Ancestral Tse-whit-zen Village

The Lower Elwha Klallam tribe is planning to build an ancestral village at the site where the Hood Canal Bridge graving yard was. This site used to be the Tse-whit-zen location until the early 1900s when it was razed for a sawmill.

First they're planning to landscape the area with native plants. Eventually they want to have a museum and cultural center. The goal is to have a re-created Tse-whit-zen as it stood until the early 1900s.

Tribal Chairwoman Frances Charles said: “By utilizing what we have, rediscovering it, we're changing the Columbus account that I grew up on.”

More Port Angeles Budget Cuts

It looks like William Shore Memorial Pool isn't the only item on the chopping block.

The Port Angeles Fine Arts Center will lose $27,500. The Arthur D. Feiro Marine Life Center will lose $22,500. United Way of Clallam County will lose $62,500 and the Olympic Peninsula Humane Society will lose $26,500.

These are the cuts recommended by the Port Angeles City Council. The final decision will be made on December 2nd. And the four above-mentioned organizations might lose all the rest of their city funding in the 2010 budget.

Also, maintenance for small neighborhood parks will be reduced by $25,000. Funding for economic development will be reduced by $60,000. And there will be $186,000 worth of “unspecified” reductions.

Times are tough. But at least we've got a $14 million bus stop in the middle of town, and a “free” bubble building whose maintenance we will be financing, year after year.

Priorities.

Six-Figure Salaries for Local Government Officials

Local budget deficits and inflated officials' salaries have been raging across the Peninsula Daily News lately. And today their online poll question is:

"Are $100,000-plus annual salaries for government managers and other officials appropriate on the North Olympic Peninsula?"

As of this writing (600 votes cast):

No: 51%
Sometimes: 19%
Seldom: 15.2%
Yes: 11.8%
Don't Know: 3%

Port Angeles City Council: “Vote Down Our Trillion Dollar Pool?? We’re Gonna Teach You a LESSON”

William Shore Memorial Pool is probably going to close at the end of this year. The City of Port Angeles has its priorities, and closing the pool looks like their way of balancing the budget for 2009.

The Mayor and City Council are saying the closure isn't definite, but pool manager Jayna Lafferty said she was told last Thursday that the pool would be closed either December 31st or June 30th.

The City Council will be holding a meeting on the budget this Wednesday at 5 p.m. The meeting will be at the council chambers, City Hall, 321 East Fifth Street, Port Angeles. There won't be any public comments allowed at this meeting, but pool supporters will probably be attending.

There will be public hearings on the budget on November 4th and 18th.

In November 2006, voters turned down a $13.8 million bond issue to build a new hi-tech pool with every bell and whistle imaginable. Is this payback?

Let Sequim be Port Angeles’ Guinea Pig

Or canary in the coal mine; whatever cliché you want to use.

For people who think mindless growth — Big Box stores and one strip mall after another — will be lucrative: just take a look at Sequim. They can be the anti-role model, like a reformed drug addict who travels around the country telling high school students “don’t do what I did. Don’t end up like me.”

If strip malls and franchises enhanced a city’s tax base, Sequim could have streets paved with gold. Some California cities have made this mistake. Take Rohnert Park (please!).

This city of about 40,000 has every Big Box and chain store you’ve ever heard of, and yet their city government keeps running out of money, just like every other city government.

Let’s hope Sequim can change its growth policies before it gets totally ruined. Port Angeles doesn’t have Sequim’s growth pressures yet, but it’s just a matter of time. Hopefully Port Angeles can learn from Sequim what not to do.

Helicopter Patrols for Marijuana Plants

Today's question in the online Peninsula Daily News is: "Should law enforcement have more helicopter patrols to search for marijuana plants in Clallam and Jefferson Counties?"

As of this writing, 55.4% said No; 40.1% said Yes; and 4.5% were undecided. This was out of 359 votes cast.

What do you think?

New Design Standards for Sequim

For a one-year period, the Sequim City Council will be enforcing new design standards for all new construction. This applies to shopping centers, condos and apartments.

