The public got a chance Tuesday night to hear from candidates running in the primary election for seats on the Port of Port Angeles and Olympic Memorial Hospital boards of commissioners and the Port Angeles City Council.
The candidates gave short presentations about their positions on various issues and answered questions from the audience of about 50 persons during the two-hour forum.
While the primary is Sept. 18, mail-in ballots are being sent to registered voters in the appropriate voting districts today.
The primary election is being conducted entirely by mail.
Port Angeles City Council
Incumbent Larry Williams is seeking a second four-year term. The real estate agent will face John Logelin, a blind man, and Karen Spence, an accountant, in the primary election for Position 2 on the City Council.
They were asked whether they favored the petition method or direct-vote method for the city’s potential annexation of unincorporated residential and business lands between its eastern limits and Morse Creek.
Williams said he wouldn’t say whether he favored either method, saying both were valid.
As for annexation, it has become a political and revenue question now, it is no longer a service issue since the city allowed water and other services to be extended outside its boundaries earlier this year, Williams said.
Logelin said residents and property owners should have a right to vote on the annexation.
One right people have in this country is to vote and — that is what he would expect to happen, he said.
Spence didn’t directly address the vote issue but said annexation should occur only if a majority in the area favored it.
She said growth in the Port Angeles area will happen no matter what, and it is better that the city manage that growth rather the county.
Everyone has concerns about annexation, but she said her research with city officials indicated that all views will be heard, that it won’t be a hostile takeover.
Port of Port Angeles
Corby Somerville, Tim Fraser and Bill Hannan, all of Sequim, are running for the District 1 Port of Port Angeles commissioner, representing the Sequim area.
They were asked which Port real estate holdings they would sell off if necessary to raise needed cash.
Somerville said he can’t identify the properties to sell until a detailed survey is done. Then the commissioners could examine those holdings and talk about what to sell off, he said.
Hannan said he would inventory all the Port’s assets. The Port has short term problems but also long term goals, he said.
The Port’s assets must fit its goals. It can’t simply dump real estate to raise money, he said.
Fraser said some properties should be marketed, such as the Oak Street property and acreage by the airport. He also questioned why The Landing Mall on the Port Angeles waterfront wasn’t owned by a private company.
Olympic Memorial Hospital
Marv Chastain is one of two challengers facing incumbent Connie Lawrence for Position 1, District 3 on the board of commissioners for Olympic Memorial Hospital.
The other candidate is John Borah, who did not appear at the forum.
They were asked about the hospital’s ownership of two nursing homes in Sequim that the hospital purchased in 1997.
Chastain said he would look at the nursing homes and if was making money and they couldn’t find a suitable buyer, then they should keep it.
Lawrence said the Sequim nursing homes are now in the black, and she would like to continue the hospital’s ownership of them, that they are “a community asset.”
The forum was sponsored by the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Port Angeles Business Association and Port Angeles Downtown Association/Main Street.
