SHINE — The Hood Canal Bridge will be closed to vehicles overnight Thursday.
The closure will be from 10 p.m. Thursday to 2 a.m. Friday.
Bridge maintenance crews for the state Department of Transportation will conduct repairs to the east half of the bridge lift.
The nature of the repairs will require the bridge to be closed to traffic for the full four-hour period, DOT said.
The repairs are routine, said Claudia Bingham Baker, DOT communications manager.
“The bridge always needs work on it,” she said. “We are always going to be working on that bridge. It’s never going to be done. It’s in too harsh an environment.”
The closure could create a delay in the delivery of the Peninsula Daily News, which is printed in Everett.
Drivers can sign up for DOT email updates and check the DOT Hood Canal Bridge web page at www.wsdot.com/traffic/hoodcanal for up-to-the-minute bridge information.
Other driver tools include self-subscribing for Hood Canal Bridge text messages by sending a text message to 468311 with the words “wsdot hood.”
Nest box building
SEQUIM — There will be class on how to build a nest box for birds from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
The class will be held in the Dungeness River Audubon Center, 2151 W. Hendrickson Road.
The class will cover how and why to build nest boxes.
Attendees will construct a box during class that they can take home and install in their own yard.
The class costs $15 per person, $12.50 per person for groups of two or more.
Class size is limited so pre-registration is required.
For more information or to register, call 360-681-4076.
Chain gang busy
PORT ANGELES — The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office Chain Gang found an illegal dumpsites in Mount Pleasant Pit with 2540 pounds of litter.
Notable items found included 100 needles, a travel trailer with contents and a gun.
Crew members shoveled snow from the Elwha Justice Center and the county courthouse parking lot.
Crew members checked for flooding and storm damage along Mount Pleasant, Draper and Monroe roads and Evergreen Way.
Crew members cleaned sand from the county wash rack then washed county vehicles and machinery.
Crew members also sorted and put away or disposed of truck and machinery chains for the county’s Roads Division.
So far this year the chain gang has cleaned 32.6 miles of roadway, picked up 2,480 pounds of roadside litter, picked up 14,420 pounds of illegal dumpsite litter and pulled approximately 1,680 Scotch broom plants.
Bentinck range in use
ESQUIMALT, B.C. — The Royal Canadian Navy has announced that the land-based demolition range at Bentinck Island will be in use today through Friday.
The range will be in use from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily during that time.
Bentinck Island is near Race Rocks in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and is used as a terrestrial demolition range by the Canadian Armed Forces.
Local residents will likely be unaware of the activities except on days when environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity and wind direction affect how far the sound will travel.
Studies conducted on the potential environmental effects of Bentinck Island demolitions have found that blast noise in the marine environment during land-based demolitions is almost undetectable by acoustic equipment above that of other underwater background sounds such as waves and marine life, the Royal Canadian Navy said in a news release.
Realtors visit Olympia for housing talks
OLYMPIA — Realtors from Jefferson County, Sequim and Port Angeles, along with hundreds of other Realtors from across the state, met with legislators Jan. 24.
According to a press release, the Realtors from Clallam and Jefferson counties traveled to the capitol to discuss the lack of affordable housing and its impact on residents of the two counties.
