And now, dear readers (and commenters), it's your turn.
This blog has documented a lot that has happened in Port Angeles and Clallam County over the last year, and even a few things from other places.
I think we'd all probably agree that Port Angeles is a place that is, in many ways, stuck in and living in The Past. Whether it's past, passed or Pabst, I think it's safe to say that Port Angeles has it down cold.
But even a place so stuck in the past must, however slowly, however grudgingly, move forward into The Future. Which is to say that, like it or not, 2015 is right around the corner.
So, now it's your turn. Put on your thinking caps and, informed by what you know about the past (and the passed, and the Pabst) in Port Angeles and Clallam County, tell us what you think 2015 has in store for the Olympic Peninsula.
What will it be like to have the, count 'em, three Republican County Commissioners? Will this produce a change in what we see coming out of the courthouse? Or will there be little noticeable difference?
Who will be leaving us this year? Rumors swirl about Jim Jones retiring - what have you heard? How about Dan McKeen, sock puppet captain of the sinking ship City of Port Angeles? He's lost a lot of face since coming onboard, and the City is still going under. Will Dan go down with the ship, or take an early retirement?
Speaking of the City...How will those pesky legal problems play out this year? Will Toxic Teresa Pierce still make a stink? Will Yvonne Ziomkowski get her day in court?
When the dust finally settles, who will come out on top after the gunfight at the Not OK Corral? Will there be a PADA? Will there be a Chamber of Commerce? Will Port Angeles be "United"? At the end of the day, will anyone even care?
Will the school bond pass? Will Sissi Bruch stick around? Will the City's new beach and sidewalks turn downtown into a thriving business district? Will Karen Rogers rise again? Who, if anyone, will be the new voice of reason on the political scene? Will Nippon shut down the mill? Will Barb Frederick find happiness? Will Nathan West find his long-lost soul?
There are many questions, so many...And only YOU have the answers. So give, people. Let's hear what you have to say about 2015. There are no wrong answers, so don't be shy.
The city of Port Angeles will finally embrace recycling, in their own way, when they bring back Glenn Cutler, paid consultant.
ReplyDeleteIt seems highly likely that the garbage bluff will go sometime next year, creating yet another environmental problem, embarrassment and financial burden for the city. This would give them costly, ugly bookends - garbage bluff and turd tank - on each side of the city.
ReplyDeleteRelated to that, watch the city budget continue to implode, with the long-term debt ever more crushing, while the newer, still stupid projects pile on. Utility rates will rise, as will property taxes. Meanwhile, the "value" of living in Port Angeles will continue to decline sharply.
Whether it's Jim Jones "retiring," or Russ Veenema quitting, or any of the other yahoos running things here supposedly "stepping down," they're sure to be compensated far above their actual worth when they do so. Think Jeff Robb at the Port. Think Kent Myers at the City. Think Jeff Lincoln with Harbor Works. Money flies out the window, but never seems to come back in...
ReplyDeletePrediction:
DeleteJim Jones will retire from the County and become next PA Chamber Executive Director (and will retain Veneema as Director of Marketing).
Anonymous 8:37 AM: Your prediction has a whiff of inside info, of someone who knows...something. Your prediction also has the advantage of predicting something so sdrawkcab and stupid as to be a perfect choice in the bizarre world of Clallam County.
DeleteHmmm...
No way J J will leave a cushy 180K per year job for a 50% pay cut. No way the chamber can afford to pay him 180K. They can't even afford to pay Russ 40K to move on.
DeleteThe 300 year earth quake will shift the earth's crust near the center of the strait, a harbor wave will flood the lowlands, the logs stacked on the waterfront will wash through town and sand blast the buildings, the turd tank will come untethered and float to Fukashima, the land field bluff will wash out with the back wash as will the hospital and most of their patients, Don will move his tours up to 8th Street and Russ will open a dealership for pellet stoves.
ReplyDeleteWill Don Perry's brain be the first pellet Russ sells?
DeleteIt WILL be interesting, that is for sure.
ReplyDeleteBut, with so many possibilities. So many variables. How is a girl to chose?
Barb, just take whatever job you can find.
Deletemooching do nothing jobs that pay 50 k a year are hard to find. Maybe a short short leather skirt and selling herself by the pound will fill her coffers.
DeleteThe PDN will go weekly instead of daily at some point. Paul Gottlieb will not lose his job. Smart people still will not read it.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I see things on the rise here.
ReplyDeleteI say sadly because I see things like utility rates, empty storefronts and unemployment rising. Given the last few years and (local) elections, I see disenfranchisement and distrust of government rising. I sure don't see our dropout rates falling.
So I guess it's kind of perverse: The more things rise, the further we fall, and we haven't hit bottom yet.
