{"id":4976,"date":"2013-08-29T08:02:13","date_gmt":"2013-08-29T15:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wabikes.org\/?p=4976"},"modified":"2013-09-04T14:42:21","modified_gmt":"2013-09-04T21:42:21","slug":"anacortes-wants-the-guemes-channel-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wabikes.org\/index.php\/2013\/08\/29\/anacortes-wants-the-guemes-channel-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"Anacortes Wants The Guemes Channel Trail!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wow! On a Wednesday morning over 90 residents, business owners, Chamber of Commerce representatives, city staff, and others joined Mayor Dean Maxwell, Representative Kristine Lytton, Anacortes City Councilmembers, representatives from the Samish Indian Nation to welcome Congressman Rick Larsen to the Guemes Channel Trail.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Over<\/a>

Over 90 attended the Guemes Channel Trail site visit with Congressman Rick Larsen<\/p><\/div>\n

Congressman Larsen was invited to the Trail to learn about its benefits for transportation connectivity, tourism, and recreation. He heard from community, civic, and business leaders about their strong work to-date (including a recent $700,000 appropriation in the state capital budget) and what still is needed to \u201ccomplete the dream\u201d linking the San Juan Ferry Dock to downtown Anacortes (bypassing the narrow-shouldered SR 20) and the Tommy Thompson Trail<\/a>. Guemes Channel Trail also represents the western terminus of US Bicycle Route 10, which Bicycle Alliance is currently mapping out across northern Washington state.<\/a><\/p>\n

Washingtonians want trail projects that connect people places, grow economies, and improve safety. As Anacortes Parks Foundation Trustee and co-chair of the Guemes Channel Trail Committee Michele Pope remarked, “people don’t ask if this project should happen, they want to know when we will get it done.”<\/p>\n

In his remarks Congressman Larsen expressed his appreciation for the attendees at the Guemes Channel Trail site visit noting that it’s much easier to lead when such strong support for a project exists.<\/p>\n

Beautiful day on the beautiful Guemes Channel Trail in #Anacortes<\/a>. @BikeWA<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/uJ9qNu5v1a<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Rep. Rick Larsen (@RepRickLarsen) August 28, 2013<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We couldn’t agree more. Over the past week at site visits in Anacortes and Vancouver<\/a> almost 170 people have joined Bicycle Alliance, elected leaders, business owners and other neighborhood and civic leaders to say they want transportation investments that:<\/strong><\/p>\n