When completed, Field Hall will house a 500-seat multi-purpose auditorium and a 300-seat state-of-the-art conference facility on the Port Angeles waterfront.  

First Fed’s donation is the largest corporate commitment to the project, bringing total funding to $46 million to date.   

Hello Ciscoe, I have a beautiful old Japanese laceless maple in my backyard that has been the centerpiece of my garden for many years.  This year some of the branches have leafed out right on schedule while others are still just tight winter buds with no development.  To add to the mystery, one branch has a profusion of what look like flowers in little bunches.  First time this has even happened.  Our weather last summer and winter has was extreme and it looks like the tree is reacting to the stress.  Have you seen other reports of this happening?  What to do? Tom

The Sequim Irrigation Festival is the oldest, continuously running festival in Washington State. This year marks the 127th year of this long standing community tradition.  Here’s another one of the events taking place:
First Friday Art Walk

May’s regular First Friday Art Walk coincides nicely with all the other planned irrigation festival activities. This fun and free self-guided tour of local art venues in Sequim occurs on the First Friday of every month throughout the year from 5 to 8PM.

The monthly art walk continues to attract art enthusiasts of all kinds: business supporters, artists and art patrons.  Each month focuses on a different color theme…with May’s color being Aqua.  You will find works of art and folks dressed for an evening out on the town in theme colors, from strong teal to soft celeste.

The Sequim Irrigation Festival is a nonprofit organization that relies solely on the generous donations and support of our community.

 
More information is available online at: www.irrigationfestival.com.

I thought this might interest you. When we moved into this house three years ago, the wisteria was a wild, giant bush, growing up and over the old back fence. I pruned it severely then built a pergola and stood up the wisteria between the posts. For two years I just kept it pruned and began tying up the long stems, using planters tape. In November, I started the nest design with all of the stems circling back and around the center (see photo). I expect it will look amazing when the blooms emerge. Joel

Good news for residents on the west end of the county. State Highway 112 has finally been reopened to two-way traffic between Sappho and Neah Bay after being closed for more than three months by a massive landslide November 15th. 

While state transportation crews reopened the roadway at 6pm Monday near Clallam Bay additional monitoring will still be required. Even after completion of paving last week, the highway settled an additional six inches in the eastbound lane.  That section has been rebuilt with gravel. The graveled portion of the roadway will remain in place while geologists monitor the hillside.  Eagle Crest Way, a service road being used as a detour around the slide has been returned to its private property owners and is closed to travel to the public.  Another second of the highway is still in need of repair further east near Jim Creek.  Construction at that site is expected to begin later this month and will reopen to travelers in late spring.

Emergency slide repairs are beginning today on State Route 112 near Jim Creek on the west end of Clallam County 15 miles east from where the highway was finally reopened near Clallam Bay a week ago.  The highway dropped four feet at Jim Creek following last November’s storms and heavy rain. Work will include removing guardrail, clearing fallen vegetation, excavating the roadway 20 feet below grade level, installing drainage and rebuilding the roadway The State Transportation department says repairs are expected to take eight weeks to complete. Travelers will continue to detour around the slide location using US Highway 101 and State Highway 113.

November 10th is the official birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps. The Marine Corps traces its roots back to the Second Continental Congress in 1775, which established a resolution stating that "two Battalions of Marines be raised" as forces to land with the fleet. 

The Marines' first land battle on foreign soil was in Libya in 1805, where 600 Marines stormed the city of Derna to rescue the crew of the USS Philadelphia from pirates.

The Marine Corps has been a component of the U.S. Department of the Navy since 1834 working closely with naval forces for training, transportation, and logistics. The USMC operates posts on land and aboard sea-going amphibious warfare ships around the world, and several of the Marines' tactical aviation squadrons, primarily Marine Fighter Attack squadrons, are also embedded in Navy carrier air wings and operate from the Navy's aircraft carriers.  The Marines have over 1300 manned aircraft. 

Today, our country is defended by almost 220,000 Marines, including the reserves.

Latin for "Always Faithful," Semper Fidelis became the Marine Corps motto in 1883.  According to the Corps, Semper Fidelis is a permanent reminder that "a Marine will forever live by the ethics and values of the Corps."

Beginning March 1st the Blue Mountain recycling and waste transfer station will be temporarily closed for approximately six weeks and all glass recycling is being discontinued.  The City of Port Angeles says supply chain issues have delayed delivery of necessary equipment to operate the facility requiring the closure. Port Angeles is taking over collection of recycling and yard waste from Waste Connections, Inc.  An announcement from the city says commercial cardboard bins are also slightly delayed, but overly large service disruptions are not anticipated. After investigating the glass recycling market, the City discovered there is only one recycling facility in the entire state of Washington, and they are no longer accepting glass at this time. The city says it will continue to monitor potential glass recycling market changes over the coming months in hopes that an option to utilize a reuse stream becomes available. Until then, glass is to be disposed of through regular solid waste means.

Efforts to make schools safer in earthquake and tsunami prone areas  took a big step forward Wednesday. State senators voted unanimously to support a bill that would authorize up to $500 million dollars in bonds to finance a school safety grant program to retrofit buildings in danger. During Wednesday’s floor debate Democratic State Senator David Frockt of Seattle said school seismic safety could range anywhere from a brace for a building to relocating a building entirely.

FROCKT:  “This is not a theoretical problem Madam President. You may remember there was a volcanic eruption in Tonga I believe about a week ago and we had tsunami warnings on the coast and nothing really happened. But what would happen if there had been a more serious one.  I would note the bill provides for evacuation tsunami towers as an option as well, so these elevated platforms could be built under this legislation.”

Republican Senator Mark Schoesler from the eastern Washington community of Ritzville was a co-sponsor of the bill.

“Some of us have tragic fires. Some of us have floods. Some are in a position that it’s not a matter of if there is an earthquake disaster but when, or a tsunami. I think what we have here is a very much needed improvement to how we do this. It is a statewide issue that requires a statewide solution.”

The grant program would pay two-thirds of the cost of replacing or retrofitting eligible schools in earthquake or tsunami prone areas. The measure now heads to the House for consideration.

Peninsula Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry says she and superintendents of the Peninsula’s public school districts were caught off guard yesterday when State Superintendent Chris Reykdal said he will be recommending to Governor Inslee that the statewide mask mandate for students be dropped and the decision for masking options be returned to local public health officials. 

She told the Peninsula Daily News that “A lot of us didn’t see that coming.”  She says local health jurisdictions do not agree with him.

Health officers in the state are in agreement – now is not the time to lift masking mandates in schools. She says health officials will be meeting soon to discuss the metrics for when that mandate can and should be lifted.  She noted that the largest number of positive COVID cases during the past week on the Peninsula were children 10 to 17 years of age.