SEQUIM — The list last winter was staggering: 105 things to build, expand and refresh in this city, plus two big bosses to hire — yet the roster didn’t include two of Sequim’s most hoped-for projects.
Sequim Interim City Manager Linda Herzog, after mulling the list during her January vacation in Mexico, marshaled her staff, had them spend 10 weeks boiling it down to 45 projects and presented it to the Sequim City Council Monday night.
The list is now called the Citywide Work Program and includes tasks such as hiring a public works director to succeed James Bay, who retired a year ago, and recruiting a permanent city manager since Bill Elliott was fired 11 months ago.
The council approved Herzog’s work program with a unanimous vote, plus two modifications: a City Hall site analysis and a closer look at the Water Reuse Demonstration Site off Blake Avenue.
Herzog said she’ll soon present finalists for the public works position to the council and hopes to have the job filled this spring.
Then Waldron & Co., the Seattle recruiter that vetted public works director applications, can start a city-manager search.
Also on the Citywide Work Program: establishing a Sequim municipal court, completion of the downtown sub-area plan and a Police Department policy manual and some 40 other projects.
Concert hall, City Hall
But council member Ken Hays, after complimenting city staff on the program’s clarity, pointed out that it did not include two things city leaders and residents have wanted for years: a concert hall at the James Center for the Performing Arts, which is near Carrie Blake Park, and a new City Hall.
“The James Center is not on there because we have several hurdles we have to deal with in terms of the Department of Ecology,” Capital Projects Manager Frank Needham told Hays. But “it’s definitely on my task list.”
Ecology provided grant dollars to build the water reuse site, which generates non-potable water for landscaping, restrooms and other purposes in Sequim.
Hays questioned plans to build soccer fields on the reuse site — alongside the already planned Clallam County Master Gardeners’ demonstration garden.
He said he’s no longer in favor of the fields, which would be near the James Center concert hall. Hays is the architect of record for the hall.
Mayor Laura Dubois put in that “maybe a more appropriate project would be a master plan” for the reuse site, taking into account James Center, demo garden and ball fields.
The reuse site is “a puzzle, a balancing act,” Dubois said, and Hays agreed that it’s time for city leaders to “have a serious, thoughtful discussion” on how to use Sequim’s open spaces.
Park master plan
Herzog acknowledged that the work program includes no park master plan.
“I don’t think we have the staff resources,” for that, she added.
Then she warned that adding too many projects to the work program could “cause the whole thing to collapse.”
Hays wasn’t finished, however.
“One of the reasons we don’t have a [new] City Hall,” he said, “is because we’ve never been able to say with certainty where we want it.”
Sequim planners, led by Needham, have sought a City Hall site for much of the past decade.
The one at 152 W. Cedar St. has long been called too tiny for the growing town; estimated costs of constructing a new municipal center run to $10 million.
Sequim’s 2009 budget includes $281,000 for a down payment on land and some preliminary design for a new City Hall, while the capital facilities fund balance contains $2.375 million.
“It’s always council’s option to decide what to do with the funds,” city Finance Director Karen Goschen has noted.
But little or nothing has been said of late about the next step in the site search, and Hays wants a “benefit analysis” of possible locations.
That can be added to the project list, Herzog said.
Herzog said she and her staff will evaluate the Citywide Work Program device at the end of June, two months before her contract as interim city manager ends.
“Maybe when we get a little further down the road,” council member Walt Schubert said, “you’ll decide to stay with us a little longer.”
“That’s a matter for another day,” Herzog said before leaving the podium.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
