How Come Everything Associated with Port Angeles Seems to Go Worng???

As many of you readers may have noticed, there's been a persistent (though not quite trollish - yet) voice here lately, pushing the "Everything's fine!" party line for Port Angeles. This person's position is, put simply, the fact that a small handful of businesses have done or are doing well, is a sign that all is well in Port Angeles. Full stop. The New Age of Prosperity is upon you, Port Angeles!

Others, however, take a little more of a  long-term and skeptical point of view.

So, with those two worldviews in mind, what are we to make of this article?

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/port-angeles-tribe-say-elwha-water-plant-never-worked-still-doesnt/

Is this yet more bad news (and bad publicity) for the Little City That Couldn't? Or is this the kind of Federal SNAFU that could be expected from a project of this scale? Is this the City's bold attempt to shake the Feds down for a few more dollars? Or, is this the forward and vigilant City Council trying to protect their ever-more-burdened ratepayers?



And if it all ends in tears...Will they be potable?

Comments Welcome!

The PDC (Public Disclosure Commission) has rejected the anti-anti-fluoride attempt to stifle the voices of the just plain anti-fluoride people in Port Angeles.

This is good news, both for public health and for freedom of speech.

Well...Except for the fact that, of course, the PDN has disabled the commenting function on their online version of the article.

Which is bad news, of a sort, both for public health and freedom of speech. Their kneejerk need to try to protect the Fluoride Four is both pathetic and futile.

So, if there are any further thoughts you have on the whole fluoride issue, or this PDC decision, or the PDN's continuing campaign of wrapping the Fluoride Four in a protective bubble, feel free to share them here.

Open for Business...But Where's the Business?

I'm stitching together a couple of recent posts that are both asking the same question. Maybe some of you readers will have answers or insights...

I thought it worth noting that when I came into Port Angeles on the Ferry (the family and I went over to Victoria Friday) on Sunday, arriving downtown at noon, the place was a ghost town.

As the Ferry cruised into the harbor, I could see the waterfront trail from Rayonier to the Red Lion. Not a person to be seen. The weather was beautiful.

I purposefully looked over at the pocket beaches. And that new waterfront park next to the Oak Street property. Not a person to be seen.

Driving off the Ferry and into downtown, virtually no one. Anywhere.

The Ferry itself was packed. It was sold out at 8:30 in the morning, for the 10:30 crossing. Living here, I was interested to see where everyone on the Ferry went, when they got off. They had announced the Hood Canal bridge was closed, so, going East was going to be challenging.

But almost every vehicle getting off turned eastward, and headed out of town as directly as possible. Out of curiosity, I turned up Laurel, and drove down Front, then back on First to see if there were people taking those streets. Empty, everywhere.


Driving east, I looked in the parking lots of the hotels as we drove by. Again, incredibly empty for the height of the summer tourism season.

It isn't that there are no tourists in the area. But downtown? How do those merchants stay open?

And also...

Awhile back I asked the question how places like Budget Tapes and Records and The Family Shoe Store stay open. Somebody in the know was nice enough to answer my question about BT&R. It's obviously gone now. Like the poster above I'd truly like to know how some of these places remain. Anyone?

Two Balls, One Board

Thanks to FYVM for prodding me to go check out the website of "Puget Sound Collegiate League Baseball." It really, really is as lousy as he says! Wow! Or, as they might put it on their website - W oww!

You can check it out yourself, which is probably more than the members of the City Council did before signing up with these...Well, more on that in just a second. Here's the link to their website, though...

http://www.pugetsoundcollegiateleague.com/pscl/

Anyway, in checking out their website, I learned who the people behind this are. Both of them. Here's an almost complete listing (minus the typos!) of the PSCL Baseball Board of Directors:

President: Matt Acker
Director of Player Development: Brady Hoover
Tournament Director: Matt Acker
Camp Director: Brady Hoover
Youth League Director: Brady Hoover
High School Fall Ball Director: Matt Acker

Busy, busy Matt Acker. He also serves as

Bat Boy, Spittoon Shiner and Washer of Socks.



Yes, yes, I know - this doesn't look like a traditional "board of directors," does it? In fact, in looking at their website, I don't know what it all looks like, other than a mess. The kind of mess that a city like Port Angeles would go for wholeheartedly. (Well, six to one, as the case may be...) It's so shoddy and so incomplete and so utterly nonsensical a website that one would think that it would, at best, frighten and confuse a member of the City Council. But, addled though it may be, here we are, with the City in bed with Matt and Brady (those "fine young men" of Pat Downie's dreams), so I have to assume that no one from the Council, other than perhaps Lee Whetham, even bothered to look at the website at all.

