Tuesday, January 20, 2015

What Rhymes with Scam? Tram!

So I guess that Dan Williams, unlike Larry Williams, is still knocking around Port Angeles.
You may remember Dan from his previous stints as head of something called the Overhead Door Corporation, which was followed by his years flogging the idea for a zipline run in Clallam County as the head of Green Planet Zipline, Inc. No doubt many of you have been up and enjoyed a ride on one of Dan's ziplines, right?
 
In other words, given his propensity for acting crazy in Clallam County, Dan may be the business community equivalent of the political scene's David R. Fox.
 
Now, apparently, Dan is the "CEO at Port Angeles Aerial Tram," and is proposing building an aerial tram from the "shoreline area" to "just outside the ONP," with a final goal of going all the way to Hurricane Ridge. In the National Park. On Federal land. In the National Park.
 

You can point all you want, Dan, but I don't see
a tram. Maybe you do, but I don't.

Now, given his track record of pursuing hopeless causes, I personally don't think Dan Williams is a conman so much as he is a hapless (and probably hopeless) dreamer. If he were a conman, he'd be pitching things that were a little more to scale for the Port Angeles area.
 
But an aerial tram? From downtown all the way to Hurricane Ridge? Please.
 
I'm not even going to go into the permitting and environmental hoops he'd have to jump through to do such a thing in a National Park. Life is too short. Suffice to say, it would be an extremely arduous and lengthy process.
 
It would also be expensive - as would building the damned thing. This is a community that can't afford to fix up an athletic field, Dan. This is a town too poor to support and/or save a movie theater (STILL FOR SALE), Dan. This is a city that announces that it can't afford enough police officers to enforce the laws on the books, and is drowning in debt. In other words, you're talking about a community that has what might be called a poverty problem.
 
NO ONE is pouring money into Port Angeles, Dan. So where would the money come from to build your tram? I'm going to guess that such a thing, just from downtown to the edge of the ONP, would cost at least, what, $100 million? That's a big chunk, Dan, the equivalent of two Turd Tanks - at minimum. I just don't see it.
 
Maybe you could partner with Clallam Transit, Dan?

Let me put it another way: You're talking about a community that can't afford a workable route across town to alleviate the occasional traffic congestion on Race Street in the summer. Yet you're proposing to alleviate the same traffic by building an aerial tram that costs tens or hundreds of millions of dollars? Huh?
 
So, show me the money, Dan. In the meantime, do take a moment to check out his LinkedIn page here: www.linkedin.com/in/angel77
 
Next stop, the Land of Oz!

 

63 comments:

  1. Sigh...The things that need to be done here, are done both poorly, and expensively (think Harbor-Works, the Turd Tank). The things that could be done here are many. But the things that are proposed to do here (PenPly, a Convention Center, this tram) are generally both expensive and stupid, with almost no chance of happening or succeeding.

    Yet the happy happy and not-so-bright ones in charge here keep wasting time and energy giving attention, and funds, to these ridiculous projects.

    So yes, by all means, let's forget about climate change and our budget troubles, and build an artificial beach. Why not? Would you like a side of tram with that? After all, stupid projects are like potato chips. You can't stop at just one.

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    1. I am so sick of reading the rants of all the whiners on this blog. What does climate change have to do with this? It is easy to sit back, complain and put down everyone else's ideas and effort. If you don't like this idea, then come up with some positive one of your own.

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    2. Okay, I have an idea.... let's just sit back and do what the city thinks is best with our paychecks, and not say a discouraging word. Is that what you want January23, 9:30am?

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    3. So you think it was a GOOD idea to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to build an artificial beach? Please do clarify.

      Oh, and climate change is "involved" with this particular issue because (a majority of reputable scientists say) climate change leads to many things, including rising tides, and associated tidal energy. Translation: Nathan West's Magic Beach is highly likely to be washed away quickly, which will mean one of two things. One is that the city will have, once again, wasted money on a foolish project. Or two, the city will feel the need to pour EVEN MORE MONEY, in the form of more sand, into this project.

