PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles and Victoria city councils will discuss tourism, economic development and a few other issues of shared concern later this month at their first joint meeting in more than three years.
The two-hour meeting will be at noon Friday, Feb. 25, across the Strait of Juan de Fuca at Victoria City Hall, 1 Centennial Square.
The overall purpose of the meeting is to build upon the cities’ cross-Strait relationship and discuss ways they can help each other, particularly with tourism, City Manager Kent Myers said.
PA portal
Port Angeles has long been a portal to tourism-centered Victoria.
Port Angeles city officials over the past few years have become more focused on making the North Olympic Peninsula a destination for Vancouver Island residents.
“We still feel that there is a lot of economic opportunity in the Victoria area,” Myers said.
Joining the seven Port Angeles council members, Myers and four other city staff members will be Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau Executive Director Diane Schostak.
Schostak said she plans to “extend the invitation” to the Victoria council and the rest of the island to visit the Peninsula.
The trip, she said, is part of the organization’s attempt to encourage better promotion of the area across the water.
“We would like them to start sticking their toes in the water of the Olympic Peninsula,” Schostak said.
First joint council meet
She said the organization met with Victoria’s mayor last year, but this will be the first joint council meeting it has participated in.
Mayor Dan Di Guilio said it’s important for the international neighbors to find ways to help each other.
“Well, I think it’s good to have a good relationship with any government agency or local government,” he said. “Together, we can work on projects that may affect both of us.”
Also on the agenda: ferry terminal and waterfront upgrades in Port Angeles, “sustainability” efforts, major community events and the Elwha River restoration effort.
Myers said the city will invite the Victoria council and staff to visit Port Angeles during the dam removal celebrations in September.
The cities take turns hosting the fairly infrequent joint meetings; three have occurred in the past 14 years. They last met in October 2007 at Downrigger’s Restaurant in Port Angeles. Before that, they met in 1999 in Victoria.
A joint meeting was scheduled for Sept. 11, 2001, in Port Angeles, but it was canceled because of the terrorist attacks. Port Angeles hosted a meeting in 1997.
Port Angeles attempted to schedule a meeting last summer, but neither city could find a day that worked for representatives of both.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.