Save Those Gas $$$$$

If you're nineteen or under, you don’t need to keep pouring money into your gas tank. Clallam Transit is offering a summer-long Youth Pass (ages 6 through 19) for $10. No, that’s not a typo. A $10 pass will get you all over Clallam County between now and the Saturday before Labor Day.

Sure you'd rather drive than ride the bus, but with gas prices going through the roof, think of the money you can save.

Clallam Transit is also offering discount monthly bus passes to all Downtown Association members and their employees. The price of these passes has been reduced by more than 75%, and the passes are good for everywhere within Clallam County. To get one of these bus passes, go to the Family Shoe Store on West Front Street, P.A. This is where you get the coupons from Clallam Transit that you'll need. With these coupons you can get your bus pass at either Washington Mutual (Front and Laurel) or at the Transit System office.

Downtown Port Angeles business owners and employees are encouraged to use the parking lot at Zak's (West Front Street, downtown P.A.). You'll need a permit, but this will free up more street parking for downtown shoppers. The DNR parking lot — West of Oak Street, between the transit mall and the estuary — is also up and running and ready to be used (permit only).

P.S. — Bravo to all Port Angeles merchants who are accepting Canadian currency and have a sign in their windows indicating this. Merchants who are doing this have reported an increase in sales.

Gateway Center: New Information

This Wednesday, May 9th at 7:30 a.m. there will be a meeting of the Port Angeles City Council and Clallam Transit, in the City Council Chambers. They will be providing updated information about Gateway Center.

If you live, work or shop anywhere near downtown Port Angeles, the Gateway Project is going to affect YOU.

Please attend this meeting. Forewarned is forearmed.

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UPDATE: There was a meeting at the City Council Chambers this morning. The meeting included personnel from Clallam Transit and Primo Construction, the company handling the Gateway project.

They stated that right now there are still more questions than answers, but there will be periodic meetings to keep everyone updated. Tentatively there'll be another meeting in June. They're expecting to start construction next month, and they're hoping to be done by “late summer” of 2008.

The project will include a 2-story parking garage, bus lanes, a clock tower, a plaza area, and a transit terminal building with restrooms. AND, they also said the entire project is funded.

The City has plans for mitigating the parking problems. This includes creating temporary additional parking spaces on Oak and Cherry Streets, and running a trolley during peak periods. The trolley would take people from the parking areas to downtown shopping, the ferries, etc.