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Port Angeles-Sequim-West End
May 11, 2011
Canal bridge to see limits on closures Openings prevented for 3 hours daily in summer By Paul Gottlieb Peninsula Daily News
SHINE — The Coast Guard has announced a summer pilot project that will prevent pleasure boaters from causing openings of the Hood Canal Bridge — which closes it to traffic — between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. daily from May 27 through Sept. 30. If at least one hour’s notice is given, the bridge opens for boats
that are too large or tall to pass under its trusses. About half of them are Navy vessels — including submarines from Naval Base Kitsap in Bangor — which won’t be included in the pilot program and will continue to prompt bridge openings as needed. It can take more than a halfhour to open and close the bridge, which connects Jefferson and Kit-
Jeff Chew/Peninsula Daily News
Hood Canal Bridge’s new east half almost sparkles in the sun in June 2009. sap counties. The delay backs up vehicles on the two-lane highway — which also snarls local residents’ access to driveways and cross streets,
causing them to be late for and 6 p.m. Summer is the busiest time for appointments and work. The plot project will give resi- closures because more pleasure dents some assurance they can boats are on Hood Canal. freely come and go between 3 p.m. Turn to Bridge/A4
Sales tax shows recession still affects Peninsula
Military
radar giant floats past Peninsula
EDITOR’S NOTE: Figures in a story on Page A1 Monday erroneously were said to be sales tax revenues. Instead the figures represented gross retail sales. Here is a corrected report. By Tom Callis
Peninsula Daily News
Most of the North Olympic Peninsula is still struggling to recover from the recession, sales tax figures show. Sales tax revenue last year remained below 2007 levels for Port Angeles, Sequim, Port Townsend and the unincorporated areas of Clallam and Jefferson counties, according to the state Department of Revenue. The tide has begun to turn in Clallam County, which shows slight increases in revenue in 2010 over 2009, while Jefferson County revenues last year lagged behind those of 2009. Port Angeles’ share of sales tax revenue was nearly $2.8 million in 2010. That’s about 15 percent below the more than $3.3 million it received in 2007. In 2009, it
Chris Tucker/Peninsula Daily News
Jim and Barb Buchanan of Port Angeles take a look at the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s Sea-Based X-Band, or SBX, radar vessel as it moves east along the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Tuesday. They were using a pair of binoculars to watch the SBX from Ediz Hook. The 280-foot-tall vessel went to Seattle for three years of repairs and maintenance.
received $2.7 million. Sequim received $2.3 million in 2010, compared with $2.6 million in 2007. In 2009, Sequim received $2.2 million. Forks, on the other hand, received more sales tax revenue in 2010 than it did four years ago. Its share jumped by about 18 percent, from $365,206 to $432,886. In 2009, Forks received $405,197. Unincorporated Clallam County received $4.2 million in 2010. That is about 14 percent less than the nearly $4.9 million it received in 2007. It’s an increase from 2009, when the area received $3.9 million. The trend in Port Townsend has been more flat. It received $1.63 million last year, which is slightly more than a percent less than the $1.65 million it got four years ago — and a drop from 2009, when it received $1.67 million. Turn
to
Recession/A4
Sequim man in coma dies in Seattle remove life support machines because doctors told them “things were looking much more grimmer Morgan died eight hours later when he reached for his cat, than they had ever seen. . . . To Gwynn, lost his balance, tumbled keep him alive was needless sufat 12:10 a.m. Saturday. “It was a long eight hours,” over a railing and fell 15 feet fering,” Parkinson said. Parkinson said. “I was holding his head-first. hand the whole time.” Outpouring of prayer Parkinson, who is confined to a Tumbled over railing The family had requested wheelchair, having been paraWhen he hit his head, Morgan lyzed from the neck down the suffered a massive stroke that left prayer for Morgan’s recovery. The response was “overwhelmsame year his nephew was born, him brain dead. ing,” in emails and posts to the said that after Morgan died, he Morgan had only recently reclined his chair so he could lay moved out of the house, Parkin- family’s website, Parkinson said; emails alone numbered in the his head near him. son said. thousands. “I put my hand on his chest After their father died two “There were so many people in and talked to him and let him years ago, Morgan and his brother, know how much I loved him and Tucker, moved in with Parkinson the community and people all over the country, people in other held him as best as I could,” Par- and his mother, Sharon Leonard, countries, praying for Jesse,” he kinson said. who also serves as Parkinson’s said. Morgan was upstairs in his caregiver. Family members agreed to Turn to Morgan/A4 Jesse Taylor Morgan grandmother’s home in Sequim
Thousands email in response to family’s request for prayers By Leah Leach
Peninsula Daily News
SEQUIM — Prayers from all over the world didn’t bring Jesse T. Morgan out of a fatal coma, but they may have eased his passing. “Even though the prayers did not save his life, I think it helped in a different way,” said his uncle, Jason Parkinson, on Tuesday. “I think it helped open doors to heaven for him.” The 21-year-old man from Sequim, injured in a freak accident Easter Sunday, April 24, was in a coma in Harborview Medical Center in Seattle for 12 days before he was taken off life support at 4 p.m. Friday.
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