Tuesday
Grab the Money Tree
Rain continues its reign over the Peninsula B10
Great discounts on local dining and services A8
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS January 19, 2016 | 75¢
Port Angeles-Sequim-West End
Clallam timber talks start Council stumbles over Kidd, position Trust lands delegate appointment halted BY PAUL GOTTLIEB PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — It was a stop-thepresses moment, one that revealed a rift on the City Council that will likely come to light at tonight’s meeting at 6 p.m. at City Hall. Last week, council member Lee Whetham was successful in halting council colleague Cherie Kidd’s appointment to the Clallam County Trust Land Advisory Committee just as county commissioners were set to name her to the position. Then-Mayor Dan Di Giulio said last week that, faced with a Jan. 5 deadline, he recommended Kidd as the city’s interim representative on the panel on Dec. 29 or Dec. 30 on an interim basis. He made the decision after the last council meeting of the year Dec. 15 to provide a solution until the City Council could consider it and other board and commission appointments.
KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Members of the Trust Lands Advisory Committee convene on Friday at the Clallam County Courthouse.
Advisory committee members get crash course in forest operations agement of 92,525 acres of revenue-producing forest trust lands. If reconveyance is not recommended, PORT ANGELES — Members of the the committee will look for ways to help Clallam County Trust Lands Advisory DNR fulfill its trust mandate to the Committee have been given a crash county and its citizens and junior taxcourse in forest management. ing districts that rely on revenue from Kyle Blum, state Department of Nat- timber sales. ural Resources deputy supervisor for The elected Charter Review Comstate uplands, outlined the complexities mission voted 10-4 last summer to recof DNR management of Clallam County ommend the trust lands committee. trust lands in a nearly four-hour meeting last Friday. Arrearage The presentation laid the groundA motivating factor was arrearage — work for future meetings of the advisory committee in February and March. timber that DNR was supposed to sell but did not sell in the past decade. The 20-member advisory committee On Feb. 19, DNR officials and a U.S. was tasked by county commissioners to Fish and Wildlife Service expert will determine whether it makes sense for brief the committee on the Forest PracClallam County to take back the man-
BY ROB OLLIKAINEN
Email sent
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
City Office Administrative Assistant Kari Martinez-Bailey informed current Mayor Patrick Downie, Kidd and City Manager Dan McKeen of the appointment in a Dec. 31 email. Martinez-Bailey said in her email that “Di Giulio has appointed Councilmember Cherie Kidd” to the committee. “With the election of a new councilmember [Michael Merideth], specifically with the election of a new mayor at our first meeting of the year on Jan. 5, this could change, though until further notice please accept our endorsement.” Clallam County Board of Commissioners’ Chairman Mike Chapman said the commissioners were on the verge of rubber-stamping the mayor’s move Jan. 12. TURN
TO
KIDD/A5
tices Act, DNR’s Habitat Conservation Plan, the federal Endangered Species Act and other environmental requirements. “And then I’ll come back in March and talk about the sustainable harvest and how it’s constructed and what the numbers are and how we performed,” Blum told his fellow committee members Friday. “And that will feed into a really good discussion about the arrearage and what it is.”
Recommendations The committee will provide an interim report to county commissioners by April 15 and make its final recommendations by Dec. 31. TURN
TO
LANDS/A5
Less snow, more rain led an unusual 2015 Warmer, wetter for Sequim, PA BY ROB OLLIKAINEN PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Despite a declared drought across the Pacific Northwest, 2015 was unusually wet for most of the North Olympic Peninsula. Port Angeles and Sequim each had above-normal rainfall in 2015, but above-normal temperatures and a resulting lack of mountain snow led to diminished river flows and widespread water restrictions, according to the Western Regional Climate Center and National Weather Service. Forks was warmer than normal, too, but came several inches short
Your Peninsula
Snowpack The mild winter contributed to a dismal snowpack for the Olympic Mountains and other ranges. Snowpack in the Olympics was 3 percent of normal in February and 1 percent of normal by May. The Dungeness River flow fell to 110 cubic feet per second in late July, which triggered a call from the Sequim-Dungeness Water Users Association for its members to curtail water usage to the point of choosing to let some crops die.
of its usual 10 feet of annual rain. While 2015 statistics were not available for Port Townsend, the city’s backup water supply reservoir was tapped enough for officials to impose water restrictions for East Jefferson County. “That drought was for the snowpack,” said Johnny Burg, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle. “We did have a dry stretch, but we ended up getting a lot of rain back toward December. Port Angeles “The year finished off above normal as far as precipitation Last year was the warmest goes, but it was the snowpack and wettest for Port Angeles since 1998 and warmer and wetter [that caused the drought].”
Stay up-to-date and informed about the latest
LOCAL NEWS • SPORTS • POLITICS
than most years since 1933. With 12 days of data missing from the National Weather Service station at William R. Fairchild International Airport, the average high in Port Angeles last year was 59 degrees, Burg said. The average low was 43.2 degrees, and the net average for Port Angeles was a balmy 51.1 degrees. The historical average temperature for Port Angeles is 49.4 degrees. “We were in an El Niño through most of this year,” Burg said. Burg added that El Niño years are generally associated with warmer-than-normal conditions for Western Washington. With 45.9 inches of precipitation in 2015, Port Angeles had its wettest year since instruments
Your Newspaper
305 W. 1st Street, Port Angeles www.peninsuladailynews.com
were moved to the airport in 1998, Burg said. The average precipitation for the city is 27.1 inches.
Sequim Last year, Sequim averaged 51 degrees and collected 23.1 inches of rain. That compares to an average temperature of 49.3 and an average annual precipitation of 16.5 inches, according to historical statistics from 1916 to 1980. TURN
TO
WEATHER/A5
100th year, 15th issue — 2 sections, 18 pages
591418260
360-452-4507 • 800-826-7714
■ State, local leaders eye Sequim site for reservoir/A5
INSIDE TODAY’S PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
CALL NOW TO SUBSCRIBE
Your Peninsula. Your Newspaper.
ALSO . . .
BUSINESS CLASSIFIED COMICS COMMENTARY DEAR ABBY DEATHS HOROSCOPE LETTERS NATION/WORLD
B4 B7 B6 A7 B6 A6 B6 A7 A3
*PENINSULA SPOTLIGHT
PENINSULA POLL PUZZLES/GAMES SPORTS WEATHER
A2 B8 B1 B10