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Port Angeles-Sequim-West End
July 24, 2011
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Work under way for PA mill’s biomass plant
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Opponents’ appeal still to be heard
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PA sets downtown cleanup
By Paul Gottlieb
Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — Work will continue on a new Nippon Paper Industries USA biomass plant despite ALSO . . . an appeal opponents filed ■ New mill last week with president on the state Pollu- board/A8 tion Control Hearings Board that takes issue with the construction permit. “The foundation work is continuing, and we’ve had continuous construction since the end of June,” mill manager Harold Norlund said Friday. “We have quite a bit invested in terms of equipment and construction,” he said.
$14,500 effort part of Elwha dams fete By Tom Callis
Peninsula Daily News
Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News
Nippon Paper Industries USA project manager Gary Holmquist stands where an electrical transformer to convert electricity from a new biomass cogeneration Turn to Biomass/A8 plant is under construction at the Port Angeles paper mill.
Gallery from the
ground up
PORT ANGELES — City Hall is dipping into a projected surplus to help spruce up downtown for the Elwha River dams removal celebrations in September. The $14,500 general fund allocation will be used to spray weeds with pesticide, sweep streets, pressure-wash sidewalks and maintain planter bowls and hanging baskets for an additional two weeks. The Port Angeles City Council approved the spending, which is expected to be covered by a projected $200,000 bump in sales tax revenue at the end of the year, in a 6-0 vote last week. Deputy Mayor Don Perry was absent from the Tuesday meeting. The two dams on the Elwha River will begin to come down Sept. 17 as part of the $327 million Elwha River Restoration Project, which is intended to restore the waterway’s sorely depleted salmon run, once 400,000 spawners annually, now 3,000. Special events highlighting the start of the work are planned Sept. 14-18, with Port Angeles hosting concerts and other dam removal events downtown.
Hurricane Ridge funds The council also used the projected sales tax increase to justify dipping into the general fund to contribute $25,000 to the Hurricane Ridge Road fundraising effort and $5,000 for downtown mural repairs. If successful, the fundraising effort would keep Hurricane Ridge Road open year-round for another year. Last year, the Department of the Interior agreed to provide $250,000 annually for two or three years to keep the road open seven days a week, weather permitting, from late November through March — if the community raised $75,000 each year during the trial period. Money now is being raised to fund the second year of the pilot project Mayor Dan Di Guilio said at the Tuesday meeting that he was concerned about reducing the anticipated surplus further but added he felt the cost was justified.
Selective spending
Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News
Sand sculptor Vern Cooley of Seattle, center, takes a photo of his finished work as spectators roam the sculpture gallery at the conclusion of judging in the Windermere Sand Sculpture Classic above Hollywood Beach in Port Angeles on Saturday. The nationally recocognized sand competition was held in conjunction with Arts in Action festival at City Pier and downtown, and continues today. A sculpture created by Sandis Kondrats of Riga, Latvia, won first place Saturday. Sand sculpture winners and details, Page C1
“I want to be very selective, if at all, when we find projects to spend against that anticipated excess revenue,” he said. “But on the other hand, this council has repeatedly tried to find techniques and strategies that would help our local merchants and help our downtown. “And while $14,500 is probably more than I want to spend, if that’s what it’s going to take to do these four items, I would like to do that.” City Manager Kent Myers said Friday that he doesn’t expect the city to use the projected sales tax increase for any other nonbudgeted projects. Councilwoman Cherie Kidd said at the meeting that the city needs to show itself off to people from outside the area who will be in town for events sparked by the dam demolition. Turn
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