PORT TOWNSEND— Port Ludlow’s Village Council strives to preserve the quality of life in the waterfront village even though it has limited legal authority.
“We are not a city council,” said Tom Stone, Village Council president, in a keynote address to the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce’s luncheon audience Monday.
“We cannot charge dues, but we are a unified voice in issues of importance, and we represent those issues to local government.”
The council operates on donations, which are used to run a website and publish a monthly magazine, the Port Ludlow Village Voice.
Port Ludlow, which has a population of about 2,000, was created as a resort community and many residents are retired but the town has a younger feel than many other local communities, according to Stone, a retired Navy rear admiral.
“We moved here in 2001 because we wanted to be nearer to our kids and grandkids,” Stone said.
“We took a look at Sequim and decided it was a nice place to go if you wanted to visit your parents, and we settled on Port Ludlow because it was an active community full of friendly people.”
Port Ludlow does not deserve the reputation of naysayers, Stone said.
“There are people who say that Port Ludlow is a snobby community, and that’s not true,” he said.
What Port Ludlow has is a strict set of covenants that protect property values, he said.
Some the Village Council’s actions are anachronistic, such as the publication of a phone book.
The next edition, due to come out in the fall, pays tribute to technology with the inclusion of cellphone numbers and email addresses, which standard commercial phone books do not include, he said.
These features make it useful to the Port Ludlow community, which uses technology but still prefer the look and feel of an “old fashioned” phone book, Stone added.
The council will occasionally take on a controversial issue, such as its opposition to a new quarry proposed by Pope Resources.
“Having two large trucks a day go through the village will harm our infrastructure and hurt our property values,” he said.
The council is also cognizant of what it will take for the village to incorporate as a city, but that won’t happen just yet.
“In order to incorporate, we will need to have a sustained tax base to pay for police, fire and other services that we now get from Jefferson County,” Stone said.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
