PORT ANGELES — Paula Hammond has no problem with moving a proposed U.S. Highway 101 rest stop from Sequim to Deer Park above the Morse Creek canyon.
She also has no problem with changing plans for a ferry across Hood Canal while its floating bridge is being fixed.
So who has problems?
The North Olympic Peninsula people who must agree on how they’ll tell Hammond to solve them, that’s who.
Hammond, state transportation secretary since October, addressed the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce on Monday and later visited the Peninsula Daily News’ Port Angeles newsroom.
“We really need the community to support what they want,” she said of the Sequim rest stop that many residents don’t want.
Hammond, a 29-year Department of Transportation engineer, worked on the project in 1993 when “Sequim wanted us there.”
“It’s been on and off. Now we’re on the off again,” she said Monday.
Regarding next year’s six-week Hood Canal Bridge closure, Hammond said she’ll work up a Web-based poll of people’s preference among:
Any one of them could go into effect next spring while the bridge closes six weeks for repairs.