      It's not whining to point this out. It's outrage, fueled by facts. There's a big difference.

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  2. Give it a break CK. You said yourself it wasn't a scam. He hasn't asked any of the usual suspects for tax money. The man has a plan, thinks he can pull it off and deserves the leeway to do it or say he tried. Dan, I'll buy the first ticket and invite all the naysayers to come along. When a man has a dream he's willing to finance without fleecing the Opportunity Fund we ought to support it. There used to be a swamp near Orlando, now its called Disney World. Disney had the usual host of detractors yet he pulled it off in grand style. Until he asks for your money to invest why don't we give him a bit of support.

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    1. I'm as willing as anyone to support someone with a dream or oddball idea, okay? Really. But when you've got someone like this (Overhead Dorr Corporation, Green Planet Zipline, Inc., Port Angeles Aerial Tram, etc.), with a history of non-starters that goes back over a decade...Then you're either dealing with someone who cannot close a deal, and/or, is some sort of kook. When you pair a person like that with a place like Port Angeles - Scamtown USA - what might be harmless eccentricity elsewhere becomes something that could become a legitimately illegitimate con. Again, I'm not jumping on Dan Williams. This was intended as a lighter, slice of life (in Clallam County) piece. Kid gloves, I swear!

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  3. At this point, who is it that is even listening to this guy? He tried for years and years to get his zipline going - said he had the funding in place and everything - but it never happened. He's a kook, folks! He's selling you some pie in the sky, and the only way to get there apparently is on Dan's Magic Tram.

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  4. You're totally correct. This is yet more fantasy, which Port Angeles seems to attract. Remember the aircraft carrier that was going to be parked in the Port Angeles harbor?

    Which neighborhood is going to volunteer to have this tram running over the top of their houses? Privacy? Wave to the tourist from your bedroom window!

    Which part of Port Angeles is going to want to have views of a tram line and it's supporting pylons?

    And, from the tram, what views? You mean visitors are going to drive for hours from the I-5 corridor (or elsewhere) to Port Angeles, so that they can look out over log yards, and oil tankers in for repairs in the harbor?

    Maybe. But I sure will not be part of that investment club.

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    1. You make a good point...A three or more hour car ride to Port Angeles...To take a, what, twenty or so minute tram ride...To ultimately arrive at Hurricane Ridge, which, if you'll pardon my saying so, is just not all that. It's but one of many pretty but fairly interchangeable views to be found in the forested places in the Pacific Northwest. And yes, on the ride up, you can enjoy the views of the blue tarps below...

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  5. While I agree with CK that Dan Williams probably isn't a con artist, he is right in line with the standards of quality we've come to expect here in Clallam County. If you have a crazy idea, pitch it fairly well; if you have a fairly solid idea, pitch it poorly.

    So now we learn that the life-long cost of the school bond measure is (supposedly) tens of millions of dollars LESS than what was originally announced. But, darn it, there was that initial announcement, with that (supposedly) wrong information that undoubtedly turned some people against the whole idea. Which means that now one of the things bond supporters have to fight is their own previous (supposedly wrong) statements.

    That's just plain stupid. Get your facts straight before opening your mouth in public. Otherwise, you run the risk of being lumped in with all the other hucksters and daydreamers like Dan Williams, and Scott Nagel, who are out there pitching their projects as well.

    Or to put it another way: If you can't be counted on to even promote your own project wisely, we may well have doubts about your ability to do the project itself wisely.

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  6. Here's my idea for making this place a real destination: Have the tram go from Peter Ripley's carnival island that he wants to build offshore to Nathan West's new beach to Scott Nagel's new Lincoln Theater to Hurricane Ridge. Then, stand back and watch the tourists flood in! You betcha!

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  7. CK, you don't understand, in this town TALKING about something is as good as doing it.

    Look at all the talk we've had about "convention" centers, and big hotels, and an esplande!

