SEQUIM — Ten days after this year’s Sequim Lavender Weekend ended, plans are in the works to improve the traffic flow on U.S. Highway 101 east of Sequim for the 2013 event.
“It’s a work in progress,” said State Patrol Sgt. Gailin Hester, who is stationed in Port Angeles.
On Thursday, members of the State Patrol met with the state Department of Transportation for a preliminary meeting, said Hester, who attended the meeting.
The Peninsula Daily News erroneously reported on Page A1 Sunday that representatives of the Sequim Lavender Growers Association, the Sequim Lavender Farmers Association and the city of Sequim attended the meeting.
They did not, said Hester and the representatives from the three groups.
It was an early planning meeting between only State Patrol officers and Transportation employees, said State Patrol Trooper Russ Winger, spokesman for the State Patrol, and Hester.
The estimated 25,000 to 30,000 visitors to the annual celebration of lavender farms in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley — held this year July 20-22 — boost the local economy, but traffic snarls on the route into the area are common, especially east of Sequim.
This week, the State Patrol plans to contact groups with a stake in the Sequim Lavender Weekend to get suggestions for a traffic control plan, Winger said.
That would include representatives of the two groups that organize fairs and tours — the growers group and the farmers group — as well as the city of Sequim.
Representatives of the two organizations that organize the lavender events held each year on the third weekend of July said Tuesday that they had not yet been contacted by the State Patrol.
“I do not have any comment, since nothing has been planned,” said Scott Nagel, executive director of the farmers association.
Nagel said he has, in the past, participated in traffic planning meetings.
Paul Jendrucko, media relations representative for the growers association, declined to comment on the traffic issue.
Said Barbara Hanna, city of Sequim’s communications and marketing director: “We would love to see the [traffic] problem be solved.
“It would be good for the whole community.”
Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.
