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PENINSULA DAILY NEWS March 28, 2016 | 75¢
Port Townsend-Jefferson County’s Daily Newspaper
Fire chiefs: Help is needed
Building bale by bale
Volunteers are sought in area BY CHARLIE BERMANT PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
SUBMITTED
PHOTOS
Volunteers transfer bales of straw during construction of a straw-bale home similar to that soon to start in Port Angeles. BELOW: Spring and Michael Thomas are founders of the IronStraw Group.
Model straw home is set to be erected in PA Material is heralded as green alternative, effective insulation BY CHRIS MCDANIEL PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — Michael and Spring Thomas want to demonstrate how strong a house built of straw can be. Straw bales, that is. Compressed and covered in plaster, straw bales stay dry, resist fire and keep energy bills down by providing
superb insulation, said the pair, who are founders of the IronStraw Group, a Sequim-based nonprofit organization. They plan to begin construction of a model straw-bale house this month on property on East Fifth Street near the Peabody Creek ravine in Port Angeles. Michael, 68, and Spring, 69, will live in the 1,600-square-foot home once it is completed. They are currently renting a traditionally built home in Sequim. The new home will include three bedrooms, 2 ½ baths, a free-standing wood-burning stove and various types of flooring on top of a plywood deck above a crawl space, Michael said. Relatively easy to build — and cheap
PORT TOWNSEND — Wanted: More firefighter volunteers. “You may see the doors open and the trucks go out on a call where it appears we have everything under control,” said Quilcene Fire Chief Larry Karp. “People always tell me the fire department is doing great, but they don’t realize we really need their help,” he added. The Quilcene district is asking voters to approve a six-year emergency medical services levy on the April 26 special election ballot to retain three paid positions to augment volunteers. In volunteer recruitment, age isn’t as much of an issue as physical fitness, Karp said. Of the 19 volunteers in Quilcene, 12 are older than 50. Of those, three are in their 70s. “The only person I could get to cover the Coyle Peninsula is in his 70s,” Karp said. “It’s much better to have someone in their 70s than no one at all.”
Big commitment
to maintain — straw-bale homes are especially useful for seniors who want to age in place, meaning that they stay in their own homes as they grow older, the Thomases said. TURN
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Time spent can be an issue as people don’t understand the commitment, according to East Jefferson Fire-Rescue Chief Gordon Pomeroy. “People volunteer for the training and they are out within a year,” he said. “They realize it isn’t for them because it’s so time consuming. By then, we have already spent the resources.” It can take from $6,000 to $8,000 to train a new volunteer, which includes emergency medical technician training and a five-weekend fire school that is required of all volunteer or career firefighters. Fire departments in neighboring Clallam County also are struggling with a dearth of volunteers. TURN
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Legislators aim for budget breakthrough Rep: A vote this week is possible BY CHRIS MCDANIEL PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
OLYMPIA — State Reps. Steve Tharinger and Kevin Van De Wege, both Sequim Democrats, say they are hopeful legislators will be able to reach an agreement this week and approve a supplemental budget. Tharinger and Van De Wege represent the 24th District, which covers Clallam and Jefferson counties and part of Grays Harbor County, along with Sen. Jim Hargrove, a Democrat from Hoquiam. “I would expect us to potentially be voting” on a supplemen-
tal budget sometime this week, Van De Wege said Friday. Today marks the beginning of the third week of a 30-day special session convened by Gov. Jay Inslee after legislators failed to pass a supplemental budget during the regular 60-day session which ended March 10. Inslee also vetoed 27 bills, following through on a threat he had made if lawmakers did not submit a supplemental budget on time. The complete list of vetoed bills can be viewed online at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-Vetoes. House and Senate negotiators are working to reach agreement
on a supplemental budget after both houses passed their own versions. Budget negotiators continued to meet Friday, but action was delayed by the holiday weekend, Tharinger said. “There are just a couple of tough issues and I think they decided they couldn’t get them finished in time to get it all done before the Easter weekend,” he said. “My sense is we will hopefully be done” sometime this week. While he wouldn’t go into specifics, Pat Sullivan, Democratic House majority leader, said Thursday remaining sticking points include one related to overtime for home care workers. “I think they are close to an
Eye on Olympia agreement,” Van De Wege said. “There was some hang-ups around home health care providers, and I think that has been settled. It was around how many hours of overtime they would be allowed because they are state funded.” Tharinger, House Capital Budget Committee chair, said he and his colleagues had been working on the capital budget. “We have pretty much got that squared away,” he said. “We’ve got agreement on that, so that is good.” As far as the operating budget,
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“I think they are making progress,” Tharinger continued. “I think once agreement is made, it takes actually about 30 hours to do Tharinger the paperwork and all that so that people get to see it and see what the language is,” he said. “I think the staff has to work around the clock to do that. Once they shake hands, and everybody is agreed, it is 30 hours to get it all ready to go and all the paperwork caught up with the decisions.”
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