Leaps and bounds
Flamingo flock helps grads A-2
Fair crowns queen
SHS track starts season with sweep
Sequim trio to reign
A-3
B-5
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
SEQUIM GAZETTE www
Sequim’s Hometown Newspaper
com
75 CENTS
Vol. 41, Number 14
A museum meltdown New MAC trustees opt for change Executive director resigns by MATTHEW NASH Sequim Gazette
Mark Cameron, of Sequim, visits the Museum & Arts Center last week. The museum closed on Saturday but reopened on Tuesday and will remain open with the help of volunteers. Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash
After a string of resignations, the election of a new board of trustees, and a brief closure and reopening of the exhibit center, the Museum & Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley is moving ahead with and
without some key pieces. The past two weeks led to a nearcomplete overhaul of the museum’s board of trustees and staff: Executive Director DJ Bassett resigned on March 29. Of the paid staff, only the bookkeeper remains since the end of March. Priscilla Hudson, former trustee
vice-president, handed over keys and gave brief instructions for the new trustees at a special meeting on Saturday, March 29, inside the DeWitt Administration building on Sequim Avenue. Hudson gave her own resignation at the meeting, saying that for nine months she had received negative comments about her and the museum. She referred to the January annual members meeting as a “hostile war zone” and the
See MAC, A-11
City sets timeline for civic center construction
Frank Wajda tries out the cockpit of his bush planein-process. He has been steambending Sitka spruce for years to create the framework. The plane’s wingspan is 36 feet. Photo by Joan Worley
Project planners expect minimal inconveniences through early 2015 by MATTHEW NASH Sequim Gazette
In a few weeks, CPA Steve Kanters will see a new Sequim blue hole from his office’s porch. The bright blue of the former Serenity House Thrift Shop building will be replaced with an open space next to the City of Sequim’s future civic center and police station. “The open space is a positive,” Kanters said. He and his wife already created a garSteve Kanters’ dog, Lemonade, takes a brief moment to rest on den in front of the porch next to the soon-to- their offices, be demolished Serenity House which Kanters Thrift Store building that will said will carry create an open space for locals. Sequim Gazette photo by well into the new space. Matthew Nash As for the center’s impact with noise and traffic flow, Kanters said the way his office faces shouldn’t be a problem. “It’s not any worse than when they did repairs to Sequim Avenue,” he said. Traversing near the civic center might be a minor annoyance for passers-by, but it might be a morning wake-up call for dozens of neighbors with the project slated to go through early 2015. Over several weeks, Lydig Construction, the contracted Bellevue outfit, will begin demolition on two vacant houses that will
See CONSTRUCTION, A-8
Boatbuilder eyes the skies Frank Wajda T makes a bush plane from scratch
by JOAN WORLEY For the Sequim Gazette
he wood frame is Sitka spruce, shipped from Alaska then steam-bent by hand using a home-built steam box. Half-inch aluminum, bent with the aid of only a vice, makes up the engine mounts and the stays for landing gear. Frank Wajda of Sequim has been tenderly hand-crafting the Alaskastyle bush plane for the past 14 years. His eyesight failing and he wants to WAJDA hand the project over to someone who can complete, or at least preserve, his work.
For 40 of his 93 years, Wajda built boats in Wrangell, Alaska, hence his skill at steam-bending wood. This is the first plane he has attempted, but he has aircraft experience of the most intimate sort.
Desert, war and pigeons
The son of Polish immigrants, Wajda enlisted early in World War II from his home in Chicopee Falls, Mass., and spent the years 1941-1945 as a mechanic with the 12th Bombardment Group, 82nd Squadron. As ground personnel, the young enlistee joined
See BOATBUILDER, A-4
Gazette makes changes to website, subscriptions Print and digital subscriptions just $36 per year Along with sister paper Peninsula Daily News and sevWhat can $3 get you these eral other Sound Publishing days? Not much — but it can get weeklies, the Gazette will start you a month’s digital subscrip- charging frequent users of its tion to the Sequim Gazette. website beginning today, April 2. Sequim Gazette staff
now get free web access. Under this new system, nonsubscribers to the Gazette’s Home-delivery print subscribers print edition will have to pay will not be charged and will have after viewing five free articles per unrestricted free access to all of month. Sign up directly from the the Gazette’s digital products. website, or call us at 683-3311. In other words, if you’re already a print subscriber, you See SUBSCRIPTIONS, A-8
Sports B-5 • Schools B-8 • Arts & Entertainment B-1 • Opinion A-8 • Obituaries A-11 • Classifieds C-1 • Crossword Section C
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