PORT ANGELES — City Hall is dipping into a projected surplus to help spruce up downtown for the Elwha River dams removal celebrations in September.
The $14,500 general fund allocation will be used to spray weeds with pesticide, sweep streets, pressure-wash sidewalks and maintain planter bowls and hanging baskets for an additional two weeks.
The Port Angeles City Council approved the spending, which is expected to be covered by a projected $200,000 bump in sales tax revenue at the end of the year, in a 6-0 vote Tuesday. Deputy Mayor Don Perry was absent from the meeting.
The two dams on the Elwha River will begin to come down Sept. 17 as part of the $327 million Elwha River Restoration Project, which is intended to restore the waterway’s sorely depleted salmon run, once 400,000 spawners annually, now 3,000.
Special events highlighting the start of the work are planned Sept. 14-18, with Port Angeles hosting concerts and other dam removal events downtown.
The council also used the projected sales tax increase to justify dipping into the general fund to contribute $25,000 to the Hurricane Ridge Road fundraising effort and $5,000 for downtown mural repairs.
If successful, the fundraising effort would keep Hurricane Ridge Road open year-round for another year.
Last year, the Department of the Interior agreed to provide $250,000 annually for two or three years to keep the road open seven days a week, weather permitting, from late November through March — if the community raised $75,000 each year during the trial period.
Money now is being raised to fund the second year of the pilot project
Mayor Dan Di Guilio said at the Tuesday meeting that he was concerned about reducing the anticipated surplus further but added he felt the cost was justified.
“I want to be very selective, if at all, when we find projects to spend against that anticipated excess revenue,” he said.
“But on the other hand, this council has repeatedly tried to find techniques and strategies that would help our local merchants and help our downtown.
“And while $14,500 is probably more than I want to spend, if that’s what it’s going to take to do these four items, I would like to do that.”
City Manager Kent Myers said Friday that he doesn’t expect the city to use the projected sales tax increase for any other nonbudgeted projects.
Councilwoman Cherie Kidd said at the meeting that the city needs to show itself off to people from outside the area who will be in town for events sparked by the dam demolition.
“I think it behooves us all to pitch in and make Port Angeles look wonderful because we will be filmed as never before, we will be reported from as never before, and we certainly want to look our best and be proud of our town,” she said.
Some council members at the meeting expressed concern over whether the money should be spent on this event and not others and if volunteers could do the work rather than city staff.
“Don’t we draw tens of thousands of people to the marathon that was just here and Arts in Action next weekend and Crab Fest that [have] never been here?” said Councilwoman Brooke Nelson.
Glenn Cutler, city public works and utilities director, told the council that the city doesn’t want volunteers to pressure-wash the sidewalks because of concern they will end up “kicking out the sand underneath the bricks and have them settle.”
Port Angeles Downtown Association volunteers also can’t water the plants because they aren’t allowed to drive the city water truck and can’t spray pesticide downtown, Charlie Smith, association vice president, told the council at the meeting.
The association plans to do its own downtown cleanup event Sept. 10.
Smith said that may involve some weed pulling and painting.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
