SEQUIM — It’s a collage built by committee, a cluster of images signifying a community.
So, like the yearlong celebration it announces, the Sequim centennial logo — marking the city’s 100th anniversary in 2013 — is loaded with symbols of life here.
There’s a bugling bull elk, lavender stems, sunshine, farm fields, the Olympic Mountains, a wide irrigation ditch and one of the city’s first big boxes, the old Clallam Co-op granary.
And in honor of the James town S’Klallam tribe, cedar boughs, from Native American “tree of life,” border the oval.
But when the Sequim City Council members eyed the logo at their meeting Monday night, not all appreciated the centennial slogan.
“Get into the Sequim of things,” as the logo reads, “kind of turns me off,” said council member Don Hall.
“I think we can do better,” he added.
“I have to agree,” said council member Susan Lorenzen.
Mayor Pro Tem Laura Dubois didn’t, though.
“It’s a cute play on words,” she said.
But then council member Erik Erichsen took another look.
“I don’t really get it,” he said. “I’d like to see something else.”
The logo is the product of months of discussion and e-mails exchanged between the Sequim centennial committee, a collection of about 12 residents, and graphic designer Melanie Reed.
“There is a lot of stuff in there,” said Reed, who holds an art degree from Western Washington University.
A designer at the Sequim Gazette, she created the logo pro bono.
Now that the committee has settled on a design, City Clerk Karen Kuznek-Reese told the council that she would like to have it approved and move forward with promoting the centennial celebration.
“I think it’s fine,” Mayor Ken Hays of the logo.
“It seems inappropriate to try to micromanage that.”
Finally the council voted 5-2 in favor of the design, with Erichsen and Hall dissenting.
So it’s on with plans for the centennial party, which includes two kickoff events, both on Oct. 27, 2012, that symbolize two Sequim industries: a Sequim Prairie Grange pancake breakfast and a reception at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites.
A staged melodrama about Sequim, placement of a time capsule, an old-fashioned Fourth of July celebration and a final bash at 7 Cedars Casino in November 2013 are among the events already in the works, Kuznek-Reese said Wednesday, after she adjourned this month’s hour-long meeting of the centennial committee.
The group is also compiling a cookbook and looking for old family recipes and stories, she added.
Committee meetings are at 1 p.m. the third Wednesday of each month at the Sequim Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St. For information phone Kuznek-Reese at City Hall at 360-683-4139.
“We want people to submit applications to have their events included in the program,” she added.
Kuznek-Reese and the committee also must develop a budget and recruit sponsors for the centennial celebration, which is beginning to look a bit like a yearlong Irrigation Festival and then some.
One frequently asked question, Kuznek-Reese said, is “why plan this far ahead?”
Having worked for the city since 1998, she knows how these things — gaining approval from various stakeholders — play out.
“It takes a long time,” Kuznek-Reese said, “to get everything all situated.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.
