For the time being, board members of the Vashon Park District have rescued the beleaguered Tramp Harbor dock, one of the island’s most recognizable waterfront landmarks, from doom, after making a motion last week to sign a disputed lease with the Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) that would allow it to remain standing.

The board was joined by the district’s environmental attorney, Jennifer Sanscrainte, who was appointed to discuss insurance options for the dock and provide assistance in negotiating the onerous lease conditions requested by DNR.

The old dock, an ever-popular destination for fishing, photography and bird watching, has been in dire straits for some time. Notices have been posted there reminding the public that it might be dangerous to walk on. Since December, a chain-link fence has blocked off the entrance of the dock following a mandate from the park district’s insurance company to close it, citing burdensome liability risks to keep the dock open to the public in its present condition. Several feet of planking was removed to prevent trespassing.

In order for the far half of the 340-foot dock — including the platform at the end of the L-shaped walkway — to remain standing above state tidelands in the harbor, a lease between the district and the DNR is needed. The previous agreement expired in 2013, and while DNR never set a formal deadline for the district to act, it had become more difficult to overlook the pilings under the dock as they degraded further. At least 11 of the 96 total pilings are known to be totally compromised.

Negotiations have only taken place on an irregular basis since the previous 12-year deal expired in 2013. Without an official agreement, the far half of the dock will have to come down.

Now that the board has agreed to sign the lease, it is time to decide: repairing the dock would cost $2 million; wrapping the broken and decaying piles would cost less, but still in upwards of $1 million.

Whatever the district plans will only be good for five years in order to comply with the state’s most up-to-date working requirements for such a project. That leaves only five years for the district to raise enough funds in the community. Other sources of grant funding, given the poor state of the economy, may be challenged over the next few years.

It would most likely be at the district’s expense to knock down the dock, to the tune of $250,000. Sanscrainte determined that there could be an implicit lease if the district chose not to sign, leaving open the possibility of DNR placing the district on the hook for the cost of removing the dock anyway. In that scenario, DNR may also look to King County to remove the dock, since the dock was owned by King County until 1995 when it was deeded to the park district.

“[DNR] has not provided anything in writing or any affirmative statement that they would go ahead and do that, go after King County. [But] King County would likely fight that. So you would be looking at a lawsuit,” Sanscrainte said. “And lawsuits are not cheap.”

The district’s attorney and insurance broker had both previously cautioned against signing the earlier draft lease proposed by the state after a years-long back and forth with the district went nowhere. This would have left the district responsible for all environmental responsibility as well as for the general use of the dock.

Furthermore, under the earlier draft, the district would have had to agree to fully protect DNR against almost any sort of liability, a stipulation the insurance broker of the district said amounted to contractual liability and was an additional factor in their recommendation against signing the lease.

DNR has made several compromises in dealing with the park district, with one relating to the pollution liability — the lease now stipulates that the district does not need to have it all the way through the length of the lease agreement. Instead, the contractor that performs the work on the dock will carry the pollution liability insurance. DNR also scrapped the requirement for the district to set aside a pool of money to maintain the dock, though Executive Director Elaine Ott-Rocheford said it could be a requirement later.

There’s one new hurdle ahead. In order to avoid a nearby geoduck bed, DNR is adamant that the dock must be shortened unless the district receives permission from the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission to allow the district to keep it the same length.

Today, one of the greatest dangers to the dock is a possible inclement weather event that could dislodge the most seriously damaged pilings — resulting in a partial or full collapse of the dock — releasing contaminants, arising from the island’s industrial days when the dock was run by the Standard Oil Company at the turn of the century. DNR has, however, suggested that they are not concerned about such an event. Such deposits are dispersed quickly, and soil sampling performed earlier this year indicated that it is unlikely a large cache of petroleum is left in the sediment.

Now the goal is to find the funding to rehabilitate the dock, with much of the energy coming from a citizen committee intended to keep islanders up to date on news about the island landmark.

“I’m confident that we have a good group of supporters who will assist us with this,” Ott-Rocheford said.

Sanscrainte told the board that she and Ott-Rocheford both agreed that signing the lease would be the best course of action, a significant move forward in a process that has been stuck for some time.

“Not all the pilings need to be replaced or unnecessarily wrapped. We know that 11 are compromised and need to be done. And it still is quite an expensive project. But there is value in having the dock available as a public amenity, as the fishing pier,” Sanscrainte said, noting the group of islanders who are pushing for the district to save the dock, move forward and assist with the fundraising. “I think it is a financial decision and it’s also a policy decision, looking at your mission as to whether you want to try to retain this as a marine park feature for the community.”

The commissioners will formally vote to sign the lease at their next meeting, at 7 p.m. on Oct. 27 on Zoom. For more information, visit vashonparks.org.

Those interested in learning more information about the district’s next steps or who would like to be involved in saving the dock are invited to join an email list serve by contacting commissioner Abby Antonelis at abbyantonelis@gmail.com.