Oh, and speaking of looking at their website...Other than a tab generically marked "Name the team," which links to the opportunity to name the Port Angeles team, I couldn't find any mention of Port Angeles on the website. Hmmm...In any case, here's the link to the "Name the team" page again.

http://tinyurl.com/PDN-PAnametheteam

Now, I'm not a baseball fan, and I never thought I'd be talking about it so much here, but...This whole scheme does seem to perfectly illustrate how the City Council will A) Latch onto any harebrained idea, no matter how farfetched, without B) Doing their homework, or C) Charging fair prices for their resources, while at the same time D) Trumpeting the whole harebrained, longshot, ripped off deal as some sort of success or sign of Great Things to Come.

But hey, maybe I'm being too cynical. Maybe this will all work out swell, just swell, and crowds of wealthy tourists will be taking the Aerial Tram from downtown to their box seats at Civic Field to watch the Port Angeles Panhandlers play.

Or maybe...

Play Ball!

Attention Port Angeles residents! Your city needs you! For something really, really...Not that important.

And maybe they'll just disregard what you have to say, anyway, like a certain fluoride questionnaire that went out once...

Anyway, though they cited their lack of information of or involvement in the process, the Port Angeles City Council have voted 6-1 (Lee Whetham said no) to Play Ball! Or, as Mayor Pat Downie put it: "One of the ways we weave the community together is through a fun, winning baseball team with fine young men..."

Pat may be weaving something with "fine young men," but it sounds like those citizens who were watching weren't having it, being that the vote was immediately criticized by some of those in attendance (the whole hurrying into the deal or scam thing), and said criticism was met with applause by the rest of the audience.

I guess those applauding were either un-American commie lovers who hate baseball, OR, maybe, just maybe, they're overburdened citizens who are rightfully leery of the City making another boneheaded move. I'll let you sort out their motivations. (Though the City is clearly getting rolled on the prices and fees they're charging...)

Baseball is coming to Port Angeles!

Can indoor outhouses be far behind?



Now that this is a done deal, and some "fine young men" will be coming to make Pat Downie happy, they need a name for the team. And they want YOUR help to find one. Go to the link below and you can make all the suggestions you like.

http://tinyurl.com/PDN-PAnametheteam

What do you think? The "Port Angeles Poorhouses"? The "Port Angeles Chicken Coops"? How about my personal favorite, given the incestuous nature of the power structure in Port Angeles - the "Port Angeles Inbreds"?

The sky's the limit, and your vote counts. Help Pat Downie's fine young men find their name!

Mark Ozias: Ain't He a Peach?

I've had the idea for this posting in my head, and reading Tyler's thoughtful and spot-on comments on the last topic (you should make sure to read them if you haven't already) make a good transition to this new one.

Put simply, the question is how does a tie-dyed, long-haired, natural food and food bank loving hippie like this...



End up turning into a secrecy-embracing, backroom loving, status quo maintaining and public concerns ignoring piece of fruitcake like this?



It would seem to defy logic, to cancel out common sense. "But...But...He was one of us! He was on the side of the angels! What happened?!?"

But this is hardly the first time this has happened. Betsy Wharton, anyone? She too was a groovy, peace and love hippie type who quickly became chummy with the crummy Karen Rogers. Brad Collins? He was done the dirty and forced out of City Hall as an employee by the rotten crew there. You'd think he'd have wanted to get a little getback, and maybe turn some tables on that same rotten crew once he got onto the City Council. Vengeance is mine and righteous justice and all that. Instead, he self-neutered and has been content to be the fattest of fat cats for the Fluoride Four.

And now we have the Son of Peach, Mark Ozias, the latest and greatest disappointment to come sliding out of the political bowels of Clallam County. So yeah, what happened?

Well, per Tyler's comments, I'd say that there's an ingredient missing from that Ozias Peach pie: Pressure. Real, sustained public pressure, both on Ozias himself, and the County, and (perhaps most importantly) on the Clallam County Democratic Party. Without eyes on the prize, boots on the ground, and letters to the editor (or something like that), we all know that the political establishment here will quickly and easily sleazy slide right back to...Well, to that backroom.

Lord knows there are enough examples of that as well. (Good morning, Steve Tharinger!)

My point being...Tyler is right. It's not enough to invest your hope and vote in someone and then just let them go. They're going into a corrupt and cynical environment, a poisonous atmosphere. If they are just left on their own to "adjust" to holding office, you're only going to keep getting more versions of Betsy Wharton-Rogers and Mark Peach.

