Wednesday
Area golfers in top 10
Tug of war between sun and clouds B12
Sequim, Chimacum players are in solid position B1
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS May 25, 25, 2016 | 75¢
Port Angeles-Sequim-West End
Commission takes up PA plan tonight
Testing the waters?
Public hearing is set on city’s land-use roadmap BY PAUL GOTTLIEB PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
CHARLIE BERMANT/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Fort Flagler volunteer Harold Briggs stands outside the park’s woodshop Tuesday. Washington State Parks is investigating the idea of allowing some commercial vendors in some parks.
Fort Flagler State Park eyed for pilot project Program would increase private development BY CHARLIE BERMANT PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
MARROWSTONE ISLAND — Fort Flagler State Park is one of two in the state parks system that could be tapped for a pilot program to bring in more private business development. Staff members gave a report to the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission last
Thursday on possibly seeking proposals for private development of some park visitor amenities such as cabins or food service in two state parks — Fort Flagler on Marrowstone Island and Millersylvania, 10 miles south of Olympia in Thurston County. As proposed, the property would stay under state ownership, with leases granted to private investors. The next time the state commission could consider voting on the pilot proposal would be in September. “We have concession agreements with commercial ventures already and have for years,” said
Virginia Painter, State Parks spokeswoman. As Brian Hageman, the manager of Fort Flagler, Fort Worden and four other area state parks, said: “Normally with parks we tend to sit back and let someone come to us and say, ‘Hey, we’d like to put an ice cream or a hot dog stand in your park.’ ” The difference in that and the present proposal, according to Painter, “is we’ve scanned the system to find properties that might be good sites for more development where we would put out a request to find out what the interest might be. TURN
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PORT ANGELES — How the city will accommodate a projected 5,000 new residents over the next 20 years will be considered today by the city planning commission. Commission members will take testimony on policies outlined in the proposed updated comprehensive plan at a public hearing beginning at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St. The hearing will be followed by a discussion among planning commission members that could result in a recommendation to the City Council. Under state law, the council must approve the revised landuse roadmap by June 30, Nathan West, city community and economic development director, said Tuesday. The City Council could hold a first reading of the plan June 7 and a second reading June 21, followed by passage that same night, West told 40 Port Angeles Business Association breakfast meeting participants. Tonight’s planning commission hearing will mark the 10th formal opportunity for public comment on the plan in public forum, workshop and “community conversation” settings, West said.
View copy of plan Associate Planner Scott Johns said later Tuesday that the plan came out in final form on the city’s website at www.cityofpa.us. To view a copy of the plan, go to “Meetings & Agendas” on the home page, then click on “Final” under “Agenda Packet” for the planning commission. Johns said the plan has not
Nathan West Port Angeles community and economic development director been this broadly updated since 2004. Johns said areas for potential residential growth, including multi-family housing, cover north of 18th Street to the city waterfront in west Port Angeles. “There are 50 acres of land zoned to become residential that are all completely treed now that are not developed in any way, shape or form,” he said. Residential expansion opportunities also include the downtown business core, particularly on second floors of buildings, West said. “Really, what we are trying to accommodate is the overall community’s vision for the future and what they’d like the community to look like 20 years from today,” he said. The document sets policies for land-use regulations for a city with a population of 19,256 as of July 1, 2014, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. TURN
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Official: County on track with budget so far Clallam administrator’s review has better-than-expected finances expenditures are right on track, and revenue is, as good as we can estimate it, also doing well,” Jones PORT ANGELES — While it’s said at the commissioners’ work too early to make firm projections, session. Clallam County so far is keeping up with its 2016 budget, County General fund reserves Administrator Jim Jones told Clallam County budgeted to commissioners this week. Jones on Monday presented a spend $2.94 million in general four-month budget performance fund reserves to cover a projected review comparing actuals to bud- deficit in its $37.1 million general get, saying county finances at the fund for day-to-day operations. “So far, we’ve actually added end of April were “a little bit bet$737,834 to the reserve balance,” ter than we expected.” “My statement to you is that Jones said. BY ROB OLLIKAINEN PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
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Jones cautioned that revenues at the end of April are “problematic” because half of the annual property tax collections are in. Property tax, he added, is Clallam County’s largest source of revenue. “We’re not going to get any more property tax, or very little, for the next couple of months,” Jones said. “So we’re ahead of the game on the revenue side.” Expenditures in the general fund are more reliable and easier to track than revenue because personnel accounts for most spending, Jones said. “We’re doing fine on the expenditures,” he added. With a 33.3 percent target at
The budget performance review was requested in January by Commissioner Bill Peach and supported by Commissioners Mike Chapman and Mark Ozias. The early glance will be followed by a thorough midyear budget review that commissioners receive every July. “Everything kind of catches up at the midyear,” Jones said.
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Jones, an 11th-year county administrator, has assembled a decade’s worth of data that tracks midyear actual expenses and revenues by Jones department and fund compared to the next year’s budget. “We do a rolling five-year average adjusted for any anomalies, and we have a really good projection that works pretty well,” Jones said of the midyear review. TURN
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the end of April, general fund expenditures were tracking at 29.1 percent of the annual budget. General fund revenues were at 33.7 percent of a budgeted $34.2 million, according to a spreadsheet prepared by Jones and Budget Director Debi Cook.
BUSINESS CLASSIFIED COMICS COMMENTARY DEAR ABBY DEATHS HOROSCOPE LETTERS NATION/WORLD
B5 B7 B6 A9 B6 A8 B6 A9 A5
*PENINSULA SPOTLIGHT
PENINSULA POLL PUZZLES/GAMES SPORTS WEATHER
A4 B8 B1 B12