PORT ANGELES — The city likely will pay nothing to help the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe tear down the decades-old wooden longhouse in Lincoln Park after City Council members approved an agreement with the tribe last week.
The City Council on Tuesday night voted 6-0, with Councilwoman Brooke Nelson absent, to approve the agreement in which the tribe will provide all the labor, materials and equipment to remove the longhouse, and the city would pay up to $3,000 to help with disposal costs, if needed.
“We really don’t think there’s going to be any cost [to the city] associated with it, but we wanted a dollar amount just in case,” said Corey Delikat, the city’s parks and recreation director, in a later interview.
The agreement was part of the consent agenda, during which multiple items were approved at the same time.
Staff and volunteers from the tribe also will work to recover wooden trusses that are holding up the longhouse roof and the 20 hand-carved totem poles ringing the building, said Francis Charles, chairwoman of the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe.
“We’re going to salvage what we can for future use, as well as taking the totem poles down,” Charles said Wednesday.
Delikat said the tribe working with the city to demolish and salvage certain pieces of the longhouse is a “win-win.”
“Without [the tribe’s] assistance, I’d have to come up with some sort of funding to get rid of it,” Delikat said.
The city will plant grass in the footprint of the building after it is removed, Delikat said, adding that there are no city plans to replace the structure.
The tribe is working out the details of the demolition and securing the proper permits with the city, Charles said.
Work begins in October
She expects work to begin sometime this October.
Charles said estimates of cost and length of time to complete the demolition will have to wait until tribal staff can scrutinize the building itself to see how best to begin tearing it down.
People have begun to express interest in donating labor and materials, she added.
“We have volunteers that are stepping up, and we really appreciate that,” Charles said.
The longhouse, built in the 1970s, was constructed largely with volunteer tribal member labor, Charles said, adding that more than a few descendants of the longhouse’s original builders want to sign up for the demolition and salvage efforts.
Family connections
“We have a lot of family and descendants that have connections to the longhouse,” Charles said.
“A lot of us are adults [now] and have grown with the facility itself.”
The longhouse once played host to both city and tribal events, including educational programs, traditional meals and high school graduations.
The city’s building inspector condemned the longhouse in 2011 because of deteriorating pillars, beams and a rotting roof.
The longhouse has not been rented out for any purpose since 2006 and, up until it was condemned, had been used as storage for the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
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Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
