This is Revitalized?!? - or - Please Stop, You're Helping Me to Death! (Updated!)

Thanks once again to Tyler, who took these hot-off-the-presses photos of the newly waterfronted and revitalized Port Angeles, just after the ferry docked and disgorged its passengers...

A million dollars and no sense spent to create a

lengthy and lonely waterfront skate ramp.

 

Summertime, peak tourism time...

and the parking is easy.

 

Note the new pedestrian-friendly sidewalks

and curbs...

 

...But where are the pedestrians?

 

Ah, but there's more to Tyler's pictorial panorama...Now let's fly out to that hub of commerce and so much more, the Fairchild International Airport...

 



If each log had to buy a plane ticket,

Kenmore would still be serving Port Angeles.

 

But...

 

And finally...Leaving planes behind, we see the plain, simple truth that the City (and City Council, naturally) tries so hard to deny...

 

That's no river, that's just a creek...And even

as a creek it looks pretty croaked.

 

Now, some have taken this blog, and me, to task for being too harsh on Port Angeles. But I ask you to really consider if that's even possible. Think about the HUGE amounts of money that have been spent to "revitalize" downtown. Think of all the lip service given to economic development, and to promoting tourism. "Best Town EVER," anyone? I hear that the ONP is seeing a bump in the number of visitors. And yet, for all that, a few photos from the peak of tourist season tell a different story about Port Angeles. There's no there there. As in, no people, no life, no activity.

 

Imagine this: What if, instead of spending all that money on a waterfront development that no one uses, and on an airport that no one flies in or out of...What if instead the so-called civic leaders of Port Angeles simply met out of town cars at the city limits, gave each person in the vehicle fifty dollars cash, and said "Welcome to town!" Now that might result in a tourism boom. That might generate some positive word of mouth. And that might actually result in at least some of that fifty bucks being spent in local businesses. All this other stuff? Wasted on out of town consultants and one-off construction projects. (And don't forget, there's also a cost to maintain all these new developments, too...)

 

As for the Elwha, the river, the water...Do you really need to be a scientist to look at that and see trouble? Do you need to be a hydrologist to see that little trickle and worry about the safety and stability of your water supply? How many times do you have to hear phrases like "climate change" and "the new normal" before you shake yourself out of your stupor and ask what they mean?

 

Those aren't just rhetorical questions. I mean, I really have to wonder what, if anything, the cretins on the City Council see during their waking hours. They clearly don't see those empty sidewalks downtown. ("Heck of a job, Revitalize!") They clearly don't see that river drying up. ("Please only waste water every other day now, okay?") So what do they see?

 

Talk about hire the handicapped...What are the odds of a seven person City Council having six members who are, apparently, legally blind on it? Only in Port Angeles. Only in Clallam County. So for those of you who think this blog is too hard on Port Angeles...Please feel free to tell us all how things aren't as bleak as they seem. Do tell us how the so-called leaders there aren't as stupid and blind as they seem. By all means, feel free, do tell. If you have Kool-Aid, please share it with us.

 

Please.

 

*********

 

And talk about perfect timing...Today's PDN features an article touting that "37 businesses have opened, remodeled or relocated" this year in Port Angeles. It's a "bloom" of businesses, a parade of progress, at least according to the PDN.

 

Well, being that it's such a nice cloudy morning, let's rain (some reality) on that parade.

 

Fact: Most new businesses fail. No matter where they are located. So of the new businesses listed in the PDN, most will be gone within a year.

 

Fact: Some of these listed are being "claimed" by Port Angeles, even though they are outside the city limits.

 

Fact: Some of these new "businesses" hardly speak to Port Angeles being a thriving, successful town - like the Salvation Army dining room and food pantry, for instance.

 

Fact: Just because a business relocates and/or remodels, doesn't mean it's growing or thriving, either. Many of these changes are changes of necessity, owing to the business having originally been located in a building that has fallen into disrepair, and/or is just plain run down and ugly. Absentee landlords are common in Port Angeles.

