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PENINSULA DAILY NEWS July 26, 2016 | 75¢
Port Townsend-Jefferson County’s Daily Newspaper
County signs on reroute project
Community effort
Undie Road plan totals $1.1 million BY JESSE MAJOR PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Toma Villa of Suquamish, along with his daughter, Ana, 9, take a moment away from finishing a mural they are painting on what was a bare wall in the pavilion at The Gateway transit center in downtown Port Angeles last week.
Completed PA mural tells of Klallam warriors’ feat New transit center painting depicts heroic log-lift story BY PAUL GOTTLIEB PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — The newly completed mural at The Gateway transit center depicts Klallam warriors lifting a prodigious, carved cedar log out of the water in one exhaustive effort.
It took a community effort, too, for the tribal legend depicted by muralist Toma Villa and completed Friday to come together, said Suzie Bennett, manager of the Lower Elwha Klallam Heritage Center, who spearheaded the project. “A project like this does not come together easily,” she said. “It took a lot of time and effort and people to come together and figure it out.” The transit center’s cinder block facade serves as a canvas for the 400-square-foot story mural, which depicts the genesis behind the Klallam name, translated into English as “Strong People.”
Bennett said tribal leaders and Villa went back and forth on about a halfdozen mural iterations before agreeing on the depiction that now splashes with color the once drab transit center atrium. After more than a year of decision making and funding acquisition, Villa took 17 days to turn legend into palpable art.
‘Really overwhelming’ “Finally seeing it up on the wall, it was really overwhelming, and it just filled my heart with happiness to finally see it finished,” Bennett said. TURN
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PORT TOWNSEND –– Jefferson County Commissioners committed $1.1 million Monday to rerouting Undie Road around a section with significant damage in West Jefferson County. Commissioners approved a $905,310 contract with Interwest Construction Inc. of Burlington and approved spending $210,000 for access to a state Department of Natural Resources easement for the project. Interwest is expected to start construction on the West End road project Aug. 1 and should finish by the end of this construction season, according to the contract. The contractor will construct a new 0.86 mile gravel road. The work also includes land clearing, roadway excavation, embankment compaction, culvert installation, gravel base and surfacing, temporary erosion control, guardrails and other work. The 0.8-mile stretch of Undie Road on the north bank of the Bogachiel River south of Forks was severely damaged during fall and winter storms and is now reduced to one barely navigable lane. The current project is intended to create an alternate route using 1.3 miles of existing Natural Resources road and another 0.86 miles of steep terrain construction. According to the plan, an alternate route will be constructed that will follow existing Natural Resources roads for approximately 1.3 miles, at which point a new road will be constructed for approximately 0.86 miles and connect with Undie Road beyond the damaged area. Several options have been discussed by commissioners since the damage occurred, including considering canceling the job and forcing the 13 people living beyond the damaged section of road to fend for themselves. TURN
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Swimmer plans to cross Strait in wet suit Seeks support vessel for attempt BY JESSE MAJOR PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES –– A Coast Guard rescue swimmer and advanced helicopter rescue instructor hopes to swim across the Strait of Juan de Fuca this week, but needs a support vessel before he attempts the swim. Blake Arnold, stationed in U.S. Coast Guard Aviation Training Center in Mobile, Ala., plans to swim from Sooke, B.C. to Crescent Bay this week — if he can secure the support boat. His swim would not be sanctioned by the Northwest Open Water Swimming Association, a nonprofit that observes, docu-
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ments and records marathon swims in the Pacific Northwest, because he is planning to attempt the swim wearing a wet suit, something that is prohibited in sanctioned marathon swims. When Arnold purchased his airline ticket to Port Angeles he had an escort boat secured, but repairs for that boat fell behind schedule and the plan fell through, he said. “My support vessel is my lifeline,” he said. He will not make the swim if he cannot secure another boat. Arnold is asking experienced boaters who would like to help out to give him a call at 334-333-8688.
He doesn’t have a minimum requirement for the boat, just that it will go slow and take a beating from the wind and waves. “I have to know they are very experienced,” he said. “I wouldn’t allow just anyone to help me without speaking to them at length. I’m not going to put myself or anyone else at risk.” He hasn’t yet planned any specific day for the swim — which would be about 10.4 miles — but hopes to do it sometime this week. His plan is that he and his crew, including a kayaker, would leave Port Angeles in the morning, travel to Victoria to check in with customs, and then he would Coast Guard rescue swimmer Blake Arnold is making swim back from Sooke. plans to swim from Sooke, B.C., to Crescent Bay this TURN TO SWIM/A6 week — if he can find a support vessel.
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