    Never mind there is little call for people to walk along a rubble shore (most, esplandes are at beaches..nice, lovely beaches. It's a nice Victorian word, though. Sounds good, doesn't it? The thoughts it evokes.

    Too bad we can't have a boardwalk, or a promenade,or a Quey, or come up with a couple of MEWS, too. If we're going to bandy about some fancy names for streets, lets have some fun with this. Maybe we can snag a few unsuspecting tourists to come on out because of the thoughts these words evoke. Oh goodie.

    Its an esplande, even though there is no retail, no attraction (ferris wheel? rollercoaster? bumpercars? beach?), no esplande-ajoining restaurants, or theaters, or ...well anything...that would draw people there. We have a road that runs along a rubble bank, with parking, now, and a few metal sculptures that are "meh".

    Oh, but to quote the esteemed Dr. Seuss "Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!" Clearly this should be the town motto. We think up all kinds of things. We get pitched things, too. We're told that they're really-really-really going to happen (by the PDN) and then....

    We just like to T-A-L-K about the theoretical maybe's and what-if's. This town isn't about doing. It's about talking.

    Talking about how we're going to SAVE the theater. Talk about how there will be a zip line. Talk about how new, fresh blood will take over the city council (and take over -- never mind that we're a weak mayor government, and any city council are just figure-heads). Talk about how things are going to turn around. Talk about how things are going to change for the better. Talk about how some big company will move here and make it like it was. Talk about how logging and milling will return and bring back living wage jobs for nincompoops with no education.

    And, people are rewarded greatly for keeping up the group illusion. Look at Russy and his pack of lies. Look at how long Barbie kept getting paid. Look at how Nagel (rhymes with finagle) is keeping the dream of the Lincoln alive with happy talk and horseshit. Look at how long the city has been able to skate on fragile (financial) ice.

    Talk, talk talk talk talk talk talk. La la la la.

    Keep taking those blue pills, Port Angeles. (CK is clearly pushing the other ones.)

    To quote Morpheus (Matrix) "This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes."

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  8. Why is it so easy for me to see Pat Downie getting terribly excited by this?

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  9. Too bad about his zipline; that actually could have happened, and created a few jobs. But he took a knee, and did not run with it. (Despite what you will hear from the anti-government crowd.) Dan has bandied about a total, $200,000,000, and suggested there will also be a water park. Based on accepted costs and rosy assumptions, I still could not figger up a return on that investment in a lifetime. Going into the park would require an Act of Congress to remove the affected land (everything within sight of the tram) from wilderness designation. The park of course will not concretely respond to the notion, cause legally they can't even permit it; but be assured that they will be cast as the tyrant standing in the way of the visionary. Check 'Port Angeles Aerial Tram' on facebook. It is actually the entirety of the project ... it's all electrons. Lots of pretty pictures, and you MUST see the video, especially the credits at the end.

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    1. A water park in a climate whose temp averages 55 degrees is an insane idea.

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    2. As in football. Instead of actually running a play. May not be the best analogy. Anyway he got the county use permit, but never went on to get a lease on the land, or a building permit.

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    3. as in, didn't run it out of the end zone

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    4. I'd heard too that he had funding in place for the zipline. Anyone know if that's true? If it is true, anyone know why it fell apart? It seems a more likely effort to succeed than Dan's Magic Tram.

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    5. Part of it was because Dan was critically injured in a car accident, less than a month after his permit was issued, but before he finished negotiating the lease with DNR. He was reportably in the hospital and recovering for more than a year, which caused his permit to expire, and the DNR said no permit = no lease. Could be a convenient excuse, but the accident did happen.

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    6. I never heard that all the funding was there. Unquestionably a couple thousand was paid to incorporate the business and get the conditional use permit. He would have had to show secured funding *before* negotiating a commercial lease on DNR land, and probably bonding for site restoration in case he defaulted. So if it ever got that far, it should be part of the public record. But DNR said at the CUP extension hearing that lease negotiations never began.

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  10. David R. Fox...Whatever happened to that guy? He was quite a character.

