K-9 cop under the knife
In today’s Gazette
Chase is set for surgery
Cast your vote
Ballots due for Feb. 9 election
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A-8
SEQUIM GAZETTE Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016
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Picking Princesses
75 CENTS
Vol. 43, Number 5
More access, lower costs for dental care in demand State reps looking to overcome challenges by ALANA LINDEROTH Sequim Gazette
Royalty candidates for the Sequim Irrigation Festival this year, include, from left, Hailey Kapetan, Dana Nguyen, Jaycee Thompson-Porrazzo, Victoria Hall, Stephanie Grow, Alison Cobb, Danica Miller and Tatum Jensen. They’ll compete on Saturday, Feb. 13, at the Sequim High School Auditorium for four spots on the royalty court. This year’s festival, “Looking to the Future Through the Past,” runs May 6-15. See a full preview of the festival’s royalty pageant in the Feb. 10 edition of the Sequim Gazette. Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash
Residents rise against neighborhood crime Resident: ‘Everyone has a responsibility’ by ALANA LINDEROTH Sequim Gazette
Theft Burglary
Within the first couple years Miriam Rose has lived in Sequim she’s reported a young From 2010 to 2015 the number theft and man shooting up outside Safeway and most recently confronted a burglar attempting to vehicle prowl reports has decreased enter her home. in the unincorporated area of Clallam The man Rose reported shooting up died County which runs from Diamond Point to Auto theft in vehicle accident where drug paraphernalia McDonald Creek (Area 1), but the amount was present within a year of her report and the of burglary, auto theft and possession of recent burglar was arrested on two counts of Possession stolen property has increased. Graphic second-degree criminal trespass, one count of stolen courtesy Clallam County Sheriff’s Office of third-degree theft and possession of a conproperty trolled substance. “Here, I thought I was moving to a nice town in the country,” Rose said. Rose moved from the Seattle area and “I have a real commitment to keeping drugs and bomb dogs, Rose is adept at ensuring all settled near Sequim on five acres off Cameron away from children,” she said. precautions against neighborhood crimes, Road. For 16 years Rose trained dogs and conHaving worked closely with a variety of law See CRIME, A-8 tinues to do so. enforcement to train drug, search and rescue
Vehicle prowl
Trying to meet the demand for accessible, affordable dental care is a daily challenge for Susan Gile. “I see it (the demand) everyday,” she said. “We probably get five calls a day from patients looking for some kind of dental help. We have a waiting list with tons of people on it.” Gile is the dental coordinator at Volunteers in Medicine of the Olympics (VIMO), a nonprofit medical and dental clinic in Port Angeles. Just barely into February and Gile is having to schedule appointments in May in an attempt to keep pace with the number of people seeking dental care. Unlike VIMO, the nonprofit medical center in Sequim, the Dungeness Valley Health & Wellness Clinic, doesn’t provide dental care. Instead if a patient comes to the clinic for pain and the diagnosis is dental-related, the clinic collaborates with about 11 local dentists to aid patients, Rose Gibbs, clinic director, said. “We can give a single GIBBS voucher (per patient) for dental emergencies if they live within the Sequim School District,” she said. The clinic provided about 120 vouches in 2015, according to Gibbs. For those on Medicaid, the state administered health care program aimed at serving low-income patients, finding a dentist is difficult, largely because of the low state reimbursement rates. “We’re pretty limited here,” Gibbs said. “If the state wanted to put any more resources into something, they should subsidize dentists so they could serve more of the population.” Washington had the fifth lowest Medicaid fee-for-service reimbursement
See DENTAL CARE, A-9
Dungeness continues roaring toward Sequim man’s home Resident says he’s waiting on assistance from tribe to move by MATTHEW NASH Sequim Gazette
More than a month after taking precautions to save his home, Matt McWilliams, 59, says the threat of the Dunge-
ness River is closer than ever. In December, McWilliams and a friend put logs and debris in the river to deter the current from eroding soil by his home at 131 Serenity Lane, about 2.5 miles south of U.S. Highway 101
off River Road. But a recent storm has put the river back on track toward his home. “If you want to take your life in your hands, you can walk on the deck,” McWilliams said. Portions of the deck’s support beams now float above the river and McWilliams recently put
See DUNGENESS, A-4
The Dungeness River continues to cut into the shore below Matt McWilliams’ home on Serenity Lane in Sequim. Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash
Sports B-5 • Schools B-8 • Arts & Entertainment B-1 • Opinion A-10 • Obituaries A-9 • Classifieds C-1 • Crossword Section C
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