Thursday
Despain finishes 1st
Rain’s reign continues over Peninsula A8
All-Peninsula Cross Country MVP, choices B1, B3
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS January 14 14,, 2016 | 75¢
Port Angeles-Sequim-West End
Ridge’s Poma open for skiers
Plans and proposals
Full operation on long weekend BY ARWYN RICE PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PAUL GOTTLIEB/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Members of the public look at displays and talk with military representatives during Tuesday’s open house on Navy plans to build a submarine escort pier and support buildings on Ediz Hook.
Public gets early views of Navy Ediz Hook pier project BY PAUL GOTTLIEB PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — One military staffer was available for every three participants at an open house Tuesday evening on Navy plans to build a submarine-escort-vessel pier and support buildings on popular Ediz Hook. Some 25 Navy and Coast Guard personnel staffed the open house Tuesday evening in Port Angeles, which drew between 70 and 75 people. “The first thing I thought of was, why did they need like 30 people?” Jane Vanderhoof said Wednesday. “The Navy was totally controlling the flow of things. “Taxpayers’ money was going to these guys sitting around trying to talk us into something.” Leanne Johnson of Port Angeles said
KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
skirt a buffer zone around the facilities. at the open house that she was conHer concerns were addressed “for the cerned about access to Ediz Hook for most part,” she said. her and her son and impediments to TURN TO NAVY/A4 rowers and kayakers who would have to
OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — The Poma lift has begun operating and is expected to be open Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The lift to the Hurricane Ridge Ski and Snowboard Area’s longer, steeper runs began operation Jan. 9, and plans are to open it again for the long Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend. “You need to be at least an intermediatelevel skier,” said Russ Morrison, a past president of the Hurricane Ridge Ski and Snowboard Club, which operates the ski area in Olympic National Park. Hurricane Ridge Road will be open, weather permitting, Friday through Monday, although the Poma lift will not be open until Saturday. Monday will be a free entry day to the park. The ski area needs about 2 more feet of snow for the best possible ski conditions, but the current snow is excellent for so early in the season, Morrison said. During the past week, some snow has fallen, but it was not certain how much because the automated weather station on Hurricane Ridge is broken, and no one has been to the area since Sunday, he said. As of Wednesday morning, the park service reported 70 inches of snow — 5.8 feet — with at least 3 inches of new snow at the snow stake. Morrison said last weekend’s Poma opening is among the earliest he could remember, and he has been skiing at Hurricane Ridge since 1968. The combination of the early opening and clear weather has produced very busy ski weekends, he added. When the parking lot is full, long lines can form at the Heart o’ the Hills entry station because only one car is allowed up for each car that exits the parking lot at the Ridge. TURN
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1st Security taking over 4 bank branches Staff to stay; accounts move Jan. 25 BY CHARLIE BERMANT PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT TOWNSEND — Once Bank of America leaves the Olympic Peninsula, its replacement will provide a level of customer service not available from a large national bank, according to the 1st Security Bank CEO. “We are the benefactor of Bank of America’s decision to get out of the marketplace, which is shocking to me,” Joe Adams told about 60 people at a meeting of the Port Townsend Kiwanis Club on Wednesday. “We are really excited to be out
Your Peninsula
here and to be part of these communities.” At noon Jan. 22, Bank of America locations in Port Townsend, Port Hadlock, Sequim and Port Angeles will close. They will reopen as branches of 1st Security at 9 a.m. Jan. 25. The bank has no plans to close branches. The impending sale of four North Olympic Peninsula branch locations to 1st Security Bank, based in Mountlake Terrace, was announced in September. No purchase price has been reported. The four branches join the seven the bank has in Seattle, Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mill Creek,
Redmond, Poulsbo and Puyallup. The four Peninsula branches began life as Seafirst Bank and were purchased by Bank of America in 1983. The transfer to 1st Security signals a return to local service, Adams said. He compared the newly configured bank to locally-owned Kitsap Bank and First Federal. There is enough room for all these community banks, he said, and enough big bank business that community banks can acquire. All 29 Bank of America employees on the Peninsula have opted CHARLIE BERMANT/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS to work for 1st Security, which Adams said will help the bank 1st Security Bank CEO Joe Adams, left, and loan officer Terence Fleischer address the Port Townsend Kiwanis interact with the public.
Club on Wednesday about the bank’s purchase of four
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