PORT ANGELES – The meeting started out jovial, then got serious and ended up downright friendly with both elected bodies saying we want to be close — but not too close.
The Sequim and Port Angeles city councils spent two hours Monday night having their first joint meeting in memory.
In the process, the council members and their city managers discussed their goals, their frustrations and their shared belief that for such small towns, there’s plenty going on here.
And economic trench or not, growth is on the horizon.
Sequim City Manager Steve Burkett began with a list of goals outlined by his City Council.
Among them are finding a site for and building a new City Hall, improving parks and recreation services, deciding what to do with the Guy Cole Convention Center and developing the Sequim Speaks citizen advisory panel.
Also, there’s rethinking transportation to focus on modes other than cars, zoning reform, completing the annexation of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory-Battelle property east of town, developing a downtown plan and establishing Sequim as a “solar center” where solar-power systems are encouraged.
Max Mania, a new Port Angeles City Council member, called the rundown “a great list,” and set the tone for the ensuing discussion by saying that Sequim, Port Angeles and the whole north Peninsula are “interconnected.”
“Branding yourself as a solar center could have a real interesting effect,” added Port Angeles City Council member Brad Collins.
His city has also been talking about branding, he said.
The community could try this new marketing angle on “sunny Sequim,” Port Angeles council member Cherie Kidd added.
“In contrast with ‘rainy Port Angeles,'” joked Sequim council member Ted Miller.
‘Green’ energy
“Green” energy from the sun, however, fits in with both communities’ environmental consciousness — and interest in ecotourism, a style of travel that favors natural places and their preservation.
Port Angeles is sitting in the front seat of a gigantic environmental project called the Elwha River restoration, said City Manager Kent Myers.
It and the National Park Service have embarked together on the $350 million project, he said, adding that removal of the two Elwha River dams will start early next year.
“We have an opportunity for a lot of notoriety,” Myers said, “with international exposure.
“We’re already getting calls from the national media . . . we see a lot of ecotourism possibilities in the near future,” as the Elwha ecosystem starts down the path to recovery.
A desire for increased ecotourism, Burkett said, “is something we all have in common in the county . . . whether it’s [Olympic National] Park, Sequim, whatever. That’s an important focus.”
Patrick Downie, a Port Angeles council member who moved here in 1974 to run a motel, said the key is to change people’s plans from just a day trip to a stay of several days.
“The only way that’s going to work is to do it together,” Downie said.
Then, Sequim council member Susan Lorenzen leveled a criticism.
More friendly in stores
“We need to be a little bit more friendly in our stores,” to people with Canadian currency, she said.
When Lorenzen recently traveled and shopped in British Columbia, she had no problem spending her U.S. dollars — yet in Port Angeles, she said, she hasn’t seen many merchants willing to take Canadian money.
“We need to turn that around somehow. How hard is it for a store owner to have a conversion chart,” she asked, “and make them feel welcome?”
“We’re working on that,” Myers replied.
The two cities’ councils, managers and attorneys also talked about setting up a municipal court, something that might save them money while reducing courtroom waits for adjudication of misdemeanors, small claims cases and traffic tickets.
Sequim attorney Craig Ritchie and Port Angeles’ Bill Bloor said they will continue to research the possibility of such a court and deliver reports to their councils later this year.
There was also plentiful talk of economic development at the joint meeting, with one participant expressing a little frustration.
At the many meetings held in Clallam County on this topic, “you talk about what needs to be done, but you don’t set any way to implement that,” said longtime Sequim council member Bill Huizinga.
“We’re pretty much all on the same page,” he added, so now’s the time to do things as well as talk about them.
Highway 101
Shortly before the meeting’s end, Myers turned attention to the high-speed artery between Port Angeles and Sequim.
“We all recognize there’s going to be a lot of growth in the next 20 years in this [U.S. Highway] 101 corridor,” he said, adding that the two cities would do well to talk about beautifying the stretch with cleanup and landscaping.
“I’d like to include in that the concept of not growing together, so we have some open space,” said Collins.
“The corridor becomes an excuse for growing together,” something he doesn’t want to see.
Sequim Mayor Ken Hays agreed, adding that he hopes for downtown liveliness rather than urban sprawl.
“If we’re not careful and we let things grow,” just for the sake of economic development, both cities could lose their high quality of life, Hays said.
We must stay centered, he added: “The cultural and emotional center is the downtown.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