The Oracle says......Early into 2015, and like McClaskey did in 2014 with his Oak Street Property site - after having an offer brought to him by his realtor (without any actual $), the Lincoln Theater owner will be the next pissed off seller to take his property permanently off the market - in response to yet another offer brought forward by the SAME real estate agent/city councilman! - again, without an actual qualified buyer or the $ necessary to make a purchase.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking for change. Yes, I know that is a different view than is generally held by the good folks that post here.
ReplyDeleteNo, I'm not looking to see positive changes come from the same old so-called leadership that has been running things for however long. I do think they have been pretty well discredited over the last year, in a way that has never before been possible. As we've discussed here before, the impact of this blog, and of PoC is undeniable.
And, I see Port Angeles like any other drunk sot. They destroy their lives, all the while saying they have things under control, and everything is fine. Until it clearly isn't. As is well known, you can't help someone that doesn't see that they need help. They have to get sick and tired of being sick and tired.
I think the efforts to create PA Untied, Revitalized and the city's de-funding of PADA are evidences that more and more people are getting sick and tired of being sick and tired. They are making efforts to try to change things, instead of defending the status quo.
No, these changes are not going to happen next week. Yes, bad things are going to continue to happen. Yes, the city has REALLY screwed things up, and it is going to take a lot of work to fix all the crazy-ness they have created.
Elected representatives are the least of our problems. As we know, they are mostly ego hogs wanting people to like them, and will say what people want to hear to get elected. So, what do we want them to tell us?
Staff are a bit more difficult. We can't fire most of them, and they don't face re-election. Knowing that, we have to keep close eye on what they are doing. Get the City generated staff packets in advance of meetings to see how issues are being framed by staff, and what they are recommending. Attend meetings to voice our concerns.
We know all these problems have gotten to be what they are because we mostly stay home, and do not follow what is going on at the meetings. Many communities have students run cameras and learn other skills in broadcasting city and community meetings on local cable channels. This way, many people can stay home and feed the kids, AND follow what is going on with their local government.
Port Angeles has most of the equipment to broadcast city meetings, but past council members decided the public really didn't need to have that ability to see what they were doing, and voted not to broadcast meetings. We can easily get that going. Maybe that is something we'll see in 2015.
"Change" is happening. Change will happen, as the only constant is change. We can participate in that change, and help guide it in directions we want to see, or sit back and watch the clown council fumble along with smiles on their faces, and complain.
I'd guess more of the same. Standard of living will gradually decline like it has for decades. A few old bosses will retire to be replaced by new bosses. More money will fly out the window to support some stupid project or some stupid person or both. I can't see any major losses on the horizon. Walmart and OMC will still be here, Nippon will still be running under some diminished capacity until 2017. There will probably be small businesses closing without anything replacing them, just like there has been. Same ol' same ol'.
ReplyDeleteTom Harper's blog will continue to exist mainly to document the cranky ramblings of one cranky rambling old man.
ReplyDeleteThe facebook group "revitalize port angeles" won't. The same, tired, old, boring "oh boy, lets do something big" and happy talk will prevail. The people who move here will move back out. The smarter of the youth will escape as soon as they can, and the dumber ones will stay here to breed. Same as they always have.
ReplyDeleteI agree with some of what you say. To some extent, you're right. The same people that have been doing different things with the various civic groups probably will continue to do what they've been doing. Maybe they're content to get the results they've been getting.
DeleteKind of reminds me of the charity groups. Of course it is nice of them to try to help individual people with their problems. It feels good to give a homeless guy a pair of warm socks.
Or, like the recent proposal (hare-brained idea) to try to get people to put money towards buying the old Lincoln. Even if they succeed, what have they really done to address the real problem/s? The homeless guy will still be homeless, and the rest of the merchants downtown will still watch most of the money in town continue to go to Sequim's Big Box Stores.
Yeah, the hillbillies will continue to make friends with their sheep, and the old folks who dream of days gone by will keep dreaming.
But to think that Port Angeles is going to disappear from the face of the earth is a mistake. It isn't, at least not in the next 50 years or so.
Doing "anything" in the name of "change" just burns out good people. We've watched that happen in this town, over and over. Have to watch out for those types, as well.
With the pending debt crisis brought on by oil shale investment scams, things are going to get tight again. If you're thinking of selling and moving, you best be thinking that through.
And, as a result, small towns all over will be looking at changing how they have been doing things in 2015.
It seems that there is a "thinking" of the locals that believe, wholeheartedly that things will get better. You cannot escape human nature in that the most common denominator of preservation of human existence still exists. However, a persistent and almost "blind faith" of this thought without prejudice still abides. As did "The Dude". The town of Port Angeles as a whole is not bad...as a people? Such as the aboriginal tribes of the outback of Australia believed in goats having healing and religious powers. I had the unfortunate luck to be involved with a few City employees recently. I found them, nice and courteous but dumb as a toilet wafer in a Casper, Wyoming airport urinal. (Be blessed Dick Cheney). To sum this up is that Port Angeles is a bad place to live and I would discourage anyone who would wish to locate here to find a lobotomist and seek further help. (I am the same guy who posted "You Can't Pay The Rent Looking At A Lake).
