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PENINSULA DAILY NEWS July 7, 7, 2016 | 75¢
Port Angeles-Sequim-West End
Field of performing dreams Council
votes 6-1 for baseball Unnamed team to play in 2017 BY JESSE MAJOR PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Brooke Taylor, left, and Dorothy Field, board members of a committee tasked with the design and construction of a performing arts center, visit the proposed site on Wednesday at Front and Oak streets along the Port Angeles waterfront.
2nd gift secures land for Port Angeles arts center Property purchase puts planned facility at city waterfront BY ROB OLLIKAINEN PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — A new performing arts center envisioned for Port Angeles will occupy property on Oak Street, the Peninsula College Foundation has announced. Dorothy Field of Port Angeles has gifted the foundation $1.425 million to
purchase the undeveloped land on the northwest corner of Front and Oak streets near the city waterfront, officials said Wednesday. “I love Port Angeles and its arts community, and I just wanted to do my part,” Field said in a news release. The 70,000-square-foot Oak Street property will house a venue that will be designed and built thanks to a $9 million gift from late Port Angeles resident Donna Morris, who died in 2014. The sale of the Oak Street property to the Peninsula College Foundation was privately negotiated with Mr. and Mrs. Tod McClaskey Jr. of Vancouver, Wash., who also own Olympic Lodge in Port Angeles.
Negotiations resulted in a “bargain sale” with a purchase price that was $350,000 less than the $1.76 million appraised value, officials said. The Peninsula College Foundation is serving as a conduit for the funds that Morris bequeathed. An ad hoc Performing Arts Center Committee was formed five months ago to oversee the project. “We are grateful that the McClaskeys … were willing to make this significant contribution to the project,” said S. Brooke Taylor, Performing Arts Center Committee chairman and retired Clallam County Superior Court judge. TURN
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PORT ANGELES –– Port Angeles will soon be home to a new West Coast League wood-bat baseball team. The City Council approved in a 6-1 decision Tuesday a three-year agreement with MACK Athletics Inc., allowing the organization to bring in a team to play and practice at Civic Field. “I want us to change the culture of this community where we can have fun together at a ball game,” said Mayor Patrick Downie. “One of the ways we weave the community together is through a fun, winning baseball team with fine young men who are heading to the major leagues.” The team, which has yet to be named, will debut in June 2017 with up to 36 summertime games, said Lacey resident Matt Acker, owner of the WCL Kitsap BlueJackets and founder and co-owner of MACK Athletics. The team would recruit college-aged players from across the country and residents would likely see players stay on the team for two to four years, he said. “If we’re getting the right players, two years is about the longest you’re ever going to see them,” he said, adding that players usually progress into the minor and major leagues. “Then you see them as better players on television.”
Members concerned Two council members raised concerns that the agreement was getting approved too quickly with little discussion by the council. Councilman Lee Whetham, who voted against approving the agreement, said he wanted to see more details from city staff and asked to call for a vote in two weeks. TURN
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PT council delays action on ethics officer Officials mull committee concept BY CHARLIE BERMANT PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT TOWNSEND — The Port Townsend City Council has decided to delay selecting a temporary ethics officer to handle a complaint, opting instead to schedule a public hearing for today and consider selecting a committee that would publicly pick an ethics officer. City Attorney Steve Gross had suggested hiring Seattle attorney Peter Eglick to handle an ethics complaint accusing city staff of a conflict of interest with the complicity of the City Council. Mark Cole, former owner and
Your Peninsula
manager of the Upstage Restaurant, filed the complaint with the city June 24, alleging that city government violated its own code of ethics and did not follow procedures during an eviction process. The council will again address the matter at a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. today in chambers at historic City Hall, 540 Water St. In his complaint, Cole alleges that David Peterson — who in 2008 took ownership of the Terry Building, which housed Upstage — used his official position as city engineer for his own benefit, with the complicity of city staff and the City Council.
Because several members of the City Council and staff are named in the complaint and the city has no full-time ethics examiner, Gross recommended that Eglick hear the case and administer a judgment. After public comments and discussion among council at a meeting Tuesday, the board decided to postpone the appointment of an ethics officer until the process and the candidate were properly vetted. In his address to council, Cole said he learned about the Tuesday meeting from an article in that day’s Peninsula Daily News, CHARLIE BERMANT/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS despite the fact that Gross had Mark Cole, the former owner of the Upstage Restaurant written Cole an email June 27 and Bistro, addresses the Port Townsend City Council on promising to “keep you informed.” Tuesday night. In the background are Public Works TURN
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UPSTAGE/A5 Director Ken Clow, left, and Police Chief Michael Evans.
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