Amid flurries of rain and gusts of wind, members and friends of Ketchikan’s Rotary 2000 gathered on Friday at Rotary Beach to commemorate an array of new improvements to the area recently completed by the Rotary club.
Ketchikan Gateway Borough Manager Ruben Duran gave a few opening remarks, thanking the attendees and calling the beach “one of the most popular spots on the island for families,” before Rotary 2000 President David Albertson — after issuing some thanks of his own — did the honors of cutting the ribbon with an oversized pair of scissors.
The improvements and additions include a fire pit, picnic tables, a wheelchair-accessible ramp with landing, updated retaining wall, and a repository for dog waste bags.
In an interview after the ceremony, Rotary 2000 bookkeeper Chelsea Goucher explained that the organization had built up a sizable amount of funds, and was looking to use them to benefit the entire community of Ketchikan. The right project became obvious when former Rotary 2000 president Fred Monrean presented plans for improvements at Rotary Beach. After collaborating with the Ketchikan Gateway Borough’s Public Works Department, the project was off and running.
“Our club had the funds built up through fundraising over the years,” Goucher said. “We used to do a raffle back in the day where we’d raffle off a four-wheeler, and we also got some money unexpectedly, so we had a pretty big war chest, as they say, built up. And we were like, ‘Well, this is money that was dedicated by the community to Rotary to do things for the community. So rather than having it sit in our bank account, we should invest it in something that everyone can benefit from and use.’ So we decided to spruce up Rotary Beach a little bit.”
According to Duran, the project dates back several years and originally was planned to be completed earlier, before COVID-19 halted its progress. He acknowledged the fundraising that made the project possible, but emphasized the efforts by community members as its true highlight.
“The money is a piece of this, but the labor, the man hours, the men, women and kids that worked on this project, is truly amazing,” Duran said. “It wasn’t just about money, it was about commitment. Wrestling through all the preliminary processes, the pandemic and everything else that went with that. And the increased cost of everything now, from when we started it’s doubled up.”
KGB Public Works Director Morgan Barry echoed Duran’s sentiments about the beach’s popularity. He said that it “makes sense” for the borough to consider proposals to improve locally popular areas, and added that the value of such projects is impossible to ignore.
Barry said that the original idea for improving Rotary Beach was submitted pre-2020, and evolved over the course of a few years.
“Fred [Monrean] came to us in 2018 or 2019 with the idea of extending the sea wall down, making this an accessible route, and continuing it all the way down towards the breakwater where the property ends,” Barry said. “So we were working with him — I think at the time Stuart Whyte was the president of Rotary 2000 — and shortly after Fred contacted us, we were contacted by First City Rotary to do the Musical Moves park. So we worked with Fred, First City Rotary and Rotary 2000 to get a master plan for how all of this would work together.”
Rotary Beach — also known as Bugge’s Beach — gets its name from the number of projects sponsored by both Rotary 2000 and First City Rotary at the site. Previous additions to the area include the Musical Moves park, a playground and a bike rack.
The newest additions cost Rotary 2000 roughly $25,000, according to Goucher. In a follow-up email, Barry detailed that the KGB contributed an additional $18,700 to various jobs related to the project.
The beach holds personal value for many of the Rotary members involved in improving its facilities, including Goucher, who said she used to visit the beach frequently as a child.
“I grew up like a quarter mile down the road on Shoup street, so I used to come here and play as a kid all the time,” Goucher said. “I spent a lot of time in this pond when I was a toddler, down the beach I used to call that ‘Monkey Island,’ so it’s really cool to see the beach now as an adult and be a part of making it a place where people can come and bring their kids. … It’s totally [come] full circle, and that’s the cool thing about growing up in the community and being here as an adult as well. You can kind of give back to all the things that helped you become the person you are.”
*This article was originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News*
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