ReplyDeleteOn a more positive note........One small step towards cleaning up and flushing some of the turds down the toilet............ getting rid of, the ever mooching, do nothing, blight on society, sniveling sham called the PADA seems to be a move ni the right direction.
ReplyDeletePeter Ripley will run for city council. Again.
ReplyDeleteEven more disheartening, the incumbents will run for re-election - quite possibly unopposed, save for Peter - and be re-elected.
DeleteThe poll on the PDN's website today is similar to this post. It reads "Do you think things in 2015 will be better than, worse than or about the same as they were in 2014?"
ReplyDeleteAs of a few minutes ago, "About the same" was first, with 36.7%. "Worse" was second with 30.7%. And "Better" was third with 30.3%.
No matter who asks, CK, it seems like a majority of people here don't expect much change, except for the worse.
When I just checked it a minute ago, "WORSE" had pulled ahead, to 42.3%. If it stays that way, it'll be interesting to see if the PDN actually "reports" the results (bad news) of their own so-called poll.
DeleteOn one hand, being that things have been so bad for so long here, I'm tempted to say that those voting worse are simply exhibiting common sense. Same as it ever was, and all that.
DeleteOn the other hand, being that people are often so gullible, I could say that those voting worse are exhibiting more intelligence than I would have expected from PDN readers, frankly.
But, really, when you think about it, the fact that something like twice as many people responding think it will get worse rather than better, well, that's sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy, isn't it? We don't expect much, and that's what we get - minus 10% for graft.
I know these PDN polls aren't at all scientific, but wow! Scientific or not, it says a lot that a majority/so many people here would say that they think things will get even worse here next year. Those numbers pretty much mirror the statements made here on this topic. What else is there to say? Depression and surrender are the order of the day here.
DeleteOriginal poster here...As of a minute ago, "Worse" was still way out in front with over 42% of the votes. The people have spoken. Lock your doors and buckle your seatbelts, the worst is yet to come.
DeleteIf this was "today's" poll, then it should be in the PDN's print edition on Thursday, New Year's Day. IF they run it, given the downbeat results. Watch for that first paper of the year, and let me know...
DeleteFor 2015?
ReplyDeleteI'm waiting for that really special person who is going to show up and make everything better for us. We know that how things are has nothing to do with us. Things get better for us when somebody else does it for us.
Sure. It has been years as we wait. Things have gotten bad, and keep on getting worse. We keep complaining, but that hasn't been enough to motivate that special person, yet.
But this year. Yeah, this year our shining knight is going to come riding into town, and all our waiting will have been worth it.
Uh...Okay. Let us know when you spot this shining knight.
DeleteGee, isn't that what we all do here? Complain, and wait for somebody else to fix things?
DeleteI've heard that Michael (of Michael's Restaurant) is being courted/thinking about moving to Sequim. Sure seems like that's where the money is in Clallam County, such as it is.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understand, Michael is feeling part of the cash pinch coming out of Country Aire moving, and the Miletich family suddenly finding themselves cash-poor due to the move not quite being the goldmine they apparently thought it would be. It's not a good time to be expanding your business here, and/or trying to sell a commercial property, and so a nice guy like Michael finds himself caught in the middle of all this. Anyway, I wish him the best in the new year.
DeleteI see that in Port Townsend, they have official, professional fireworks for New Year's Eve. Meanwhile, here in Port Angeles, we can't afford such things, and will have to make do with our drunken neighbors blowing off their illegal fireworks, and their own fingers. Happy New Year, Port Angeles. Apparently not many of us are looking forward to 2015.
ReplyDeleteBefore I settle into the celebrations for New Year's Eve, just one last note to say Happy New Year to all the people reading and posting here. May 2015 be a year of promises kept, and paths leading out of purgatory. Though I doubt that Port Angeles will leave its troubles behind any time soon, hopefully you will find some of yours dropping away.
ReplyDeleteAgain, Happy New Year.
And now - pizza!
Happy New Year everybody! Here's hoping!
DeleteAnd, here we are! Despite everything said and done, we've made it to another year. Look forward to learning more about what is going on here.
ReplyDeleteThis town is a disaster waiting to happen.It has already happened. Terrible people making terrible decisions. Terrible government making awful decisions.Awful people making this town a cesspool. (I was thrown out of Revitalize Port Angeles because of my said thing about it.) I want out so bad and would anyone buy our house 2 acres for 200K. 5 miles up Deer Park Road. ..please contact us.
ReplyDelete