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PENINSULA DAILY NEWS January 5, 2016 | 75¢
Port Angeles-Sequim-West End
Tax break could end for Clallam
Cash for trash cans
Chapman, Ozias voice support for 8.4% rate BY ROB OLLIKAINEN PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Jason Paynter, solid waste supervisor for Port Angeles, looks over a line of used residential garbage bins destined for recycling, avoiding the cost of their disposal.
Port Angeles recycles bins into found money Old containers can be reused for their plastic BY LEAH LEACH PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — Now the city is recycling even the containers for garbage. A city employee’s idea for recycling garbage containers has reduced the amount of solid waste that must be shipped from Port Angeles while also
saving the city money. Jason Paynter, solid waste collections supervisor, found a way to recycle plastic garbage bins that had outlived their usefulness. About 14,000 pounds of garbage bins were hauled off in August by Denton Plastics, a recycling company in Portland., Ore., that recycles high-density polyethylene, of which city garbage bins are made. Denton Plastics sent the city a check for $2,520. Combined with the savings of $1,031 in disposal fees, the city realized a gain of $3,551. Now, the city solid waste crew
is cleaning and storing more used garbage bins, which are destined to be transported by the recycler once there is enough to fill a semi-truck. Paynter, who has worked for the city for nearly 14 years, had been researching a recycler for the garbage bins for about a year and a half, he said. In 2001, the city began replacing the 300-gallon containers that had served three houses each with individual 90-gallon containers, buying about 6,000 of the smaller containers, he said. TURN
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PORT ANGELES — A sunset could be on the horizon for Clallam County’s sales tax holiday. Two commissioners Monday said they would support restoring the sales tax rate to 8.4 percent effective April 1 for items purchased in unincorporated areas. All three commissioners agreed to invite other elected officials and department heads to weigh in on a proposal to end a 0.2-percent tax break that took effect last July. Commissioners Mike Chapman, Bill Peach and former Commissioner Jim McEntire agreed last April to lower the tax to 8.2 percent in an effort to spur the local economy. “I think in our hearts we thought we were doing the right thing at the time,” Chapman said in the board work session Monday. “But what we didn’t do is we didn’t go to our leadership team and we didn’t get their advice, and I would even go so far that on a big decision like this, there should have been advice and consent.”
Extended work session Chapman proposed an extended work session for 1 p.m. Monday for elected officials, department heads and key deputies to discuss with the board the sales tax rate and other big-ticket items. “None of us are above anybody else,” Chapman told county officials. “I ask, please help us figure this out as we move forward.”
Mike Chapman Clallam County commissioner Chapman and newly sworn-in Commissioner Mark Ozias said they would support returning the sales tax rate to 8.4 percent. Peach said he was “firmly opposed” to the idea.
Ozias concerned Ozias, who defeated McEntire in last year’s election and took office last Tuesday, said he was “concerned about the sustainability” of the county budget. “I think it makes good sense to do this sooner rather than later as one step,” Ozias said. County Administrator Jim Jones said the sales tax holiday represents a loss of about $100,000 in monthly revenue. Clallam County budgeted to receive $4.6 million in sales tax revenue this year. For consumers, the tax break means a $100 purchase costs 20 cents less now than it did seven months ago. TURN
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Jefferson’s first baby of 2016 is welcomed Girl is born to Chimacum parents BY ARWYN RICE PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County’s first baby of 2016 was born Sunday morning at Jefferson Healthcare hospital. Emma Claire Schaitel was born at 6:40 a.m. to Chimacum residents Jennifer White, 37, and Sean Schaitel, 33. “It was probably one of the hardest but most rewarding experiences I have ever had. She’s beautiful and perfect,” White said. White was due Dec. 28 and the couple “took it easy” over the holidays. Emma kept them waiting for five more days, she said.
tors of Solstice Farm, and Emma Claire is their first child. “I’m thinking of what she’s The healthy new baby girl going to be, who she will be,” weighed 7 pounds, 6 ounces, and White said. was 21 inches long. “She’s a long-legged girl,” Class of 2034 White said. Baby Emma and other babies Labor and delivery, and the born before Sept. 1 this year will first day with their new child, was be members of the Class of 2034. so hectic White said she did not The doctors and nurses at the realize that her baby was the first hospital were wonderful and of the new year in Jefferson White’s mother, Georgiana White, County. and a friend, Dana Nixon, were helpful and supportive, she said. Surprise for mom The new family will receive a gift basket from the nurses at the “They might have told me at hospital, who gathered and handCHARLIE BERMANT/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS some point,” she said, but as of Monknit a collection of new baby items day morning the news came as a for the first baby of the new year. The first Jefferson County baby of 2016, Emma Claire Schaitel, was born at 6:40 a.m. Sunday to Jennifer White, surprise to the new mother. TURN TO BABY/A6 37, and Sean Schaitel, 33, of Chimacum. White and Schaitel are opera-
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