SEQUIM — It may have been Sequim’s most glamorous City Council meeting ever.
Wearing top hats, with strobe lights and flash lights shining around them, Sequim City Council members and some administrative staff on Monday were introduced by Ed Evans with KSQM-FM as a precursor to staff presenting highlights of the city’s 2017 Annual Report.
City Manager Charlie Bush said the Sequim Celebration Meeting is a “unique format found in few cities.”
The report briefly covers several aspects of city operations ranging from police accomplishments to public works projects to goats.
Some of the highlights from the meeting and report include:
• Sequim residents helped Sequim vote online to name it Best Northwestern Small Town by USA Today 10 Best Reader’s Choice travel award.
• Ninety-two city volunteers, including 26 Volunteers in Police Service, served more than 11,000 hours.
• Three Rallies in the Alley brought in 31.69 tons of trash.
• The Oct. 17 Business Blitz saw city staff meet with 47 businesses over three hours including bringing in Blitz the Seattle Seahawks mascot.
• City revenues finished about $700,000 more than anticipated in 2017. The city also received its 26th consecutive clean audit.
• The first phase of the Guy Cole Events Center was completed and funding for the Sequim Pickleball courts was obtained.
• The Sequim Police Department brought in new K-9 officer Mamba, and Sequim Girl Scouts with Troop 43870 helped remodel a children’s space.
• Sequim’s crime rate declined for the fourth straight year too.
City staffers also highlighted the “Vege-lantes” pilot program where goats helped with vegetation control by the city shop earlier this year.
A city team brainstormed ways to cut back on unwanted vegetation last year leading to the program in 2018.
After snowfall came during the program’s launch, city staffers said they postponed the program, moved it to a more ideal location and borrowed two goats from Sequim operations manager Ty Brown.
Bush said bigger cities are interested in what Sequim is doing with the pilot program and city staff look to bring goats into city limits again this spring for more vegetation control.
Following the presentation, Councilman Ted Miller said he wanted to emphasize the city’s core services of water, sewer, police, and transportation are first class.
“A lot of other cities can’t claim that,” he said. “We’re taking it for granted.”
Look for the Annual Report on the city’s website www.sequimwa.gov or visit the Civic Center at 152 W. Cedar St.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
