SEQUIM — Get ready for another Fir Street flap.
The western portion of the arterial is one popular stretch, running among Sequim High School’s athletic fields, band room and choir room, Helen Haller Elementary School and one side of the Sequim Community School.
And now Bill Bentley, Sequim’s school superintendent, wants three blocks of Fir closed.
More precisely, he wants the city of Sequim to vacate Fir between Third Avenue and the school district office at Sequim Avenue.
That doesn’t include the portion of Fir fronting Helen Haller Elementary and the Sequim Boys & Girls Club, which are just west of Third Avenue.
Bentley will bring his request to the Sequim City Council during its study session at 9 a.m. today in the Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St.
He’s already told Interim City Manager Robert Spinks that once school starts Sept. 3, some 270 students will cross West Fir every weekday.
Bentley’s request comes after a years-long struggle over the other side of Fir.
The eastern stretch of the street was once eyed as a link in the Olympic Discovery Trail, but when residents raised their voices in protest, the City Council turned to East Spruce Street and Sunnyside Avenue.
But while Sequim may have finally found the missing link for the trail that will eventually stretch from Port Townsend to LaPush, the city has yet to track down funding to build it.
As for West Fir, Spinks, who’s also Sequim’s police chief, didn’t want to weigh-in Friday on the closure question.
It needs “very close City Council review,” he said.