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  11. CK, I don't think you get the point on this one.

    OF COURSE it's ridiculously outsized for Port Angeles.

    OF COURSE it isn't likely to happen.

    But, if it can gather enough momentum to seem even a teeny, tiny bit possible...Think of the graft and kickbacks that could be generated on even studying a project of this size, never mind what could be skimmed if it were to somehow lumber to life.

    It's not about reality. It's not about making sense. It's about generating opportunities for the few connected goons here to grab up dollars. End of.

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    1. Exactly. Think the Turd Tank - Cutler's fabled "biggest public works project in the history of the city." They bragged about putting the Turd Tank on the shoreline. Bigger is better, right?

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    2. Time to eat your bran, so you can take a Cutler, right? That guy should go down in history, and I'm glad to name all movements by me, in honor of him.

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    3. And/or " Pushin' a Puntenney'. THAT turd is as bad as Cutler, and we still got that around, running things.

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  12. I don't know if it will work out, but it sure sounds like a great idea to me. I happen to know for a fact that the National Park Service (in WASH D.C.) would LOVE to get most of those 700,000 cars/year off the road and replaced by Electric Trams up the mountain. And, reportably, all being financed with private money (from Germany), where do I sign up??

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    1. Are you going to sign up for it running over the top of your house? Or, are you envisioning it running over the top of somebody ELSES' house?

      How do you think the property values of the houses under the tram line will fare? Would you buy a house located under a commercial tram line?

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    2. "Uh, hello? Yeah, hi. I'm calling because I'd like to buy some homeowner's insurance. Where is my home located? Uh, in Port Angeles, Washington - right under the tram. Yes ma'am, that's right, under the tram that was built in Port Angeles, Washington. Um, yeah, I think it was built by Primo Construction. Why do you ask? Hello? Hello?"

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  13. Well, this has been a fun one.

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    1. It's not over yet. Wait until the PDN grabs ahold...

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    2. Yeah, look at them an the old rotting ferry. I'm shocked they aren't having a full page OBIT for that rusting thing. "It's final voyage" boo hooo.

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  14. Off Topic I know but here goes....
    Ego Development Council

    County Commissioner Jim McEntire is also a member of the board of the Economic Development Council. He is one of the few elected officials still on the board since McEntire purged the board of most of the elected officials on it.

    Those elected officials who were on the EDC board were the only ones who answered to a constituency--the voters. If they made foolish financial decisions while on the board their electors could un-elect them at the next election.

    Now only business interests are represented on the EDC. There’s the rub.

    In a strange permutation of the fabled conservative mantra of businesses pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps now the EDC wants to use gobs of taxpayer money to prop up business that have been operating for years if not decades. Most are the so-called “legacy businesses.”

    Moreover, most such economic development interests move toward recruitment of new businesses and help to smooth the transition of a business seeking to relocate into the county. Our own EDC, under McEntire has decided to concentrate on “retention” of existing businesses. In other words the EDC, under McEntire, will keep the low-wage economy just as it is for as long as possible.

    If this was just one board member’s penchant that would be one thing but let’s consider the recent machinations fostered by McEntire.

    McEntire almost single handedly purged the EDC board of all its elected officials. McEntire almost single handedly rewrote the bylaws of the EDC. McEntire has now initiated a revamp of the advisory board of the Opportunity Fund. The Opportunity Fund is made up of sales tax collected by the state and returned to “distressed” counties and earmarked for economic development.

    Economic development under the old definition meant infrastructure projects which would benefit the entire county and expenditures could only be made in consultation with officials from all the towns in the county.

    Now McEntire wants to change that requirement, dissolve the Opportunity fund advisory board and make the “consultation” a matter of sending emails back and forth among insiders until a scheme is hatched to do as they please.

    McEntire has already hatched a plan to tap the Opportunity Fund for half a million dollars to give to the EDC for salaries so they can hire more staff to attend to the “retention” of existing low-wage businesses.

