Tse-whit-zen dialogue heats up

If there’s no lack of opinions about the Port Angeles graving yard, there are plenty of places to express them.

At least four organizations are inviting public input about the future of the 22.5-acre site, where the state Department of Transportation has agreed to stop building a huge onshore dry dock.

It would have been used to build concrete anchors, pontoons and road decks to replace the east end of the Hood Canal Bridge.

The state called a halt to the $59 million project on Dec. 21 after being urged to do so 11 days earlier by the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe.

Construction had unearthed burials and artifacts from a 1,700-year-old Klallam village, Tse-whit-zen, (pronounced cha-wheet-zen, meaning “inside the spit”).

The groups inviting public comment include:

* Clallam Economy First, P.O. Box 134, Port Angeles, WA 98362; also Room 203 of the Carpenters & Pile Drivers Hall, 416 E. First St., Port Angeles.

* The Port Angeles Business Association, P.O. Box 545, Port Angeles, WA 98362; call Andrew May, president, at 360-417-1639, or visit www.paba.org.

* A Web site — www.portangeleswaterfront.com — for comments and information. Call Shane Miller at 360-452-4527.

* The Finding Common Ground Summit, formerly the Chi-whi-tsen Village Protection Campaign. Write to P. O. Box 482, Neah Bay, WA 98357; e-mail khunter@wildcatcdc.org; or visit www.wildcatcdc.org.

And the PDN Commentary page feature, “Peninsula Voices,” will continue to publish reader letters on the graving yard issue, as it has since the controversy began, Commentary Page Editor Paul Gottlieb said.

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