This is supposed to make Sequim more pedestrian-friendly and help retain its rural atmosphere. These design standards will be used for roofs, windows, building entrances, parking lots, signs and trash can location.

The City Council voted 4-2 in favor of these new standards. The four newcomers voted in favor of the ordinance. Old-timers Walt Schubert and Paul McHugh were against it.

Ken Hays, who voted in favor of the design standards, said they're crucial “for a town like Sequim that has so much hope and aspiration to grow into a vital, sustainable community.”

Paul McHugh said the ordinance was "the worst piece of legislation I’ve seen come before the council.” He said if these new standards are enforced on developers, “there is going to be no new construction.”

The ordinance includes forming a 5-member review board to assist the city planning staff. McHugh said this board “is going to have to approve whether you’ve been properly indoctrinated on rural, small-town feel. Business people are going to be furious.” The ordinance, McHugh said, is “an awful, awful document.”

Well, it could be worse. At least it isn't “socialism at its best.”

Port Angeles on Reality TV

Forks is already having its fifteen minutes of fame. Now it’s Port Angeles’ turn to be in the spotlight.

Rygaard Logging, Inc. of Port Angeles will be featured on two reality TV shows: “America’s Toughest Jobs” on NBC, and “Ax Men” on The History Channel.

The episode of “America’s Toughest Jobs” featuring Rygaard will air in about five weeks. Rygaard will be featured on “Ax Men” this coming spring.

Congrats to Gabe Rygaard, president of Rygaard Logging.

Which Threat is worse: Crime or Illegal Immigration?

These Border Patrol checkpoints will probably become more common throughout the Olympic Peninsula because of increased funding from Homeland Security. Local opinion seems pretty mixed, judging by letters to the Peninsula Daily News.

Meanwhile, some high profile crimes have been committed lately. Two days ago there was a burglary in Joyce, which resulted in a 4-hour manhunt and a 3-hour lockdown of Crescent School. And the Corner House Restaurant (among other downtown Port Angeles businesses) was recently broken into.

It’s probably moot to argue about, since the increased funding for the Border Patrol is based on federal and not local decisions. Still:

Which are YOU more worried about — becoming a crime victim, or the possibility that an illegal immigrant might sneak in?

Elderly Owner Forced to Get Rid of his 32-Year-Old Horse

This isn't a local story, but I found out about it from the Peninsula Daily News last week, in that “Quick Read” section at the bottom of page three. I also posted about it at my other blog. Other bloggers have written about it and it’s gradually getting some publicity.

In the small town of Hickman, Nebraska (with a population of just over 1,000), 76-year-old Harley Scott owns a 32-year-old horse. The town of Hickman has a law against any livestock within the “city” limits, but this law was never enforced. Now all of a sudden, the Hickman mayor and city council have decided to start enforcing this law with a vengeance.

The only “livestock” in Hickman is Harley Scott’s horse, and the city government is saying the horse has to go. NOW.

This “no livestock” ordinance was passed twenty years ago — twelve years AFTER Harley Scott already had his horse on his own property. But this doesn’t seem to matter to the Hickman Mayor and city council.

Last week, after some local protests, the city council debated whether to modify the no-livestock ordinance. They could either make an exception for horses, or even just grandfather that one horse in. Nope. They voted to keep the ordinance exactly as is. Harley Scott has to get rid of his horse immediately.

Here is a petition that’s been going around the Internet. It’s asking Hickman Mayor Jim Hrouda and the Hickman City Council to allow Harley Scott to keep his horse on his own property, where the horse has lived his entire life.

A local development group, the Hickman Area Economic Development Association (HAEDA) is behind this push to get this icky horse out of their town so it'll be more attractive to the newcomers who are moving in. In case you'd like to offer a few choice words to this organization, their phone number is: (402) 792 – 2212.

Also, the Hickman city government has gotten so many e-mails about this scandal that their server has been crashing. That e-mail address is:

CityManager@ckt.net

I hope you'll utilize this information. City governments need to be stopped from bullying their citizens.

Here are some more links to this story.