PORT ANGELES — A highway welcome sign, complete with a waterfall and the greeting “Where the Mountains Greet the Sea,” was unanimously endorsed by the City Council on Tuesday night.
The display would be located on a city easement on Front Street near Ennis Cutoff Road — next to Thurman’s Electrical and Plumbing Supply — and include a welcome totem pole, small pond, rockery and an enormous tree stump against a mountain backdrop.
“I came in intending to vote no, so I move for approval,” said City Councilman Jack Pittis after hearing a presentation by Jackson Smart, owner of Jackson’s Signs and Art Studio, and ornamental horticulturist Andrew May.
The project is estimated at $41,000, including $15,000 from the city parks department capital budget, $3,000 from the city’s capital facilities plan budget and $23,000 from Port Angeles Rotary Club donations and other private support.
The Rotary Club board approved its role in the project in concept earlier Tuesday, although neither it nor the Port Angeles Rotary Club Foundation committed funds.
Rotary President-elect Lisa Wyatt said she wants the club’s role in the project to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the founding of Rotary International in 2004-05.
Smart told the City Council on Tuesday night that the idea of a welcome sign and landscaping began “a couple city managers ago.” The project will include two parts, the sign and the landscaping, he said.
May, who writes a weekly gardening column for Peninsula Daily News, said the sign has a lot to compete against visually, so he and Smart concentrated on placement in the city and scale.
People who visit from Nebraska or Germany or New York can’t believe the size of the trees we have here, May told the council.
Smart said the project is designed to be unobtrusive, but emphasizes the North Olympic Peninsula’s trees, water and mountains.
