PORT TOWNSEND — The agenda for the city of Port Townsend is packed.
City leaders are working to prioritize major projects for the year, from negotiating an extension for water rights with the Port Townsend Paper Corp. to determining the future of the Port Townsend Golf Club.
City Manager John Mauro facilitated a discussion on Monday with council members and department managers in a wide-ranging approach to government process.
The all-day retreat at the Fort Worden Commons provided the opportunity to review city accomplishments, look 30 years into the future and dial it back to focus on a path through the calendar year.
“It’s a lot,” Mauro said as he stood in front of a 2020 timeline that took up the length of one wall.
“Is this doable or unrealistic?”
The Port Townsend Paper mill and the Port Townsend Golf Club have expiring deadlines approaching, while others, such as planning for Discovery Road sidewalks and bike lanes, may have grant funds attached.
The city also has permitting and affordable housing projects that are run through Development Services, a final design due for its outfall project undertaken by Public Works, and long-range strategic plans for both the city’s parks and open spaces in addition to the Port Townsend Library.
That’s not to mention the budget, which will include discussions on potentially collecting one-third of the property tax in 2021 that has been put on hold this year after voters approved city annexation into East Jefferson Fire-Rescue service territory.
A month-by-month breakdown included columns for political decisions, major projects and community events, and Mauro stuck notes to the board as the group debated the timing.
“This represents about 80 percent budgeted and 20 percent unknown events,” Mauro said. “There will be things that come up that we can’t plan for right now.”
New items council members hope to discuss include the potential for a two-year budget, a communications plan, reintroducing a downtown parking plan and potentially passing an ordinance to allow for ride-sharing services such as Uber or Lyft.
Both Mayor Michelle Sandoval and Deputy Mayor David Faber, the chair of the Transportation Committee, cautioned how quickly a parking plan could go into place based on what they characterized as past failed attempts.
Sandoval suggested a year-long public education effort before a new parking policy should be enforced.
“That’s a huge lift to get it from policy to implementation,” she said.
A separate new initiative may include finalizing a no-smoking policy with campus-wide focuses both at the Mountain View Commons and the city library because they are locations where children typically are present, Mauro said.
Port Townsend’s current agreement with the mill, in place since 1956, likely will be extended through the end of the year. City Attorney Heidi Greenwood said she is working on an extension that would push the expiration beyond March 15.
But they still need a new contract for the lease of the Olympic Gravity water system, which starts at the Big and Little Quilcene rivers and travels through City Lake and Lords Lake to the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
The golf course also is high on the city’s list because the lease expires with its current operator at the end of December.
Many other sticky notes highlighted zoning code amendments, permitting decisions and public communications plans for items such as Adams Street, the U.S. Census and an increase in rates for DM Disposal.
Police Chief Michael Evans said the visual nature of the posters helped everyone get on the same page.
“We knew there was a script,” he said. “This was nice because it felt like we all watched the same movie. It was a documentary, and it was all in the same language.”
________
Jefferson County Managing Editor Brian McLean can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 6, or at bmclean@peninsuladailynews.com.
