King County Executive Dow Constantine descends into a small crowd of media and community members on Beach Drive Nov. 10 to announce that the owners of the Maury Island gravel mine agreed to sell to King County for a preserve. Just today King County signed the deed. Vashon Island is pictured upper left. Maury Island is attached to Vashon, and just to the south (left) of the horizon.
The West Seattle Herald just spoke to new King County Councilmember and longtime West Seattle resident, Joe McDermott, who told us that King County now owns the Maury Island gravel mine site. It is the longest remaining piece of undeveloped Puget Sound shoreline in King County protected under an historic agreement signed by King County Executive Dow Constantine and the CalPortland Company – and facilitated by Cascade Land Conservancy. It was purchased from the company for $36 million, including $2 million in private donations which had a Dec. 30 deadline to be met.
"We're ending 2010 on a fantastically upbeat note," enthused McDermott regarding the acquisition.
"At 1:00 p.m. the County registered the deed and now owns the gravel mine. (34th District State Senator) Sharon Nelson, (King County Executive) Dow Constantine, and many others and I have worked on this for 13 years."
You can read our related story when the agreement was recently reached here:
http://www.westseattleherald.com/2010/11/09/news/agreement-reached-king…
