PORT TOWNSEND — Gov. Chris Gregoire plans a visit to Port Townsend to celebrate with students, tour the Northwest Maritime Center and talk with business leaders next week.

Gregoire has a full schedule for her April 22 visit.

She will celebrate the naming of a new ferry classification at Blue Heron Middle School during a 12:30 p.m. assembly at the school at 3939 San Juan Ave., Port Townsend.

Ferry classification name

Teacher Scott Lundh’s fourth-grade class in January won the new 64-car ferry classification name contest sponsored by the governor’s office. Fourth-grade students, including those from Chimacum and Coupeville schools, competed.

The new ferry classification name, Kwa-di Tabil, is pronounced kwah DEE tah-bale in the LaPush-based Quileute tribe’s language.

The word means “little boat,” Washington State Ferries has said.

Three new ferries, two now being built for the Port Townsend-Keystone route, will come under the new classification.

The first of the ferries is scheduled to serve the Admiralty Inlet run between the Olympic Peninsula and Whidbey Island late this summer after sea trials.

The governor is expected to present the 20 students in Lundh’s class with a plaque commemorating the selection.

The winning ferry classification name comes with the tribal council’s support and was researched and discussed by Lundh’s students after one student in particular brought the name forward — Rose Dunlap.

“She’ll be there to celebrate with the fourth-grade class,” Gregoire spokesman Viet Shelton said Tuesday from the governor’s office.

Maritime campus tour

“After the assembly she’ll be over in the Northwest Maritime Center.”

At 2 p.m., the governor is scheduled to tour the Northwest Maritime Center’s new $12.8 million campus at the end of Water Street.

“We will have a party escort her, and since it’s Earth Day, we are to feature LEED aspects of the building,” said Stan Cummings, Northwest Maritime Center executive director.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design is an accreditation of professionals. Buildings that meet the standards are designated green, and placed on the U.S. Green Building Council accreditation registration.

There will be a dedication ceremony at 2:30 p.m. at the maritime center to present a plaque recognizing George Vancouver’s mapping of the West Coast of North America as an American Society of Civil Engineers International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

Gregoire will join American Society of Civil Engineers president Blaine Leonard and association Seattle section president Ron Bard at the ceremony open to the public.

The voyage of Captain George Vancouver, 1791-1795, resulted in the most accurate and detailed map of its time for the entire West Coast of North America.

Talk with leaders

After the dedication ceremony, the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce and the maritime center have invited Gregoire to speak to a selected group of business, community and elected leaders.

The governor is expected to talk to the group of about 125 people — all invited by the chamber — in the maritime center’s banquet room about green jobs.

She will answers questions from tghe group.

Those invited are asked to RSVP the chamber office at 360-385-7869 by Friday.

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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.