    If we are to tap the Opportunity Fund why not use it to recruit new businesses with family wage supporting jobs? McEntire was heard to say at an EDC meeting, “we have to be careful what companies we bring in. If they pay too much they will come after your employees. You may have to pay more and even provide benefits.” This from the point man for economic development.

    Hearing are scheduled to overturn the current ordinance governing the Opportunity Fund. If McEntire has his way there will be nothing but a few “yes men” involved. The millions of dollars now earmarked for economic development will be placed in the hands of a few business men who may seek to protect their turf and keep out all competition.

    Oh, did I mention McEntire has almost single handedly rewritten the bylaws of the EDC including a provision by which they can suspend the bylaws for any reason, for as long as desired and spend whatever they want however they want while the rules are suspended? And, one more thing, the EDC is exempt from sunshine laws and public records requests. All this can be done in the dark.

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    1. THANK YOU FOR YOUR POST, AND THE INFORMATION.

      Hello, Clallam County...Are you listening?

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    2. Dale is on track here!

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    3. Isn't the EDC a public entity? Why would it be exempt from public records? Also, how can one purge elected officials?

      Just trying to understand this f'ed up placed a bit more...

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    4. EDC is a non-profit corporation, not public, like the Chamber and PADA. I think SecState will sell you a copy of their articles of incorporation ... the governing bylaws are not public record. We don't elect their directors; they do. Get enough directors to go along, and there is no limit to the possible shenanigans. They do depend on the government teat, so they can be rumbled like PADA and the COC were last year, with audits and performance reviews. If the will is there... heh, heh.

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    5. Clallam County Economic Development Council...started in 1981
      http://www.sos.wa.gov/corps/search_detail.aspx?ubi=601133161

      Director Greenwood, Bill
      President Kuh, Brian
      Secretary Linde, Jennifer
      Treasurer JOHNSON, RANDY
      Vice President FLECK, ROD
      Vice President Hays, Ken

      Located at the infamous "Incubator". As their own online sales materials tout: "The Clallam EDC acts as a portal to an expansive network of business contacts, tools, and solutions for both our public and private businesses. We also provide an extensive range of services in cooperation with state and local governments, Peninsula College, Washington State University's Small Business Development Center and the Small Business Administration's SCORE business advisory program."

      Golly gee, they did produce a pathetic ego-boated, vanity video to promote the county. (Would be improved with banjo music playing in the background, though)

      http://www.elocallink.tv/clients3/wa/clallamcounty/tourplay.php?movie=clalwa10wel_rev1_iwd&spon=welcome

      The website hasn't been updated for 2015, and the list of the "participants" looks like a jail roster of the usual suspects.

      In other words they do nothing. I can hear the loud sucking and slurping noises at the free money trough.

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    6. I had no idea. The way the Clallam EDC was talked about I always assumed it was public. This sounds like it isn't much better than the "incubator" project, just more established.

      Funny how when local republicritters talk about "starving the beast" they always mean ... you know, "over there". They don't have the guts (or are too entrenched in the system, hi Karen) to start in their own backyard.

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  15. The fire department should start training for aerial rescues.

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  16. Breaking news on the PDN website illustrates yet another reason this would be a very, very bad idea for Port Angeles: All the nuts with guns here.

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    1. nuts with guns is not news. Bullies with bulldozers is.

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  17. David R. Fox is alive and well and living in a DelGuzzi built house on Laurel Street. I see him trolling for boys almost daily at Albertson's.

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  18. Dude. Comparing him to David Fox? That's harsh. Real harsh.

    Williams seems harmless enough. I actually wanted the zip line to open here. Not sure what happened, but sounds like there were too many hurdles thrown in his way and he threw in the towel. I'd love to say that's PA thing, but it may also have been dealing with the National Park. I'm sure there's a bunch of red tape, and a lot of it necessary. But, again, don't know.

    Frankly I thought he left town and started a zip line somewhere else. They seem to be pretty popular. Not just in woodlands, but Las Vegas, Vancouver. You know, elsewhere.

