year period at 8%. While we were in the closing process, we learned that the Oro Bay Sportsman club, who was being forced out of their location, was buying the other lot from the sister who lived in Gig Harbor. They were to become very helpful to us in the development of our property, and subsequently became the home of the Oro Bay Yacht Club. The prime motivator and developer of that facility and club was Dan Robinson, who continues to be a good friend at BYC.
Como. Henry then assigned P/C Burwell as outstation chairman, and the plans for the development of the outstation were begun. Contacts were made with the Pierce County Planning and Health Dept's, and Washington State Fisheries to get the permit process started. Since we were the 3rd Marina going into the area (Oro Bay was already established two properties to the south, and being forced to move)' the big concern was commercial shell-fish beds.
Work parties were held to get downed trees cleaned up and to prepare the site. )Transportation to and from the island at that time was also very interesting, due to the very small ferry and its' overloads, which were the norm!) The filing process went on into the summer of '93. We had to have the bottom swimmer surveyed for sealife (there wasn't any), bottom depth profiled, upland surveys and drawings, detailed plans of the pier (certified by a structural engineer), and float configurations with allowed waterways included, a hydraulic permit, concurrence by State and Federal Fisheries, Army Corps of Engineers, DNR, the Health Dept., etc.
By the end of summer we were ready for the Substantial Shoreline Development Hearing, which was scheduled for 10 Nov. '93. All was fine until the county informed us they had failed to advertise the upland portion, therefore that would require a separate hearing in Jan. of '94. The hearing for the water part went fairly well - we didn't get quite as long a dock as we requested, but got more than the county wanted. Our reach out into the bay was less than allowed for Oro Bay, but more than what TYC had then (They subsequently got approval out to our originally requested length). We were issued a "Mitigated Determination of Nonsignificance on 30 Dec. '93 for the water part. Of course all the agencies had a last shot before final approval but we had done all the right things and were hopeful. The uplands hearing was mostly inconsequential and also was approved.
At the 7 Mar'94 general meeting, the membership was presented a proposal to construct the pier and floats. The total cost was estimated to be $100 K, mostly firm estimates. This expenditure was approved at the April meeting, and construction started soon after. The floats were ordered from Shoreside Construction in Bellingham. They were delivered to BYC in early summer where work parties assembled them into two long pieces.
Final approval was finally received by phone from Pierce County, so Cliff Thompson from Port Orchard, whom we had contracted to drive the pilings, immediately towed our floats to Oro Bay. Work parties were there to anchor the floats out, while Cliff started driving pile. As soon as the piles were driven, the floats were attached so that our workers had a spot to tie up. Construction of the pier and installation of the fire mains continued thru August. Quite a few members spent "cruising time" working on the project, the pier in particularly since it all had to be constructed on site. Thanks to a lot of effort by many members, the basic floats and pier (sans water and power) were completed, on budget, in August of 1994.
It is interesting to note that two years after we first heard that the Oro
Bay Property was available, BYC had it's first Labor Day Cruise-In at our
first ever Out-station! And that's quite an achievement.
By: P/C Bill Burwell
