By Pepper Fisher

PORT ANGELES – Olympic National Park Superintendent Sula Jacobs gave County Commissioners an update on what’s happening on Hurricane Ridge, the huge number of maintenance park projects planned for this summer, and jobs. Lots of jobs.

Beginning with the question on everyone’s mind – what’s the outlook on building a new Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center?

The bottom line – despite Senator Patty Murray’s $80 million budget request to build a new lodge, no money was approved by Congress for the project for this fiscal year. Jacobs says, that’s not for lack of trying.

“I just really want to emphasize, last week I was with my boss, who’s the Regional Director who reports to Washington. My boss and I were talking about Hurricane Ridge visitor’s center. It’s not forgotten. It is a million-percent on people’s radar screens. Basically, I get a phone call or an email that says, “Here, Sula. Here’s x amount of money. You can start doing the design work, or the design-and-build work.”

In the meantime, it’s going to be a pretty barebones setup at the Ridge for the summer visitor season, with restroom facilities available and helpful park advisors to answer your questions.

Park officials have planned a vast number of maintenance projects for the season, including a lot of road striping.

“We have striping projects at Barnes Point, North Shore, Maura, Hoh, North Shore of Quinault, and Staircase, all happening this summer. It will mean you’re going to have some delays. We are doing trail rehab work from the major fires that took place. So, way in the back country. We have restored public access down to Kalaloch Beach. Spruce Trail is still getting work done, but they’re, I believe, nearly finished. So the trails team has been clearing a ton of trails to have them open.”

The Superintendent also made a call out for job seekers.

“And we are hiring a lot of maintenance team members. And so, I always like to give the public announcement of, if you know people interested in the Park Service, usajobs.gov. There’s lots of jobs open. We have our seasonal work force has joined in the last three weeks. So all of a sudden that balloons us almost up 100 people, which is really fabulous. So, it’s honestly one of the best times of year to be in the park.”

That website again is usajobs.gov.