PORT TOWNSEND — A local donor and Navy veteran will push the Northwest Maritime Center $100,000 closer to completion.

Bill Chapman, a stockbroker who retired to Port Townsend in 1994, pledged the money over the next four years to help open the educational facility.

The $10.1 million center celebrates its first major milestone next month when the 1930s-era Thomas Oil dock at the northeast end of Water Street is demolished to make way for a new pier that will be completed this winter.

The $1.2 million, 290-foot dock will be equipped for tall ships and larger vessels with 20 feet of draft.

The Maritime Center’s main attraction will be two buildings with a combined 27,000 square feet. The campus is scheduled to open in 2005.

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The rest of the story appears in Thursday’s Peninsula Daily News Jefferson County edition.