SEQUIM — Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers believes President Barack Obama will attend a September dedication of the Elwha River dams removal project.
“I think there’s a good possibility that the president will come,” Myers told a Clallam County League of Women Voters luncheon group of more than 50 people at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Wednesday.
No confirmation of a presidential visit was forthcoming from the White House or Olympic National Park.
Myers cited Secret Service inquiries to the city about security should the president attend but did not elaborate beyond that.
Myers’ communications administrator, Teresa Pierce, later referred additional Peninsula Daily News inquiries to Olympic National Park administrators.
“We have not heard anything from his office,” said Barb Maynes, Olympic National Park spokeswoman, on Wednesday, adding that the park’s administrative office had not even heard from the Secret Service.
White House representatives expressed doubt that an event four months away would be scheduled for the president.
A White House spokesman said it was too early to confirm whether the president would attend the ceremony and that it was not currently on the White House calendar.
Port Angeles Police Chief Terry Gallagher said he has heard only “third-party rumors” so far regarding a possible Obama visit.
“I’ve heard that the Secret Service has been in the area and have looked at different facilities like the hospital, but they have not called us,” Gallagher said.
The police chief recalled when former President George W. Bush’s wife, Laura Bush, came to Port Angeles in the early 2000s.
“All we got was a last-minute phone call,” Gallagher said.
Along with the president, rocker Jon Bon Jovi has been invited to play, and actor and environmental activist Robert Redford has been invited to speak at a dinner gala tentatively set for Sept. 16.
Olympic National Park wants “A-list celebrities” to attend the Sept. 17 ceremony marking the historic razing of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams, Maynes said in January, when they reviewed potential festivities for the celebration at a private meeting of 20 business, education and government leaders.
The celebration would mark the beginning of the end for the most visible, dramatic part of the $351.4 million Elwha River Restoration Project: the $26.9 million decommissioning and removal, piece by piece, of the two dams by Barnard Construction Co. Inc. of Bozeman, Mont.
The intent is to restore the river’s once-thriving salmon run on more than 70 miles of the river’s main stem and tributaries.
U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, whose 6th Congressional District includes Clallam and Jefferson counties, has said he will attend.
Also invited were Sen. Patty Murray, D-Bothell, who is hoping to attend, and Sen Maria Cantwell, D-Mountlake Terrace, who said it’s too far in the future to say yes or no, their spokesmen said last week.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
