On March 16, 2016 NVCA was awarded a $97,812 grant from Tillamook County to begin on a 60 space parking lot for the proposed park. This is a Transit Lodging Tax (TLT) grant. The NVCA project was rated number 3 out of 17 applicants.
The grant for the park was submitted to the Tillamook County Tourisim Advisory Committee on January 15, 2016. The scope of the project is to build a 60 space parking area. This will be a gravel parking lot and very basic. In addition, a radio controlled gate opener and power to the property will be installed. The idea was to build the parking lot for the park first so that it could be used to help the parking situation at Cape Kiwanda during peak tourism events – such as Dory Days, etc. Also, a parking lot could be used a fund raising opportunity by NVCA.
It was a pleasant surprise that the TAC, EDC (Economic Development Council) and the Tillamook Board of Commissioners approved this application. Wow!!
Now we really need to get to work !!!
Needless to say we are learning on the job here. So, we will take baby steps.
First step. We understand that we will need to work closely with Tillamook Lightwave (TLW) who was our Tillamook County sponsor for this grant. We will need to follow the county guidelines for the bidding process. So we are setting up a meeting with the Director of Tillamook Lightwave to set up a process.
Our goal in this process is to stretch the $97,800 as far as we can by securing good bids from reliable contractors and securing numerous in-kind donations for the work.
A challenge to say the least.
Oh by the way , the timing. Needless to say we are all anxious to get started and our original time line – wish list really – had us completing everything by July. Well, we have been told that this is very very ambitious and even unrealistic so we all will need to have patience. It will take well into the summer
Want to follow our progress? Just enter your e-mail address in the space on the right and hit enter. You will then receive e-mails of future posts of our progress.
Don’t forget – check out the NVCA website for other information and announcements. We are looking for folks to help organize and work on the Science Camp.
Gloria Scullin – Project Manager
