PORT ANGELES — Obstructive Lincoln Park trees could become fodder for carvers instead of logging revenue for the city, city council members said this week.
They agreed Tuesday at a special council meeting to remove at least most of eight to 20 trees to improve flight path visibility of nearby Port of Port Angeles-owned William R. Fairchild International Airport for medevac emergency aircraft, corporate jets and commercial delivery carriers such as FedEx and United Parcel Service.
But council members held off on removing the trees entirely from the 147-acre city-owned park.
On Councilwoman Sissi Bruch’s suggestion, they agreed to explore whether 10 feet of each tree should remain for a community carving competition.
Council members agreed 5-0 to remove the flight path obstruction caused by eight to 20 trees and delay a final decision on the details of that removal until a later meeting.
Councilman Brad Collins was absent and Councilman Dan Gase, port real estate and business manager, recused himself.
Leaving 10 feet of the tree trunks would make it possible “to have a carving competition to get those trees to be a piece of artwork,” Bruch said, suggesting that course would benefit the city more than a few thousand dollars of timber revenue.
“The city wins, the port wins and we get something out of it,” she said.
Port of Port Angeles officials anxious to meet Federal Aviation Administration flight path safety requirements will get back to the council on options open to city officials after they establish the value of the timber and the cost to remove it.
The port, which is paying for the tree removal and will compensate the city for the value of the trees, had planned to grind down the stumps to 12 inches below grade level and backfill the area with soil and grass seed, according to a city staff memo to council members.
Money for the value of the trees will be placed in the city’s Park Improvement Fund.
The FAA prohibited instrument-approach night landings on Fairchild’s Runway 26 in a June 15 Notice to Airmen that was issued without warning the same day it went into effect, port airport and marina manager Jerry Ludke said Wednesday.
“The urgency kind of comes from the fact of mostly the medevac jets possibly not being able to use the runway at night,” Ludke said Wednesday, adding it becomes more of a problem with the shorter days of fall and winter.
“We just want to get it taken care of this summer,” he said.
“In a year, we could have quite a few more trees to be removed.”
The notice requires that aircraft making instrument approaches during nighttime hours must fly 15 miles to the west before turning around and landing on Runway 8, according to the staff memo authored by City Manager Dan McKeen, Community and Economic Development Director Nathan West and Parks and Recreation Director Corey Delikat.
Deputy Mayor Cherie Kidd made a motion to follow the recommendation by McKeen, West and Delikat to remove the trees, arguing that it could delay addressing a key safety issue.
“I don’t want it to hold up the process of what we need to do,” she said of Bruch’s suggestion.
Her motion failed for lack of a second.
Mayor Patrick Downie lauded what he called Bruch’s “innovative idea,” adding that the airport needed to be used for its intended purpose.
“The trees have been a matter of controversy for many years,” he said.
Ludke said Tuesday that cutting the trees to 10 feet should satisfy the FAA, which issued the Notice to Airmen restriction to the port.
Delikat said the city Parks, Recreation and Beautification Commission might have to consider any plan that goes beyond simply removing the trees and grinding up the stumps.
Councilman Lee Whetham said the 10-foot stumps would have to be removed after about 10 years because they would become a fall hazard.
That removal could come at city expense, McKeen said.
The trees that will be cut are among the approximately 400 that are to be removed eventually to reduce flight path obstructions under an avigation easement over Lincoln Park being negotiated by the port and city officials.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
