Lefties’ bats go quiet
Monday July begins with sun beaming A6
4 hits, 13 Ks in 4-1 loss to Oregon team B1
Peninsula Daily News July 1, 2019 | $1
Port Angeles-Sequim-West End
Trial for laser charge delayed
The new chief
Officials: Device pointed at craft BY PAUL GOTTLIEB
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
JESSE MAJOR/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Jake Patterson starts today as fire chief for Clallam County Fire District 2, succeeding Chief Sam Phillips after his retirement.
Clallam Fire District 2 under new leadership
Jake Patterson takes over the top job, eyes challenges
ability to take us to new levels in the fire district,” Phillips said Sunday. “I think he is going to serve the district well and I couldn’t have been happier to have someone working with me as I transition out.”
BY JESSE MAJOR
Patterson, a Sequim resident, has been fighting fires since he started as a volunteer at the Port Angeles Fire Department in 1992. In 1994, the city of Richland hired him as a firefighter/ EMT and he returned to Port Angeles as a career firefighter in 2000. In 2008 he was promoted to lieutenant. Clallam Fire District 2 hired Patterson in 2017 to serve as its deputy chief.
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — Jake Patterson, who has spent most of his firefighting career in Clallam County, is taking charge of Clallam County Fire District 2 today following the retirement of Chief Sam Phillips. “Jake is an extraordinary fire officer and I have the fullest confidence in his
Started as a volunteer
Phillips said Patterson has earned a master’s degree in public administration and is in the final stages of the four-year Executive Fire Officer program at the National Fire Academy. Patterson, a former Marine, is looking forward to facing a number of challenges as he begins his tenure as the district’s fire chief. “The fire district has done really well with managing its budget … but there are some big issues that no matter how well we prepare for and no matter how frugal we are with the public’s money, we’re going to need some help from the public,” Patterson said. TURN
TO
CHIEF/A4
PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man accused of aiming a laser pointer into the flight path of a Coast Guard helicopter more that two years ago has had his July 15 trial continued to Oct. 7 after his attorney said the case is complex and unusual. At least four cases of aircraft being hit by laser strikes in the Pacific Northwest have gone unsolved between 2015 and 2018, while 15 cases resulted in convictions across the U.S. between 2014 and 2018. Ronald B. Leighton, a Western Federal District Court judge in Tacoma, issued the continuance ruling Tuesday in favor of Randall Muck. Leighton granted the unopposed motion filed by Muck’s attorney, Miriam Schwartz, a first assistant federal public defender in the public defender’s office in Tacoma. Leighton ruled the case “is sufficiently complex that it is unreasonable to expect adequate preparation for pre-trial proceedings or the trial itself within the current trial schedule.” A federal grand jury indicted Muck on May 16 on charges of aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft and its flight path and making false statements to government agents investigating the case. Muck was 33 when he was indicted. He is a drywall installer in Port Angeles, where he still lives, Schwartz said last week. The Eurocopter Dauphin-Dolphin helicopter is based on Ediz Hook, at Coast Guard Air Station-Sector Field Office Port Angeles. It was targeted by a laser at about 8:15 p.m. Sept. 26, 2016, according a Port Angeles Police Department report. The beam originated from the bluff near Crown Park in west Port Angeles, about 3 miles from the Hook, according to the report. TURN
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Ground broken for planned Forks memorial Monument honors Gold Star families PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
FORKS — The Coast Guard posted the colors, the Northwest Navy Band played the national anthem and the Quileute Drum Group blessed the ground before the first shovelfuls of dirt were turned for the Gold Star Families Memorial Monument. The Saturday ceremony was at the Forks Transit Center. Mayor Tim Fletcher; Janet Hughes, president of the VFW Auxiliary Post 9106; and Tom Hughes, commander of VFW Post 9160 spoke at the ceremony. Organizers hope to dedicate
the finished monument Sept. 29, on Gold Star Mothers and Gold Star Families Day. The project started in October 2018, when the VFW sought permission to place the monument at the transit center at 551 S. Forks Ave. Members of the committee working on this project are Janet and Tom Hughes, Mike McCracken, Bill Plumley, Mike Rowley and Christi Baron, who also is the editor of the Forks Forum. They have worked to raise the $90,000 needed to purchase the monument created by the Her-
shel Woody Williams Medal of Honor Foundation. The monument will honor Gold Star families, who are the immediate family of a member of the Armed Forces who was killed or died while serving. One side of the black granite monument will feature the words “Gold Star Families Memorial Monument, a tribute to Gold Star Families and Relatives who have sacrificed a Loved One for our Freedom. The other side will feature a four-part story about “Homeland, Family, Patriot, and Sacrifice” told LONNIE ARCHIBALD/FOR PENINSULA DAILY NEWS in panels to serve as a reflection of The U.S. Coast Guard Quillayute posts the colors while the Gold Star Families and their VFW Post 9106 Cmdr. Tom Hughes of Forks salutes during fallen heroes.
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ONUMENT/A6
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the groundbreaking ceremony Saturday for the Gold Star Families Monument at the Forks Transit Center.
INSIDE TODAY’S Peninsula Daily News 103rd year, 156th issue — 2 sections, 14 pages
CLASSIFIED COMICS COMMENTARY DEAR ABBY EYE ON CONGRESS HOROSCOPE LETTERS NATION PENINSULA POLL
B5 B4 A5 B4 A4 B4 A5 A3 A2
PUZZLES/GAMES SPORTS WEATHER WORLD
B6 B1 A6 A3