SEQUIM — A $5,000 donation the City Council approved from lodging tax reserve dollars brought regional tourism partners to within $10,000 of meeting a $75,000 fundraising goal to continue to keep Hurricane Ridge Road open year-round.

The council voted 5-0 Monday night, with Mayor Ken Hays and Council woman Susan Lorenzen on vacation, to extend its $5,000 donation a second year.

“You guys always step up and make it happen,” said Cherie Kidd, a Port Angeles council member who has led the fundraising campaign, as she thanked the Sequim City Council.

Community donations of $75,000 are needed to meet the gap funding to match a $250,000 federal Department of Interior pledge to keep the road open daily, weather permitting, from late fall through the beginning of spring.

In the past

In the past, the park kept the road to the recreation area south of Port Angeles open only Fridays through Sundays and holidays during the snowiest months, with the road open daily the rest of the year.

Last year, the U.S. Department of the Interior agreed to provide $250,000 annually for two or three years to keep the road open seven days a week, weather permitting, from late November through March — if the community raised $75,000 each year during the trial period.

That goal was met last summer.

The deadline for the community funds for the pilot project this year is Aug. 8.

Interior wants to determine if keeping the road open leads to greater revenue in winter months for area hotels and other businesses.

Barbara Hanna, city of Sequim communications and marketing director, said she believed it would take two years to get the word out that the road to Hurricane Ridge was open throughout the winter months.

“We do know that some folks visit the park, and the [Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce] Visitor Center documented 900 that said they came to Sequim and planned to go to the Ridge.

“That indicates an interest in winter recreation here.”

She told the council that visitors to the Ridge increased by about 700.

Council members said they saw how Sequim lodging establishments and retailers benefit from snow recreation on the Olympic Mountain ridge 17 miles south of Port Angeles.

Both council members Bill Huizinga and Mayor Pro Tem Laura Dubois, who was sitting in for Mayor Hays, said they visited the Ridge and found it to be a “winter wonderland.”

Kidd said she expected the Winter Ski Club’s major Aug. 7 fundraiser to keep the road open would raise the remaining amount needed to reach the $75,000 goal.

“I expect no less in quality of a fundraiser they had last year,” she said, adding that it raised $16,000.

“I am so optimistic that we are going to have a successful fundraiser.”

Market attractions

According to Kidd, if the North Olympic Peninsula partners can market the Peninsula’s main winter recreation attractions and show it leads to higher visitor counts to the Ridge and Olympic National Park, then park officials will return to keeping the park open year-round.

That ended in the early 1990s because it was too costly to Olympic National Park.

Chase Bank, 101 W. Front St., has set up a special account accepting donations.

Checks can be written to the Washington National Park Fund, Olympic National Park-Hurricane Ridge, or they can be mailed to Washington National Park Fund, Olympic National Park-Hurricane Ridge, at Chase, P.O. Box 64626, University Place, WA 98464.

Donations can also be made online at the website of Washington’s National Park Fund — www.wnpf.org — by clicking on “Donate Now,” selecting Olympic National Park and specifying the donation is for Hurricane Ridge Road.

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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.