    The tram looks good on paper. Once you start questioning things it starts falling apart. From where downtown? Where would parking be? Going over residential neighborhoods leads to problems like noise and tourists looking down on people's yards. Frankly I'd rather see it start nearer the visitor center. And, of course the biggest question, would this really be enough of a tourist draw to recoup the money?

    However kudos to him for having a vision that isn't directly tied to getting grant money. There's not enough of that around here.

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    1. "The tram looks good on paper"? Really?

      That short, simple phrase alone shows that you don't have any understanding at all of the hurdles such a project would face. None.

      None is also the chance that this will happen. None. No chance.

      Dream your dreams, yes. But when your dreams involve something that would involve a quarter of a billion dollars to design, permit and build, and getting permission from the Feds to build in a National Park, AND would have to navigate the incredibly corrupt playing field set up by the locals...When all that's in play, then your dream can only become a nightmare.

      And we have enough of those around here already, thank you very much.

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  19. There were no big hurdles for the zipline. The DNR did say show them the money, and the construction plans, before they would talk lease. I guess you could call that inconvenient. The natl park was never involved, the site was about half a mile outside it.

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  20. from the "spokesman-review" January 1, 1983: ""We're trying to make our area attractive to more people who find themselves not able to go to Disneyland or to the Calgary Stampede" Flodstrom (i.e. David T. Flodstrom, then city manage of Port Angeles) said. There's been renewed interest in Port Angeles in tourism, primarily because of the decline of our other industries.""

    This was AFTER the Hood Canal Bridge collapse (1979) and the new bridge opened with a $2.50 toll.

    http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19830101&id=xfkRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=y-4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5828,56465

    Funny how we're complaining about a culture that is deeply ingrained ....the whole reason for the article was that the state was dolling out $$$ to promote the state to tourists, and the first location that latched on the teat was Port Angeles...for a brochure that promoted "a romantic weekend drive around the 101 loop".

    Pathetic. Oh yeah, we're as big a hit as Disneyland, right?

    So, what is Flodstrom doing now? Oh yeah, selling out First Federal.

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    1. If this area has been "working" on "making itself attractive" and becoming a "tourist destination" for nearly 30 YEARS...I'd say that little project has clearly failed. We're an ugly little town, with a Turd Tank and a dead downtown, and we still actively hate tourists and the ONP. The attitude is still "Let us log and leave us alone."

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    2. Exactly 5:48am. The lack of creativity is stunning. At this point it's like an old whore trying to get all gussied up to attract a bright and shiny strapping youth. Not going to happen. Town is fading, getting older, uglier, and all the last minute gasps to put lipstick on the hag is just getting more pathetic. We should oust everyone -- council, city government, reset and start over. The old timers can't die fast enough to make this town work.

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    3. More examples of what boomers did to the country. Flodstrom got his, and that was the goal. All these idiots..our current "leaders" only cared about themselves. Not a civic minded group in the lot. I'm sure their parents are spinning in their graves. The town, this county, state and country was so much better off before the boomers got in the position of running things.

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  21. Whatever happened to the $7 million that was given to the city of Port Angeles and the additional $7 million given to the Port of Port Angeles when the Graving Yard fiasco came to a close? This money was given to these entities when they shut down the project after unearthing an ancient grave yard.

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  22. funny you should ask.....because I'm sure no one else has.
    What did happen to $7 million dollars?

    * The Port gets $7.5 million -- 126 percent of its 2006 regular revenue -- and the shoreline slice of the graving yard that links Port properties on both sides of Tse-whit-zen.