 

Fact: Those new pot shops were going to open somewhere no matter what. It's not a victory for Port Angeles, or a testament to the go go go growth there. No, it's just a testament to the American desire to getting high. As if Clallam County didn't already have enough of a substance abuse problem, right?

 

Fact: The Chamber of Commerce, still as incompetent as ever, is least being honest about their willingness to lie and deceive.

 

“It's crazy,” said Charlie Comstock, member services manager of the Chamber of Commerce who coordinates the Ambassadors.

 

However, Comstock fields inquiries from people eyeing Clallam County as their new home. He cited one inquiry from a man who noted that Port Angeles' population has grown even as Rayonier and other wood-products industries have closed.

 

Yes, but...the FACT remains that Port Angeles has actually had its population shrink in recent census counts. That's shrink, as in, grown smaller. As in, it doesn't sound like Mr. Comstock takes the time to correct outsiders when they get the FACTS about the town wrong. That's lying by omission, that's deception, and that's one of the many reasons Port Angeles continues to have those empty, empty streets as documented above, even in the heart of nice weather summertime tourist season.

 

Some may try to pass this all off as "panhandlers and empty storefronts" rhetoric, but it's not. This is an observation of the facts - FACTS - about life in Port Angeles, and the incompetence of the leadership there. Tourists pass through, but they don't stay. Government dollars drift through, but have no effect. And businesses come and go - but mostly go.

 

All of which leaves the citizens to suffer.





Even If They're Only Primary, Here Are Some Results

And hello to Mark Ozias!

And hello to Marolee Smith, too!

And now, thank goodness, since the primary is over, we can start looping that loopy Cherie Kidd into any and all election debates and coverage. Darn it if I don't expect some classic pearls of wisdom or two from her.

At any rate, congrats again to Mark and Marolee. Good luck, and have fun kids.

Who Do You Trust With Your Money? Who Do You Trust With Your Trees? (UPDATED!) And Who Do You Trust With Your Prosecution?

The previous posting was titled, "Low Standards Come from Higher Places." Now the County Commissioners, at the behest of the Charter Review Commission, want to explore the possibility of taking back some more local control in setting low standards...

It’s time for Clallam County to take a good, hard look at how its forests are being managed, county commissioners say. The three-member board plans to grant a request from the Charter Review Commission to form a trust lands advisory committee to study the forces that influence timber harvests and the possibility of reconveyance from state management back to the county.

“We’re going to be putting our foot on the accelerator in getting the committee established in the proper way and get them underway so that they can do their work,” said board Chairman Jim McEntire, who also serves on the state Board of Natural Resources.

Timber that DNR was authorized to sell but didn’t sell is known as arrearage. According to DNR numbers, the Olympic region had 247 million board feet of arrearage from 2004 to 2014. That’s enough wood to keep any one of the shuttered West End mills running for years, Forks City Attorney and Planner Rod Fleck has said.

Commissioner Bill Peach, a retired Rayonier forest manager, said the recent closure of the Allen Logging Co. mill south of Forks, coupled with the closure of the Interfor mills in Beaver and Forks and the Green Creek Wood Products mill in Port Angeles, represents the loss of about 300 jobs.

Peach said he hopes the subcommittee will answer the question of why the arrearage is occurring.

DNR officials have said staff shortages, legal challenges and the protection of the threatened marbled murrelet have contributed to a statewide arrearage since the last sustainable harvest calculations were made in 2004.

McEntire sits on an arrearage subcommittee of the influential state Board of Natural Resources. He said the DNR will be making “very significant, even momentous” decisions on arrearage and the marbled murrelet in the coming year.

Commissioner Mike Chapman, the dean of the board with nearly 15 years’ experience, said the county has spent millions of dollars on salmon recovery, water issues, land-use planning, social services, tourism and infrastructure but “virtually nothing in support for the timber industry. So the county’s been derelict in our duty, in my opinion, over the last 15 years in looking at the issue of timber harvest.”

