Hoodsport debuts website

Kirk Boxleitner0

Forest McCullough of Northwest Land & Tree told the Port of Hoodsport Commission on Feb. 8 that tree and debris removal at the port’s parklands was almost done, despite “Mother Nature giving us headaches.”

As soon as a stretch of dry weather arrives, McCullough predicted the parking lot would be “all cleaned up, fixed up,” and ready to receive treatments such as beauty bark. He assured Port Commissioner Lori Kincannon they were “still on target” for the parking lot grading to be finished and ready by the end of April.

McCullough confirmed for Kincannon that the grading, rocks and beauty bark for the parking lot are all part of his contract. He noted the actual parking lot’s size would be reduced to reflect the amount of space that’s needed for the lot and to improve its drainage.

McCullough clarified he was referring to “the disc golf side” of the parking lot, as he assured Kincannon that “the trail park side (isn’t) going to change much,” because that side of the parking lot doesn’t experience significant drainage problems, nor does it require rocks or beauty bark, in his opinion.

“On the other side of Dow Creek, there’s a large amount of trees of a pretty good size,” McCullough said. “We had to excavate some of them, so we could do our work back there.”

McCullough told port officials those trees would be transplanted to the parking lot.

Before McCullough and his personnel pull out of the site entirely, Kincannon recommended conducting a collective walk-through of the parks and parking lot grounds. She suggested a date after the port commission’s regularly scheduled April 12 meeting.

In addition to giving port officials an opportunity to assess the state of Northwest Land & Tree’s work on the site, Kincannon welcomed any further comments from McCullough regarding any transplants, repairs or similar improvements that he might suggest.

McCullough chuckled over his phone connection as he agreed that this would be preferable to simply reopening the park without a final review of the work.

Kincannon said the port plans to assemble volunteers at its parklands in May in preparation for a grand opening around late May or early June.

“It would be great to have you up there too, just since you did all this great work for us,” Kincannon said, before laughing, “You could bring a little excavator, and the kids could get on it.”

Katie Zech of Puyallup-based Zech Design followed by walking the Port of Hoodsport through its new website, which launched Feb. 5, with a new layout but mostly the same information, pending an upcoming upload of data from January forward.

Zech sought to streamline the port’s website to make it easier to use, while also creating a Google business profile for the port to ensure it appears more readily in online searches.

Zech described the new site as “global friendly,” regardless of one’s internet browser or Wi-Fi-equipped device, with “cleaner navigation” and more comprehensive information, presented in more aesthetically appealing pages.

Zech suggested featuring the site’s updates in their own prominent section on the page, to keep users from having to search, or even scroll down, for the site’s latest additions.

While the site has retained its same web address at portofhoodsport.us, Zech noted it’s been augmented with Google analytics to allow the port to learn more about its online visitor traffic, including what search terms they’re using to get to the site.

Zech noted there’s plenty of room to expand on-site content and details such as Frequently Asked Questions that appear on Google, especially since a steady stream of such material reinforces for Google that the port’s website is active.