PORT ANGELES — Clallam County could be designated as an official Coast Guard Community if Alan Barnard gets his way.
Barnard, who has been preparing an application for the Coast Guard to designate Clallam County as a Coast Guard Community, is now asking the community for help as he works to gather anecdotal evidence that Clallam County and Port Angeles support the U.S. Coast Guard’s three bases in the county.
“Any way this community has reached out to welcome and support Coast Guard personnel, I’d like to incorporate those stories as part of this application,” he said.
“Those aren’t recorded anywhere, so I’m asking the public if you have a story, instance or program that you remember and know about where we provided support for Coast Guard personnel that demonstrates our long-standing and enduring relationship [to contact me].”
Barnard hopes to submit the application to the Coast Guard early this summer and is asking for letters of support from the county, cities, civic organizations, fire departments, police departments, tribes and other organizations.
In a letter he is preparing to send to various organizations, Barnard wrote that the designation would reinforce the critical importance of the three Coast Guard facilities in Clallam County.
Port Angeles Mayor Sissi Bruch has already penned a letter in support and the Clallam County commissioners said Monday they would sign a letter today in support of the effort.
Bruch, who visited Washington, D.C., last week on a separate matter, hand-delivered letters to the offices of U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, Sen. Maria Cantwell and Sen. Patty Murray seeking support for designating Clallam County as a Coast Guard Community.
Bruch said she is thankful for the work Barnard has done on the application.
“The community owes him a great thanks for all his work,” she said.
It was sentiment echoed by Clallam County Commissioner Mark Ozias during the Board of County Commissioners work session Monday.
“I really want to thank you publicly for your leadership and vision and the work you and your daughter have done to build such a strong application,” Ozias said. “I’m filled with gratitude for the work you and your daughter have done.”
Barnard’s daughter Deanne Lachner is editing the application, he said.
Barnard said the application is mostly done and that his goal now is to seek the letters of support and to find instances of the community supporting the Coast Guard.
“[Being a Coast Guard Community] shows the respect and recognition of that long-going relationship and I think clearly, it sends a message to the Coast Guard personnel when they show up to their duty station here … that I’m going to work where I matter and I can make a difference here,” Barnard said.
He said the Coast Guard has had a presence in Clallam County since 1862 and that Air Station Port Angeles, built in 1935, was the first in the county. The Coast Guard has stations in Port Angeles, La Push and Neah Bay.
He said work on the application first began about three years ago when he served on a veterans committee with Jim Moran, who first suggested seeking Coast Guard Community designation for the county, Barnard said.
Moran, now a Port Angeles City Council member, will be listed in the application as a contributor, he said.
Work on the effort sizzled out until Barnard attended the Veterans Day observance at the Coast Guard station on Ediz Hook last year.
“Last year at the Veterans Day observances at the Coast Guard base, I got mad at myself for not finishing this, because I like to finish things that I start,” Barnard said. “This is important to our county.”
If the Coast Guard grants the designation, the community would need to re-apply for the designation every five years, he said.
Barnard said he hopes that by submitting the application, he hopes it will bring up discussions about what more can be done to support the Coast Guard.
He said he has already found more examples than he could include in the application, but there is always more that can be done.
“We think that the discussion to get this done the first time also ought to include a discussion of are we doing everything as a community that we can be doing reasonably to support the Coast Guard,” he said.
Anyone who would like to reach Barnard to help the application can reach him by emailing abarnard@olypen.com.
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Reporter Jesse Major can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at jmajor@peninsuladailynews.com.
A Canadian helicopter passes behind the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Wahoo during an international mass-rescue drill in the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Sept. 27, 2016. (Jesse Major / Peninsula Daily News)