    * The city likewise receives $7.5 million for economic development, $480,000 to hire an archaeologist who will survey the harborfront for Native American remains, and up to $500,000 to attract businesses to town or to keep them here." (source PDN)

    Lets see, we hired an archaeologist for five years (he was laid off in 2013). He's long gone. https://www.linkedin.com/pub/derek-beery/b/314/558

    WE used a big chunk of it to balance the budget in 2011. According to the PDN: ""The City of Port Angeles is expecting to be $900,000 in the red next year. City Manager Kent Myers said:“We're being faced with an increase in costs without the ability to finance that with additional revenue.” City Finance Director Yvonne Ziomkowski said $600,000 of the deficit is the result of increased personnel costs. Another factor is the expected loss of sales tax revenue when Price Ford Lincoln moves to a new location outside the city limits. ""

    I will ASSUME that we've had a deficit every year, since, so...that would take a big chunk of the money.

    Clearly, we've used some of the graving money to chase grants -- those "look good on paper" matching funds. We put up some money, the Feds or State puts up an equal amount, and then we cook our books and skim some money back into our coffers.

    For example: $1.7 million from the "Economic Development Fund" was used for more design and related work on the new Waterfront Esplanade (to secure the grant).

    I know there was a balance due on the Gateway Transit Hub (which probably came out of the graving yard money).

    HarborWorks probably cost us a chunk of change, too, right?

    Someone picked up the utilities tab for the other failed bullshit...PenPly?

    I'm sure there were some kickbacks to keep the Japanese playing ball in our last mill-ish industry.

    And, the fiasco with the Incubator that the school district and the county and the college were "supposedly" saddled with (but mysteriously disappeared from their budgets, never to be heard from again).

    As for the $7million to the port, I have no idea.

    What a tangled web they weave.

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    1. I think the Port still has most of the $7.5 million. It may have used a small part of it to pay its share of the HarborWorks fiasco, but the remainder is likely being held - for what? It's past time for an audit to show exactly where this money is, and how much remains.
      As for the City's $7.5million: Most, if not all, has been frittered away. $2 million or more to the Gateway project; at least a similar sum for the turd tank CSO project; a million here or there for HarborWorks, the Esplanade, and other alleged "Economic Development" projects.
      Yes, indeed. The time is ripe for the public to demand an accounting of where this money is, or where it all went.

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    2. You point out sources of the City's deficit, and ASSUME that money from the Tse-whit-zen pay-out was used to balance those deficits. Do we know this to be true?

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    3. The graving yard fiasco magically resulted in the City getting a windfall of this money - money that has been frittered away. I think some of the last of it went towards building Nathan West's Magic Boardwalk Beach. Said beach will almost certainly be washed away, thereby closing the circle, and keeping the symbolism of wasted resources very much at the center of Port Angeles politics and policies.

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    4. Yeah, every drop of money that comes into the city is put in the GENERAL FUND, so it's like putting all your money in one big pocket (with holes). That's why the general fund's accounting is like a mouse maze without any cheese at the end. It's all cooked books, right?

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    5. I wish someone would put up the money to get an appraisal of the value of the Gateway Center. It costs us $15 million and I dare say it will not appraise for half that. The other half went into someone's pocket. Anyone know a commercial real estate appraiser who would do a freebie. We don't have to name him/her just post the results. No amateurs (like me) need apply.

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    6. I don't see that as a big secret. As the school levy people are telling us now, 60% goes to building the new high school, and 40% of the $100 million they are asking for goes for consultants, etc.

      So, apply that formula to the Gateway Center.

      These people need to get paid!

      Delete
  23. Apropos of not much at all, here are a couple of search terms that people have used lately that sent them to this blog:

    "david r fox lawyer port angeles"

    "judge rick porter a legal misfit"

    I really like that second one. A few people have also been searching for "karen rogers port angeles" recently as well. The classics never die...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anyone having complaints against Judge Porter should report them to:
      Commission On Judicial Conduct
      P. O. Box 1817
      Olympia, WA 98507
      These should be complaints of lack of professional--not that you lost your case in his court. If he has mistreated you, if you witnessed him mistreat others, if you saw him abuse anyone verbally then report his ass and he will be gone. They don't like him up there anyway and need just a few valid complaints to move him off the bench.

      Delete
  24. WHAAA...no "Port Angeles Gay Sex". I'm disappointed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, well, imagine how the few PA gays feel...

      Delete