Port Angeles: Plan forged to extend sewers

Published 12:01 am Wednesday, April 14, 2004

— but not immediate cityhood — east to Morse Creek

PORT ANGELES — In what Clallam County and city officials are calling a “breakthrough,” the framework of an agreement to finance a sewer line to U.S. Highway 101 business east of the city limit has been forged.

City leaders said they expect a final agreement to be struck in about two months.

After that the sewerage link’s design, and its government financing sources can be determined.

The line would run from the city’s sewage treatment plant on Ennis Creek on the eastern Port Angeles city limit to near North Masters Road, where Koenig Chevrolet Subaru and Wal-Mart are located.

City and county officials stressed that hooking up to the sewer line would be strictly optional to commercial and residential property owners.

In a written statement to the Port Angeles Business Association on Tuesday, county and city leaders said the revenue-sharing agreement’s goal is “to stimulate economic development, expand the service and infrastructure, and grow the tax base and assessed value in the developing urban growths without degradation to the existing service level.”

Port Angeles Mayor Richard Headrick, City Manager Mike Quinn, Economic Development Director Tim Smith, County Commissioner Mike Chapman and County Administrator Dan Engelbertson addressed the business association’s weekly breakfast meeting Tuesday morning at Joshua’s Restaurant — also located at the eastern city limit.

The pact will recognize that protection of the existing county sales tax base is critical to providing countywide services, officials said.