Port Angeles downtown merchants hold critical meeting today

PORT ANGELES — A meeting to discuss the direction and future of the Port Angeles Downtown Association will take place today.

The meeting is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. in the Elks Naval Lodge third-floor ballroom.

All downtown merchants, interested members of the public and city officials are invited to attend.

The meeting was organized by Sandy Long, a former vice president of the Port Angeles Downtown Association, and a group of former association board members.

Merchants in the downtown area pay a special tax and are voting members of the association, electing the group’s board of directors.

“Many members of the association want to ask questions about the future and direction of the organization now that the executive director has resigned — from getting a new executive director to possible restructuring of the organization to make it more effective,” Long said.

Today’s program, she said, should include discussion about whether to continue affiliation with the national Main Street program and a possible merger with the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Long has also asked about the association’s budget, the status of the organization’s 501(c)(3) (nonprofit organization) application and its bylaws.

The meeting comes in the wake of the resignation, effective Oct. 27, of Arla Holzschuh, executive director of the downtown association since September 1997.

Main Street official

The downtown association’s board of directors originally voted not to support today’s meeting, then reversed themselves and said they would participate after Susan Kempf, state coordinator for the national Main Street program, said she would come from Olympia to attend the meeting.

“We feel we can better inform the group with Susan Kempf there,” said association president Kevin Thompson, owner of Family Shoe Store, in an interview Tuesday.

The Main Street program helps communities develop strategies to stimulate long-term economic growth and pride in downtown areas.

Port Angeles and Port Townsend are the only two Main Street-certified cities on the North Olympic Peninsula.

The downtown association manages parking lots in the downtown Parking Business Improvement Area and coordinates downtown festivals, including the annual Christmas tree lighting, and other events like sidewalk sales.

It also represents the interests of downtown merchants before the City Council and city Planning Commission.

More in News

On the brink of a federal shutdown, the House passes a 45-day funding plan, sends it to Senate

By Lisa Mascaro, Kevin Freking and Stephen Groves The Associated Press WASHINGTON… Continue reading

KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Olympic National Park visitor Sandra Schmidt of Leipzig, Germany, right, looks over a map of the park with interpretive ranger Emily Ryan on Friday at the park's visitor center in Port Angeles.
Federal shutdown appears imminent

Coast Guard to work without pay during shutdown

Mount Walker Lookout Road closed again

Olympic National Forest engineers have closed Mount Walker Lookout Road… Continue reading

tsr
Salish Sea on cusp of losing tufted puffins

One nesting pair reported on Protection Island

Work slated to winterize Hurricane Ridge

The plans as of Friday were for American Abatement… Continue reading

Year-round tourism aim for Peninsula

Businesses emphasize winter, shoulder seasons

EYE ON THE PENINSULA: Capital plan, strategic plan before county panels

Government meetings across the North Olympic Peninsula

Leo Wright, 3, of Port Townsend examines an end-of-season sunflower at the Sequim Botanical Garden near the Albert Haller Playfields at the Water Reuse Demonstration Site on Wednesday. The garden features a variety of flowers and plants maintained the city and by local gardening groups. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
Close-up look

Leo Wright, 3, of Port Townsend examines an end-of-season sunflower at the… Continue reading

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., joined by Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, right, and other GOP members, talks to reporters just after voting to advance appropriations bills on the House floor at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday night. McCarthy is digging in on his refusal to take up Senate legislation designed to keep the federal government fully running beyond midnight Saturday. (J. Scott Applewhite/The Associated Press, File)
If shutdown occurs, parks will close

National sites will shutter and services will be reduced

Most Read