8/30/2006 3:50:00 PM Park staircase gets a leg up with volunteers
Gary Pelroy, Jolly Wahlstrom and Todd Gilman (left to right) are planning a stairway potluck when they’ve finished making improvements to the 72-step staircase that leads from upper Fort Worden to the beach. – Photo by Blythe Lawrence
The stairs leading from the upper section of Fort Worden State Park to the beach were in poor condition.
Brackets holding the stair treads in place had corroded in the marine environment, making them unstable. The rickety route had become a problem for beachgoers, who relied on the 72-step staircase to connect them from trails on the bluff to sand and surf below.
Without them, a person would have to scramble down a steep incline through dense brush or walk a half-mile detour toward the lighthouse to the Marine Science Center to access the beach.
Todd Gilmore saw trouble coming as early as February.
"The metal brackets were corroding away, and also the brackets that hold the support timbers. Some of the steps were actually falling," said Gilmore, who uses the 12-year-old staircase on his daily trek from his house near Fort Worden down to the beach.
"Nobody got hurt, but they were in an unsafe condition."
In March, Gilmore sent $100 to the Friends of Fort Worden, which takes donations for repairs. The staircase was closed shortly afterward, leaving tourists scratching their heads about how to get from the park to the beach.
"Here are tourists who have been to Fort Worden before, standing there with their mouths ajar. They couldn't get down to the beach," said Chris Jones, a member of the city's Non-Motorized Transportation Advisory Board, which is involved in the restoration of walking trails and paths.
"I don't know if we realized how important [the steps] were until they were gone," he said.
Gilman realized it. Knowing it might be months before an official effort to repair the stairs could begin, he set out to do it himself - even if it meant footing the bill out of his own pocket.
"At one point, with some friends, I was going to set up a collection booth at the farmers market and go door to door," he said. "I was prepared to pick up any differences."
So Gilman and Port Townsend residents Jolly Wahlstrom and Gary Pelroy got a permit to work on the stairs and get reimbursed for any expenses incurred. By then, Gilman had spent more than $3,000 on stainless steel parts. The project's total bill was $4,200.
The work involved removing and replacing the staircase's old brackets and treads. To bring the steps and handrail up to current safety standards, wooden beams lessening the space between stairs were placed under each step. And grips were added to the handrails, making them easier to hold onto.
Wahlstrom credits Gilman with doing "about 96 percent of the work."
"I was motivated, but Todd was a man of action," Wahlstrom said. "Todd went out and got the permits. He went out and put stuff on his credit card before he knew the Friends of Fort Worden would reimburse him."
The new brackets should last much longer than the old ones, Jones said.
"Everybody came through on this," he added. "If the normal bureaucratic delays happened, it would have been a year before this happened."
For "the rest of the story" and full coverage of all Port Townsend and Jefferson County news, events and people, subscribe to our award-winning weekly newspaper.
