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PENINSULA DAILY NEWS June 9, 2016 | 75¢
Port Angeles-Sequim-West End
Sheriff talks heroin issues
‘Saunter’ in PA serves as prep for tsunami
Deputies target larger dealers BY ROB OLLIKAINEN PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
KEITH THORPE(2)/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Iris Suttcliffe, center, and Dan Boon, right, both wearing vests, lead a group in a “Tsunami Saunter” on Wednesday to raise awareness of how an earthquake-triggered tsunami would affect downtown Port Angeles. The group marched from Port Angeles City Pier to the high ground of Vern Burton Community Center during the exercise. Playing the role of a tsunami wave, Josh Suttcliffe of Port Angeles, below, prepares to shoo saunter participants to higher ground as his wife, Iris, looks on at left.
Earthquake drill raises awareness of potential dangers BY PAUL GOTTLIEB PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — A man holding a sign with an elephant saying “Go up” — as in get to higher ground — led a dozen would-be earthquake victims on a Tsunami Saunter through downtown Port Angeles on Wednesday as part of the fourday regionwide Cascadia Rising drill. Organizers of the exercise, which ends Friday, were assessing how city, county, state and federal emergency responders would handle the inevitable tsunami, loss of power and broken landscape a 9.0-magnitude earthquake would cause in coastal communities throughout Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. Cascadia exercise officials battling ho-hum attitudes about the catastrophe took a humorous approach to preparing the public. TURN
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PORT ANGELES — About 300 heroin users in Clallam County spend a combined $9 million to feed their addictions every year, Sheriff Bill Benedict said Wednesday. At least 200 pounds of black tar heroin arrives in Clallam County from Mexico to satisfy that demand, Benedict told about 50 members of the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce at their luncheon. “I’m going to offer to you that our reliance on the criminal justice system to fix Benedict this problem might be just a little overrated,” Benedict said at the gathering at the Elwha Klallam Heritage Center. “We cannot restrict the supply. As hard as we try, it’s going to get in.” About half of the heroin users served by the Clallam County syringe exchange program are “well known to the criminal justice system,” Benedict said. “There is a strong connection with heroin use to crime, particularly property crime,” Benedict said. “They are some of our prolific burglars. It’s a revolving door.” In response to the growing heroin and opioid drug problem, the Sheriff’s Office-sponsored Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team has shifted its focus to target large-scale dealers. The Clallam County jail has begun an innovative medical program to help opioid users come down from their highs with Suboxone, Benedict said. TURN
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PA police identify Man to attempt Strait swim Francisco hit-and-run victim San swimmer would Leads pursued for damaged car BY JESSE MAJOR PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
interim Chief Brian Smith of the Port Angeles Police Department. “We’re actively following up on leads as we get them,” he said. “We’ve got right now three detectives working on this.”
PORT ANGELES — Police identified the victim of Monday night’s fatal hit-and-run as Robert Simmons, a 50-year-old Port Angeles resident described as humble and gentle by those who Positive results knew him. Smith said those leads have Detectives on Wednesday were lead to some “positive results,” seeking the driver of a white, without providing details. damaged vehicle that might have been involved in the accident, said TURN TO LEADS/A4
Your Peninsula
be eighth to finish BY LEAH LEACH PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — A man who has swum the English Channel, Catalina Channel and the Strait of Gibraltar will attempt to swim across the Strait of Juan de Fuca today. Steve Walker, 48, of San Francisco, will attempt to become the eighth person to complete a solo, unassisted, non-stop swim across the Strait.
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“I’m old, fat and bald,” he said Wednesday. Walker — who is the CEO of Cobaltix, a technology consulting company in San Francisco — swam the English Channel in 1996 before taking a 15-year break from marathon swimming. He swam the Straits of Gibraltar last April, he said, and the Catalina Channel in November. Today’s 10.4-mile swim — which will be without a wetsuit — is expected to begin at about 9 a.m. at Beechey Head, west of Victoria on Vancouver Island and end between five and seven hours later on a beach near Crescent Bay, west of Port Angeles, said Andrew Malinak of Seattle, swim manager.
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To track the swimmer’s progress, see http://tinyurl.com/ PDN-straitswimmer. TURN
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Malinak completed the Strait swim in September 2015. He is president of the Northwest Open Water Swimming Association (NOWSA), a 501(c)(3) that observes, documents and records marathon swims in the Pacific Northwest. Also on board for the swim will be Capt. Charles Martin of the Water Limousine in Sequim; Scott Lautman, NOWSA official observer; and Erika Norris, swim support.
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