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After months of anxious anticipation, the Poulsbo Marine Science Foundation has finally been granted access to the Marine Science Center building by the city of Poulsbo, after the city council voted 5-1 to approve a lease agreement for the building in late December 2006.
“We have the keys now,” said Bill Austin, founder of the Bight of Poulsbo and one of the leaders of the fight to get the science center re-opened. “Now it’s my job to create the environment.”
Construction and remodeling efforts are now underway to get the center ready for the public, a task made more challenging due to the fact that the previous tenants, the Marine Science Society of the Pacific Northwest, gutted the building before moving out in March 2005. Austin, a licensed general contractor, will head up the construction efforts, with Bight of Poulsbo and other community members doing much of the heavy lifting. A number of area businesses, including Advanced Rentals, Northwest Millworks and Kitsap Paintsmith, have also stepped up to offer their services, and Austin is anticipating the center will open to the public by May.
“May of this year is what I’m hoping for,” said Austin. “Whether it will be fully operational by then, I don’t know. But it will look good.”
Aquarium designer Scott Horner, of Bainbridge Island-based BIOS, LLC, has offered his services in helping to design the new space. Horner’s work is internationally renowned, and he has designed a number of well-known aquariums, including the Seattle Aquarium and the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in California.
“It’s a huge plus,” said Austin.
The current design plan calls for creating a more nautical environment within the building, including using salvaged pier pilings to recreate an under dock environment and adding an estuary effect on the floor complete with water. The exhibits will be organized into a deep water area, an estuary area and a mud flat area, focusing on Puget Sound marine life.
“It will be more like an aquarium that what it was,” said Austin.
The renovation’s first milestone happened, as a 5,000-gallon fish tank, donated by the Seattle Aquarium last fall, was finally put into the building in early January.
Meanwhile, Rear Admiral (ret.) Bruce Harlow, who is president of the Marine Science Center Foundation, is working with education expert Dr Susan Crawford to develop the center’s educational programs. Harlow, who has been involved for a number of years in the Science Education Alliance program at Keyport, envisions educational programming at the science center that will complement existing science curriculum at the area schools.
“This is not a substitute for the teacher’s classroom,” said Harlow. “Our pitch to the school districts is that we’ll be integrating our programs with their existing science curriculum.”
The educational programs are still in the early planning stages, but Harlow anticipates that there will be two lab-style classroom areas at the center, where area teachers can bring their students to enrich their science learning experience. The foundation president also hopes to be able to locate a boat house or secure the use of a boat to use to add a water experience to the science center’s programs.
It’s been close to a year since the state gave the foundation $250,000 of the state’s budget to be used to renovate and re-open the science center. Time is tight for getting the center up and running in time to be able to demonstrate to the legislature that the center deserves another $250,000 in 2007.
“Sherry Appleton, bless her heart, is going after another quarter million,” said Austin. 23rd District Representative Sherry Appleton and state Senator Phil Rockefeller were instrumental in obtaining the original $250,000 and Appleton has pledged to get the foundation a second year’s worth of funding.
“That’s why we have to get this done, to prove what we’re doing,” continued Austin. “I’m extremely excited about doing this.”. | 
