Port Angeles: Graving yard pact with tribe still weeks off

PORT ANGELES — State department of Transportation and Lower Elwha Klallam tribal officials say negotiations to restart construction at the state Transportation graving yard are drawing to a close.

Officials say they are confident an agreement can be reached to continue work at the 22-acre graving yard site on Marine Drive.

But when is unclear.

“We are exchanging drafts of agreements and people are looking at them closely — and that is a good sign,” said Lloyd D. Brown, Transportation’s Olympic region communication manager.

Brown was hesitant to set a date that an agreement might be reached, but said six weeks to two months might be realistic.

Since the discovery of Native American remains and artifacts in the graving yard site before Aug. 26, officials have been trying to reach agreement on how to handle recovery and reburial of items on the waterfront property, once site of a Klallam village called Tse-whit-zen.

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The rest of the story appears in the Sunday Peninsula Daily News.

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