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Port Angeles-Sequim-West End
July 22-23, 2011
YOUR FRIDAY/SATURDAY WEEKEND PLANNER OUTDOORS:
OUTLOOK: Nice weekend with sunshine
SAND ART:
COOL JAZZ:
The king fish of salmon
World-class sculptors in PA
Upcoming PT festival previewed
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Peninsula Spotlight
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Treasurer acts to boost money watch 30-page manual done in wake of stolen funds By Tom Callis
Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — The Clallam County Treasurer’s Office has adopted a new policy manual aimed at increasing accountability in the wake of
the 2009 discovery of at least $617,467 in missing funds. Treasurer Selinda Barkhuis said she believes the Barkhuis 30-page document completed July 13 significantly improves oversight of cash handling and is a step toward meeting her campaign promise to restore
public trust in the office. “There was no review apparently,” said Barkhuis, who took office in January. “Now, every single step and every process is either reviewed daily or randomly and regularly.” Former Treasurer Judy Scott, who lost her job to Barkhuis, said she also required almost daily checking of documents accounting for tax revenue after the thefts were discovered.
Catherine Betts, a Treasurer’s Office cashier from 2001 until May 2009, is currently on trial in Clallam County Superior Court for allegedly stealing the funds. Betts, who now lives in Shelton, is charged with first-degree theft, money laundering and 19 counts of filing false or fraudulent tax returns with the state Department of Revenue. The trial began Tuesday with the start of jury selection
and is scheduled to last up to 10 days. The 12 jury members and three alternates selected Wednesday include 10 women and five men. Betts, 47, is accused of pocketing real estate excise tax — or REET — revenue by exchanging checks with money from the office’s cash drawer and altering documents. Turn
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Driver who killed All it’s d e k l a man gets 4 years ch up to be Motorist, 51, was drunk when Jeep went on sidewalk By Tom Callis
Peninsula Daily News
Mensik pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and hit-and-run last month. Franklin, a 50-year-old Sequim resident, died at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on April 23, two days after being struck by Mensik’s Jeep Wrangler while walking on the sidewalk along East Washington Street in Sequim. In addition to his widow, Franklin is survived by three adult children. Police said Mensik was drunk when he jumped the curb at 618 E. Washington St. and struck Scott Franklin. Mensik drove westbound for about another 10 blocks before being stopped by police. A portable breath tester registered Mensik’s blood-alcohol level at 0.147 percent about 30 minutes after the hit-andrun, according to court documents. The legal limit is 0.08 percent. Franklin walked daily along the street to visit his father in a nursing home, his widow said. If convicted during a trial, Mensik would have faced between 36 and 48 months in prison for vehicular homicide and 41 to 59 months for hit-and-run.
PORT ANGELES — Gene S. Mensik was sentenced Thursday to more than four years in prison for the death of Scott Franklin, a pedestrian he hit with his vehicle in Sequim in April. Mensik, 51, of Sequim was sentenced Mensik to 50 months in prison during a hearing in Clallam County Superior Court. Scott Franklin’s widow, Opal Franklin, said she wanted a longer sentence but was glad to see the court proceedings come to a fairly quick end. ________ “I’m just glad it’s over,” she said. “It’s time to move on,” she added. “That’s Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417all we can do.” 3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
Old school getting new paint job
Diane Urbani
By Jeff Chew
By Diane Urbani
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Peninsula Daily News Jeff Chew/Peninsula Daily News
Pam Boyd, left, and Ricky Amundson of Northwest Inside Out Painting put a coat on the west side of the Dungeness Schoolhouse. Out Painting of Port Angeles, owned and operated by Pam Boyd. Boyd and painter Ricky Amundson were high atop a “cherry picker” about 30 feet up Thursday, spraying and brushing the wall’s old wooden planks. The date of completion is unknown, but Bassett said it will prompt a MAC celebration, perhaps by September. Turn
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■ Sand sculptures, booths and more during Arts in Action weekend/C1
So he got started chalking the pavement Wednesday. The wind proceeded to waft off much of the color he put down. Then it blew down the tripod he uses to draw straight lines. Then his chalk box went airborne. “I’m really worried I won’t be able to complete the project,” Morris said late Thursday afternoon. He’d planned to have the creature finished Saturday morning. Now there’s no telling when the wind will stop, of course. Turn
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PORT ANGELES — Ian Morris, a veteran chalk artist from Victoria, raves about Port Angeles’ hospitality during the annual Arts in Action festival. But by Thursday, he was ready to curse something else that greeted him near the ferry dock: stiff winds. Morris, a commercial fishermanturned-sidewalk artist, was invited to create one of his signature three-dimensional images in front of Smuggler’s Landing at The Landing mall at 115 E. Railroad Ave. His chalk tableaux have been part of Arts in Action twice before, including his 2009 painting of a 3-D orca. This year, he envisioned a green sea monster poking its head up from the water below City Pier.
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Winds wreak havoc on sidewalk chalk art
Peninsula Daily News
DUNGENESS — The once-all-white historic Dungeness Schoolhouse will have a new, more historically accurate look come this fall — off-white with dark red trim. “We think that’s probably really close to the original color,” said DJ Bassett, director of the building’s owner, the Museum & Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley. The new paint seems to bring out the intricate features of the schoolhouse at 2781 Towne Road. “I’ve been getting a lot of feedback in the community that it’s going to have more style. It was kind of benign the other way,” said Josh Gloor, who works for the Dungeness-based Nash’s Organic Produce and lives within sight of the schoolhouse. “You could never see all that fine gingerbread woodwork when it was all the same color.” The final west exterior wall of the nearly 120-year-old building is now being repainted by Northwest Inside
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Victoria artist Ian Morris waits for the wind to stop blowing the chalk away from his sidewalk sea-monster image Thursday afternoon.
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