They need to know you're watching. They need to know what you're thinking. And they, and their party handlers further up the food chain, need to know that you won't be voting for them again if they don't live up to expectations.

Please note: There are exceptions to this rule. When you've elected someone without a functional brain, a la Cherie Kidd, then all bets are off and logic has no part of any discussion.

Correcting the Correction: $550,000 - It's Only (Your) Money

Oh, oops! Did the County FUCK UP? Did they do so in a way that was originally touted as costing (you, the taxpayers) $550,000? Yes they certainly did.

Then, aided and abetted by the Peninsula Daily News, did they briefly try to spin said FUCK UP by lowballing it down to "only" $300,000? Yes they did.

But say, isn't the reality that dealing with this public records FUCK UP, the one that violates State law, will, in fact cost (you, the taxpayer) $550,000? Yes, that is the case. (That's what happens when you have a "systemic failure" with your records keeping.)

Do you know how big a fireworks display you could

have for $550,000?



So, when does the PDN run the big, tell it all and close the case story about this massive, avoidable and expensive FUCK UP? In a Monday paper. On Monday, the 4th of July. When, let's face it, even fewer people than usual will be paying attention. It's not quite a COVER UP of the County's FUCK UP, but it's the closest the PDN could get.

Fireworks anyone? Say, at the public hearing on all of this mess tomorrow? The one that's at 10:30 AM at the County Courthouse? Anyone?

Shamelessly Aggressive Panhandling in Port Angeles!

Here's the deal: The Port of Port Angeles has managed to snag a $200,000 Federal grant to "help improve local air service." You know, the kind that is totally nonexistent in Port Angeles for a variety of reasons.

Were Port Angeles a desirable destination, of course there would be no need to "juice the engine" to entice air carriers, and/or customers. If the economy in Clallam County were thriving, again, there'd be no need to "pass the hat" to try and drum up financial support for carriers and/or passengers. If Port Angeles were enough of a cultural destination, hot real estate market, or happening or successful fill-in-the-blank...You get the picture.

Now, if Cherie Kidd got all put out and bothered by her (make believe) bum who supposedly raked in $200 - enough so that she made it a topic of City Council discussion and raised the threat of "increased penalties" for "aggressive panhandlers" - why then she must be terribly, terribly upset by the Port's overt and aggressive panhandling of the Feds. After all, if her figures and their figures are correct, then what the Port's done is a thousand times worse than what Cherie's tax-free freeloader did.



I can hear her now: "That's not what a proud, independent and American community would do! It's, it's unproud, and undependent and practically un-American! Mister Bloor, isn't there something, I mean, anything, something, we can do to stop this terrible blight on our thriving, beautiful and and and self-sufficient community?"

After all, begging is begging, isn't it? A hat in hand is a hat in hand? Surely the city of Port Angeles is too proud to be looking for a handout...Like a common bum?

Surely? Cherie? Anyone?

You're Not the Boss of Me!

It was like a minor time warp reading the article about the City's Light Operations today. For just a minute, it was like the arrogant and bullying Glenn Cutler had never left when I read...

The City's Public Works and Utilities director, Craig Fulton, balked this week at a recommendation by the State Auditor's Office that his department's Light Operations scrap copper and aluminum wire should be better protected from theft.

Craig Fulton's just an anagram for Glenn Cutler.

But has he also taken on the icky duty of being a

father figure for Paul Gottlieb?



Balked? At a recommendation from a State agency that has a great deal of leverage to tug on your leash? And that is riffing on a past problem your department had? And you balk?

Meanwhile, coming out of the mouth of the person who is supposedly in charge of Mr. Fulton, we hear both a different story and tone...

City Manager Dan McKeen said at Wednesday's City Council meeting that ensuring public trust in the City exceeds the monetary value of the copper and aluminum wire. "We are on the same page," he told the Auditor's Office staff...

Yes, but what page is your own Public Works director on? Don't you two talk before he goes out to shoot his mouth off in public? Has he no shame for the trouble he has brought to the City? Who is really in charge in City Hall? Is it you, Dan McKeen, or the malevolent Ghost of Glenn? Progress? Learning? Growth? I don't think so. What year is it in Port Angeles City Hall?

And speaking of time warp questions...How much time does it take to charge someone in Port Angeles for hitting, running, and killing someone? From what's been presented to the public, you've got the victim, the car, and the driver, all identified. So..?