“We’ve got a tremendous asset base here in this county and others...(with) a potential to provide a renewable, constant stream of revenue that offsets the need for property taxes, sales taxes, a plethora of other revenue sources,” McEntire said. “So let’s go get it.”

So let's first ponder the fiscal sanity and stability, in general, of the existing board of County Commissioners. Have they been good and thoughtful and forward-thinking stewards of the tax dollars in their care? Do you trust their fiscal judgment? Their honesty?

Second, let's look at those County Commissioners individually, shall we? First (at the trough) and foremost (with the money grabs) is Dim King Jim, who never met a dollar he didn't want to take home, no matter who it belonged to. This kind of move allows him to, at the very least, play up to his very debased base, which helps in future elections. If he were actually able to bring home this kind of bacon, and follow through with the tax cuts he speaks of here, well that's right wing pandering Heaven, isn't it? And if he were able to help push this kind of thing through at a State level, well gosh, that would give him all sorts of new friends that could help in future elections, too - especially for higher offices.

Then we've got Commissioner Bill Peach, retired from Rayonier's logging division...Hmmm...Think he's got an unbiased view on this issue? Hmmm...Think he still has any connections at his old company? Hmmm...Think he should recuse himself from this sort of discussion? Ha!

And finally, we've got good ol' boy and senior Commissioner Mike Chapman, who points out that the Commissioners, including himself, have been "derelict in their duty" on this issue. While that may be true, it's not exactly the kind of statement that inspires confidence. If you 've been checked out for 15 years, Mike, I don't have much faith in your ability to look, think and/or plan ahead on this, or any issue. You're filling a chair, and padding your resume and bank account, and that's about it. You're not even an ambitious scoundrel like Dim King Jim. No, you're content to fill a chair, and occasionally admit to your own shortcomings, then go back to sleep.

So again...Do you trust these guys with your money? Do you trust them to make informed, unbiased decisions? Do you trust them to be environmental stewards? Is this trio of nitwits capable of any one of these things, yet alone linking them all together to make an informed, fiscally and environmentally sound decision on anything?

And what are we to make of the Charter Review Commission's 10-4 vote to send this issue along to the Commissioners? Is logging really both the past and the future for Clallam County? Or is that group closer to the Charter Rewind Commission, hoping against hope to bring back the "glory days"?

Low Standards Come from Higher Places

You'll all be SO excited to read the following press release, which was sent out yesterday:

 

WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT WINS AWARD FROM STATE

– SECOND CONSECUTIVE YEAR

The City’s Wastewater Treatment Plant has earned the 2014 “Wastewater Treatment Plant Outstanding Performance” award from the Washington State Department of Ecology (DOE).  Of approximately 300 wastewater treatment plants statewide, ours is one of 127 that achieved full compliance with its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit in 2014.

 

Heather Bartlett, DOE Water Quality Program Manager, said, “It takes diligent operators and a strong management team, working effectively together, to achieve this high level of compliance.  It is not easy to operate a wastewater treatment plant 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, without violations.  This is the second consecutive year the Port Angeles Wastewater Treatment Plant received this award. Your excellent record is a credit to the dedicated operators who are responsible for operating this award-winning plant.”

 

The Plant passed all tests for compliance with effluent limits, monitoring and reporting requirements, spill prevention planning, pretreatment, and overall operational demands of the NPDES permit. 

I always pictured Hollywood as being a little more

glamorous than this...

So...

I guess the DOE is hunky dory with the CSO overflows now? With the City's well-known leaky water pipes? With the City's underwhelming response to the drying up rivers and drought? With all those utility customers who can't pay their bills each month? Heck of a job, PA!

Yes, it's thanks to the great, thorough oversight like this that Port Angeles has become the modern, thriving and sustainable model city that it is. Because no matter how low the State sets the bar, the City will find a way to slither under it.

If Port Angeles is doing so well on wastewater issues...

How come these signs get so much use there?