Business Incubator: Yea or Nay?

Tomorrow the board members of the Clallam Business Incubator will discuss whether to restructure or dissolve the organization. They’ll meet at 3 p.m. at the offices of the Incubator.

The Incubator is located at 905 West Ninth Street, Port Angeles, and provides professional support for new businesses. Last September the board concluded it could no longer make the $49,000 annual loan payment to the county.

UPDATE:

Business Incubator off the chopping block for the time being.

Fire at Indian Valley Motel

The Indian Valley Motel at 254371 Highway 101 , west of Port Angeles, has burned. As of 12:27 a.m. it was fully engulfed in flames.

As of this report, Granny's Cafe, next door to the Indian Valley Motel, was not on fire.

YMCA Will Not Manage the Pool

The Clallam County Family YMCA Board has withdrawn its proposal to manage the William Shore Memorial Pool.

Board President Laurel Black said the decision was a result of a contract disagreement and opposition from the advisory committee of the Metropolitan Park District.

PDN: Replacing Ellen Goodman With Conservative Columnist?

If you read the PDN’s Op-Ed page regularly, you’ve probably noticed that Ellen Goodman — formerly published weekly in the PDN — has retired recently. The PDN has been auditioning other syndicated columnists to replace her.

Ellen Goodman was liberal, so one would think that her replacement would have similar political views. But twice now, the ultra-Rightwing Mona Charen has had a column where Ellen Goodman’s column used to be. WTF?

This has nothing to do with my liberal bias. The PDN prints a weekly column (each) by Cal Thomas and Michelle Malkin; and I’d be equally surprised if the PDN tried to replace either of them with a liberal columnist.

Federal Grant to Help Local Air Service

The federal government has announced a $360,000 grant to help Port Angeles preserve its air service to Boeing Field.

Kenmore Air has been providing the only regular flights between Seattle and Port Angeles. Last year the Port of Port Angeles, Kenmore Air and the city councils of Sequim and Port Angeles together provided $40,000, which was required to match the federal grant.

The flights between Boeing Field and Port Angeles have not been profitable. In 2009, 24,513 passengers made the trip. The 2009 figure is slightly higher than 2008; but lower than the 2007 total.

Upcoming Harbor-Works Meeting: Executive Session Only

Harbor-Works has a "special" meeting scheduled for February 24th at 4 p.m. The meeting will be held in the Commissioners' Meeting Room in the Port Administrative Office Building, 338 West First Street, Port Angeles.

The meeting will consist of an executive session, then an adjournment with no further action on the agenda.

Here is the link.

OK, what's your take?

Commenting at PDN Website

Talk about Catch-22. Anybody ever try to actually comment on one of those Peninsula Daily News articles online? Good luck with that.

Several commenters have mentioned this at this site, but this evening I found out what they're talking about.

My own experience was: leave your user name, which isn't valid until you've given an e-mail address. And your e-mail address isn't valid until you've given a password, which is "wrong" no matter what you type in. A password can be "wrong?"

In case anyone has ever wondered why there are so few comments at the end of PDN online articles, this might have something to do with it.

Yup, the Voice of the People.

Steve Sperr and Glen Cutler to Speak at PABA Meeting

This Tuesday’s meeting of the Port Angeles Business Association will be about the sewer overflow program, and the possibility of acquiring the tank at the former Rayonier mill site.

Glen Cutler, public works director; and Steve Sperr, city deputy director of engineering services, will be the guest speakers. The meeting is at 7:30 a.m. at Joshua’s — 113 Del Guzzi Drive — and is open to the public.

Open House at Senior Center re: Rayonier Cleanup Agreement

Tomorrow, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Port Angeles Senior Center, there will be an open house to discuss the Rayonier cleanup agreement. The Senior Center is located at 328 East Seventh Street.

This is the “agreed order” between Rayonier and the State Department of Ecology. Rayonier has signed the agreement; Ecology is expected to sign it after the 30-day comment period ends on March 5th.

In addition to getting information at this open house, the agreed order can be viewed at the Port Angeles Library; at Peninsula College; or at Ecology’s Rayonier Mill cleanup website here.

Comments can be sent by mail to: Marian Abbett, SWRO Toxics Cleanup Program, Department of Ecology, P.O. Box 47775, Olympia, WA 98504-7775.

Comments can be e-mailed to: marian.abbett@ecy.wa.gov.

City of Port Angeles Has Several Vacancies

The City is accepting applications for:

Planning Commission — two positions.

Lodging Tax Advisory Committee — two tax-collector positions, two tax-recipient positions and three citizen-at-large positions.

Civil Service Commission — two positions.

Board of Adjustment — one position.

Construction Code Board of Appeals — four positions.

Utility Advisory Committee — one community representative and one medic I representative.

Port Angeles Forward Committee — one citizen-at-large position.

Parks, Recreation and Beautification Commission — two positions, plus two vacancies for student representatives.

Anyone who is interested can obtain applications from the City Manager’s office at 321 East Fifth Street, or from this website.

All applications must be received by 3 p.m. February 15th.

City Council Takes Issue with Public Works Department

The Port Angeles City Council questioned Glen Cutler, Public Works Director, over a contract with Exeltech Consulting Inc. This is the same company that oversaw the construction of the Eighth Street Bridges and Gateway.

But the Council was questioning a proposed $164,800 contract with the same firm for the design of a pedestrian bridge. Max Mania said: “This seems like an awful lot of money for a pedestrian footbridge.”

Cherie Kidd said: “It really seems excessive.”

The Council ended up approving the contract 4-3. Brad Collins, Cherie Kidd and Max Mania voted no.

Advertising on School Buses

I thought this seemed like a good idea from yesterday’s PDN — allowing advertisements on the sides of school buses. It’s one way to raise money without laying off employees or raising taxes.

But in today’s PDN there was an editorial, plus a guest editorial from the Seattle Times, both condemning the idea.

What say you?