PeninsulaNorthwest
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
SUNDAY, MARCH 9, 2014
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Conservation districts to hold board elections 1 candidate on ballot in Clallam; incumbent to serve in Jefferson PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
A lone candidate will be on the ballot for the Clallam Conservation District supervisor election March 20, while in Jefferson County, only the incumbent filed for the seat and so was named to it without a vote. Absentee ballots for the Clallam district election must be requested by 4 p.m. Monday. Sequim-area resident Robert Beebe was the only candidate to file for the Clallam board seat now held by Linda Barnfather, who is not seeking a second term, by the Feb. 20 filing deadline. As a result, only Beebe’s name will appear on the ballot for the three-year unpaid position during the upcoming election. The election will be from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Armory Square, 228 W. First St.,
Suite F, Port Angeles. Voters who are unable to cast their votes at the polling place can request an absentee ballot.
Jefferson County In Jefferson County, Chairwoman Julie Boggs of Chimacum will remain on the board for another term. She was the only person to file for her seat, and so no election was conducted. Her re-election was announced Feb. 6 after the filing deadline of Feb. 5. Five positions make up each board. Registered county voters elect three of the positions, each in a different year. The Washington State Conservation Commission appoints the other two. Neither of the Clallam districts state-appointed positions is open this year.
One is open in Jefferson County. Applications and supporting materials for the appointed seat now held by Glen Huntingford must be received by the state commission by March 31. Applicants must be registered to vote in the state but do not have to live within the district. For more information or to obtain an application form, visit the Jefferson County Conservation District office or phone it at 360-385-4105, or contact the state Conservation Commission website at www.scc.wa.gov or 360-4076215. For information from the Clallam Conservation District, visit the office at Armory Square, 228 W. First St., Suite H, Port Angeles; phone 360-7753747, ext. 5; or visit www. clallamcd.org. The Clallam board meets at 3 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month at the district office.
Sequim bond backers: Schools need repairs BY JOE SMILLIE PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
fications to Greywolf Elementary, $8 million to remodel Hellen Haller for Olympic Peninsula Academy and other alternative programs, and $1 million repairs to the Sequim Middle School roof. It also will pay for a $1 million new transportation shop and $9 million in upgrades to the district’s athletics complex. Other expenses include demolition of the present Community School building and the original Helen Haller, and the purchase of 3 acres west of the middle school. If the measure passes, a new elementary school probably would be ready for the 2016-17 school year, the remodeled Greywolf for the 2017-18 school year, the remodeled high school for the 2018-19 school year and a remodeled Helen Haller ready in 2019.
PROJECT CONNECT
Clark asked whether the district had prioritized its list of projects in case the bond measure fails. “I honestly couldn’t tell you whether we need a new elementary school or a new high school more,” Shea said. Shea added that favorable interest rates and anticipated increases in construction costs drove the decision to seek the whole amount now rather than ask voters to approve each project individually. “We think it’s smarter to do it now than it is to try to prolong it any longer,” Shea said.
A GO
DeLaine Greene of Port Angeles looks over a table of free clothing at Project Homeless Connect at the Vern Burton Community Center in Port Angeles. The event Friday was designed to provide access to services to those without a home or in danger of losing their homes. More than 40 service agencies took part.
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Upcoming forums The school district has planned several more upcoming forums about the bond measure. Forums will be in the Sequim High auditorium, 601 N. Sequim Ave., at 4 p.m. March 25 and 7 p.m. April 8. For more information, phone the district office at 360-582-3260.
________ Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.
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SEQUIM –– With less than a month before ballots for the Sequim School District’s $154,325,000 construction bond request are to be mailed to voters, backers of the measure are ramping up the campaign “If you care about your community, if you care about your schools, then you should vote yes,” said Dave Mattingley of Citizens for Sequim Schools, a private group advocating passage of the bond measure. The district is asking voters on the April 22 ballot to approve construction bonds to build a new elementary school, extensively renovate and remodel the high school and two existing elementary schools, and build a new athletic complex. Ballots will be mailed to registered voters in the Sequim school district Debt to be retired April 2. The district’s voterTax bill fears approved debt will be retired at the end of this year, Brian Some of the nearly three Lewis, the district’s business dozen people at a community manager, told the grange forum at the Sequim Prairie hall crowd, taking 10 cents Grange Hall on Friday night per $1,000 of assessed valuaexpressed worries about the tion off the current tax rate. hit the bond measure would A 44-cents-per-$1,000 have on their tax bills. levy approved last year to “I’ve heard a lot of people replace half the district’s bus say they’re not voting for it fleet also will expire at the because of the expense,” Bob end of this year. Clark said. That would leave only the “It’s just a big number to $1.61 maintenance and operthink about putting on our ations levy on property tax tax bills every year.” bills. Clark, a native of the Lewis said the 20-year Dungeness Valley, said the construction bond would measure would add more bring the total tax rate to than $1,000 a year to his district landowners to a maxannual tax bill. imum of $3.85 per $1,000. If approved, the bonds In response to Killian’s would add approximately concerns about the tax $1.70 per $1,000 of assessed impact to retirees, Lewis value to the property tax bills noted that Clallam County of landowners in the district, offers property tax exempwhich has a total assessed tions for seniors with limited property value of $3.7 billion. incomes. Jeff Killian also worried about the impact of the bonds Schools ‘packed’ on the tax bills. Lewis said the school is “We have an awful lot of retirees here,” Killian said. expecting rapid growth in its “They don’t have any real student population over the income, and I worry about next several years, which the burden this will put on would compound the problem of not having enough them.” School officials agreed the space for students. “Our elementary schools request is expensive but said the district’s existing school are packed,” Lewis said. Sequim has 1,130 stubuildings are deteriorating, unsafe and growing more dents in its elementary schools now, he said. crowded. With the implementation “That is a big number, and we know that,” Superin- of all-day kindergarten tendent Kelly Shea said. classes in 2015 and a mini“But we also have a big list of baby boom of children born in the district over the past things we need to do.” The measure would raise five years, Lewis expects that $140 million for a new population to grow to 1,400 $28.5 million elementary by 2020. Shea added the district’s school to replace Helen Haller and an $87 million facilities currently present a remodel of Sequim High number of security concerns. “We have 54 doors that School, as well as $16.5 million for expansion and modi- open to the outside at the
high school,” Shea said. “There’s no way we can keep eyes on every one of those.” Open designs of Helen Haller Elementary and Sequim High make it difficult to control who enters the campuses, as does the dualentrance at Greywolf Elementary, where the main office does not have a view of the front doors. “We had a guy come in to Greywolf, walk right down the hall, sit down and plug in his phone,” Shea said. “And we had no idea he was there.”
KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS