Selinda Barkhuis to speak at PABA meeting

Clallam County treasurer Selinda Barkhuis will be the guest at this Tuesday's meeting of the Port Angeles Business Association.  Selinda Barkhuis also has a blog, PAtoday.com.

Goat Management Proposals for Olympic National Park

Olympic National Park officials are considering several possible approaches for managing the mountain goats in the park. There will be public comment meetings in Seattle and Olympia on August 11th and 12th; and in Port Angeles, August 13th, 5 to 7 p.m. at the Port Angeles Public Library.

Proposals include “capturing and relocating the goats to the Washington Cascades, increasing hazing activities, killing them, or some combination of options” (from the linked article).

I would have thought the best “management” plan would be to make it crystal clear to all park visitors that “You are now entering an unspoiled wilderness area.  The animals here are real, not simulated, and some of them could be dangerous if they're surprised or cornered.  ONP is not a sterile sanitized theme park.”

Ban Personal Fireworks in Port Angeles?

Apparently this past July Fourth had more fireworks complaints than ever, and the City Council is considering banning personal fireworks entirely.  Brad Collins said:

“I think that they've gotten so bad that we should take the step to eliminate fireworks in the city.”

Lee Whetham said: 

“I'd be interested in further exploring a reduction, or elimination, of fireworks by city residents.”

A Port Angeles resident said:

“This was the worst year I've ever seen in my neighborhood, absolutely the worst...I think there are other ways that we could be celebrating the Fourth of July without this amount of violence. The noise levels are just too high, too much, too long.”

Clallam County Fire District 2: Reduced Services, Higher Fees

With an unusually hot dry summer, Clallam County Fire District 2 commissioners have approved reductions in service and higher fees if a proposed levy lid lift doesn't get approved by voters this November.  Voters will be asked to raise the lid 29 cents per one-thousand dollars of assessed valuation.

If the request is not approved, service reductions could include:  no longer responding to burn complaints or smoke investigations (outside structures), and no longer responding outside the fire district.

Sequim City Council puts Kibosh on $5,000 Handout to Chamber of Commerce

The Sequim City Council said it's unfair to support one neighborhood over another, and nixed a $5,000 request from the Chamber of Commerce for promoting downtown events.  City Councilman Ted Miller said:

“Taxpayer money should not be used for the direct subsidy of special events.  It's unfair to use taxpayer money to manipulate the taxpayers into going downtown. That's not our job.”

President of Washington Policy Center will be guest at PABA meeting

At this Tuesday's meeting of the Port Angeles Business Association, the speaker will be  Daniel Mead Smith, president of the Washington Policy Center.  The Washington Policy Center is a free-market think tank.  Topics will include the hazards of increasing the minimum wage, e.g. “too many government regulations are strangling the economy,” “a minimum wage only hurts the people it was designed to help,” etc.

Discussion of Clallam County Air Quality

This Sunday there will be a discussion of the results of a year-long Air Quality Saturation Study in Clallam County.  The discussion will be July 13th, 4 p.m. in the Carver Room at North Olympic Library.  The final results and analysis will be presented by the Olympic Region Clean Air Agency’s Senior Air Monitoring Specialist, Dr. Odelle Hadley.

Dr. Hadley will be discussing the seasonal variation of the air quality in Clallam County, as well as the dominant air pollution sources in each season.  

Derek Kilmer wants EPA to tackle Victoria Sewage Problem

Rep. Derek Kilmer has asked EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to raise the Victoria sewage issue with her counterpart in the Canadian government.  McCarthy will attend the annual meeting of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation later this month.

The Township of Esquimalt had been planning to complete a water treatment facility by 2018, but that project was derailed.

Olympic Resource Protection Council to be Topic at PABA meeting

At this Tuesday's meeting of the Port Angeles Business Association,  they will be discussing the recent activities of the Olympic Resource Protection Council. The Olympic Resource Protection Council is a local “property rights” organization working to amend the Dungeness Water Management Rule, which interferes with property owners' rights to use as much water as they want, when they want, regardless of water shortages or concerns about water quality.

Olympic Peninsula's Connection to Nature needs to be Marketed

It's too bad a 199-page marketing report was necessary to spell out the obvious. The Olympic Peninsula's connection to nature is the most important part of this area's identity, and recreational opportunities need to be promoted if we want to attract more visitors.

This marketing study was conducted by North Star Destination Strategies of Tennessee and was funded by the Olympic Peninsula Tourism Commission, which is based in Port Angeles.  Diane Schostak, administrator of the tourism commission, said:

“The study is going to help drive our marketing decisions and our messaging for the next decade.”

The tourism commission includes  tourism representatives from Clallam, Jefferson, Mason and Grays Harbor Counties.