Widening Highway 101: Three More Years

That two-and-a-half-mile stretch of 101 between Sequim and Port Angeles (from Kitchen-Dick Road to Shore Road) will still be widened to four lanes — but not until 2011. Well, it’ll be started in 2011; and completed in 2013.

But how much good is this gonna do anyway? In areas that are growing rapidly (e.g. urban California), there are a lot of disagreements about widening freeways. Will it help the flow of traffic, or will it just encourage more people to drive alone instead of carpooling or taking mass transit?

And according to a lot of theories, widening a freeway will increase traffic bottlenecks on nearby surface streets.

It’s a moot point for the next three to five years anyway, but what do you think about widening 101 between Sequim and Port Angeles?

Puget Sound Energy Suing Jefferson County

If the voters of Jefferson County vote to authorize the County Public Utility District to provide energy, Puget Sound Energy will file a lawsuit.

Terry Oxley, PSE director of community services, said: “there would be litigation.” And he added that litigation would be a “huge cost” to his company and to Jefferson County.

Is this how free enterprise is supposed to work? I would’ve thought the best way to sell your product would be to provide the best product you can, so that people will choose to buy it, instead of suing the competition.

Presumably, the money Puget Sound Energy would be spending on litigation is money that won't be spent on producing energy for their customers. Priorities I guess.

Some Changes

OK, there've been a few changes here. I've been on jury duty for the past week and a half, so I haven't spent much time online and I've had plenty of time to think about what to do with this blog.

First of all, I've re-enabled my Blogger Profile. I have two blogs (I started the other one in October 2004) and I've been keeping them separate by having my Blogger Profile disabled. Now that it's enabled again, you can find the other blog by clicking on "View My Complete Profile" in the upper right corner.

Warning: If your political views are right of center, you might find some of the contents offensive. Enter at your own risk.

The main reason I've kept the two blogs separate is: I have Comment Moderation at the other blog. I didn't want to use Comment Moderation at this site, since it's supposed to be a forum and I wanted to have maximum participation. I figured that if the two blogs were connected, angry rightwingers could follow the link from the political blog to this one and start leaving twisted obnoxious comments. (It used to happen at the other blog before I switched to Comment Moderation.)

And that brings us to the second change here: Comment Moderation. This was a difficult choice but it seems like the only solution. I'm not trying to censor opinions, and off-topic comments are still welcome. But if a comment is pointless, or trying to derail a discussion, or if another commenter is being attacked, I probably won't publish it.

So you've got two blogs here for the price of one. Enjoy. Or not.

What to Do With the Bubble Building

Talk about the gift that keeps on giving. Where are they going to put that “free” Bubble Building that we were so lucky to be blessed with?

I hope there isn't any truth to the latest rumor: They might put it in Jessie Webster Park. Great. Who needs a bunch of boring old trees — with a nice view of the mountains — when we could improve everything with a big plastic bubble.

Back to the drawing board.

Recall Drive Against Forks Mayor

I haven’t been following the political situation in Forks at all, other than glimpsing at some of the PDN headlines. I have no opinion for or against Mayor Nedra Reed, or whether she should be recalled or not.

But, the Forks City Council has voted to pay the costs of fighting the recall, if enough petition signatures are collected to require an election. The Forks City Council seems to be awfully generous with their constituents’ money.

The people who are pushing for the recall are paying for it themselves. The people against the recall are getting help from local taxpayers.

Is this right?

Cultivating Success

Last Sunday’s PDN had an article (not available online) about this class being offered at Washington State University. It’s a 14-week extension course taught by Curtis Beus.

“Cultivating Success” is a course for beginning farmers. The current class has 61 people; there's a waiting list of 30. Students range in age from twenty-something to 70.

Curtis Beus said: “We had to turn a lot of people away. I'm thinking about doing this course again in the fall.” The course has been taught four times in the past 13 years, but this is the largest crowd yet.

The class teaches sustainable farming: organic farming practices, grazing and water quality protection, pest and weed management, and budgeting.

In the past few decades most of the farms in this area, especially around Sequim, have turned into malls and housing tracts. It would be nice if small locally-owned farms could make a comeback in Clallam County.

Olympic National Park: The Next Twenty Years

Olympic National Park is still planning to expand its boundaries, provided the landowners are willing to sell. But they're not planning much expansion or “improvement” of their tourist facilities. There won't be any additional parking for Hurricane Ridge, no paving of the road to Obstruction Point and no expansion of ski areas.

Personally I think the natural beauty of this area will continue to attract tourists and newcomers, regardless of how much or how little the park is developed.

What do you think?

Rifle Range for Clallam County

Clallam County might be getting its first rifle range. For that matter it would be the first shooting range on the entire Olympic Peninsula.

According to the PDN online poll, most area residents are in favor of it (nearly 80%). But there are some objections.

The shooting range will be in the West End, near Sadie Creek and the East Twin River. One nearby resident thinks the bullet shells could cause lead pollution. The Lower Elwha Klallam haven't taken a stand on the issue.

What's your opinion?

People Moving to a New Community and Then Complaining About It

This particular controversy is happening in Port Townsend, but it could happen in Port Angeles just as easily.

For that matter it’s been happening in Sequim — people moving to a rural area and then complaining about the elk. People who move to this area from California — or Seattle for that matter — have a reputation for complaining because there aren't enough ethnic restaurants, there isn't enough nightlife, the stores aren't chic enough, etc. So why did they move here?

Port Townsend residents have a valid reason to be concerned about the health hazards created by the Port Townsend Paper Corp. mill. But most of the complaints seem to be coming from newer Port Townsend residents and/or retirees who won't be affected if the mill closes.

Long-term residents are probably concerned about health hazards too, but they also realize that the paper mill has been the economic backbone of Port Townsend. It has given countless Port Townsend workers the ability — as a certain U.S. president would say — to “put food on their families.”

As one Port Townsend resident said: “If the mill goes down, you will be able to walk down Water Street and see a lot of stores closed.”

Cell Phones

According to the online poll in today's PDN, one out of every eight Peninsula residents is an old fashioned primitive Luddite who doesn't even own a cell phone. And I'm one of them.

The percentage might be even higher, since a true Luddite wouldn't be using the online PDN, and might not even use a computer at all. I would have guessed the percentage was lower; it sure seems like every man, woman and child has a cell phone.

We had cell phones for about two months when we first moved here. I finally understood why people are always shouting into their phones. When you're having trouble hearing that tinny voice coming out of the phone, the natural tendency is to talk louder. "WHAT? WHO? I CAN'T HEAR YOU."

We canceled our cell phone service after two months. And we never paid that $300 early-cancellation fee either. The cell phone carrier can yell and plead and threaten and cry all they want. What are they gonna do, cut off our cell phone service?

KPly Mill Closing

KPly Inc. in Port Angeles will be closing permanently in sixty days. The mill has been idle since last November, but now the closure will be permanent.

This really sucks, not just for the 132 workers themselves but also for the overall impact on the local economy. City Manager Mark Madsen said: “It's not just these jobs that are impacted, but other jobs in the community tied to it. Each job they lose impacts at least one other job.”

KPly’s contact person, Jan Kirschner, said the only person authorized to talk about this was General Manager Tom Crandall. So far Crandall hasn’t returned phone calls from his home in Haines, Alaska.

KPly workers will be eligible for job training and other benefits under the Trade Act of 1974.