SEQUIM – If you want something in Sequim to change — or not change — but don’t feel like confronting the City Council, there’s a new microphone set up for you.
It’s called Sequim Speaks, and it’s the citizens advisory group formed six months ago to give people both inside and outside the city a voice in the communitywide discussion.
During this Saturday’s Sequim Irrigation Festival activities, Sequim Speaks’ members will have a “coming-out party,” said Sue Erzen, the panel’s vice chairwoman of Sequim Speaks.
Two Sequim Speaks information tables will be set up during the Sequim Irrigation Festival activities.
One will be at the Guy Cole Convention Center in Carrie Blake Park, 202 N. Blake Ave., starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, and another at the Merchants Fair, open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. downtown on Washington Street between Second and Sequim avenues.
The message Sequim Speaks wants to get out there, Erzen said, “is that there are citizens who volunteered to do this, to help communication between the council and our neighbors.”
This is a chance, she added, to air questions, concerns and hopes about life in this town.
The panel aims to act as a conduit between the City Council and people all over the Sequim area — including those who wouldn’t attend the council’s Monday night meetings.
Sequim Speaks was conceived about two years ago by architect Ken Hays, then a newly elected council member and now the mayor.
A planning group formed, then held many meetings to draw up guidelines, and at last, in August, the council members appointed the first 15 representatives.
It’s taken quite a while to get to this point, acknowledged member Patrick Thomson.
How to contact Sequim Speaks
He hopes that people inside and outside the city will contact Sequim Speaks representatives by visiting the information tables this Saturday, by attending one of the panel’s meetings, by e-mailing speaks@ci.sequim.wa.us or by writing to Sequim Speaks in care of City Hall, 152 W. Cedar St., Sequim, WA 98382.
Anyone can attend a Sequim Speaks meeting, added Thomson, a retired air traffic controller who’s long taken an interest in city government.
Meetings are from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. the fourth Tuesday of each month — with the next one May 25 — in the conference room on the west side of the Sequim Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St.
Sequim Speaks’ representatives are already hearing from their own friends and neighbors, naturally.
Downtown traffic, crosswalks, the need for more sidewalks and the city’s Town Center Sub-Area Plan are among the issues coming up, said member Mary Miller.
Sequim Speaks caught Miller’s eye, she said, because since moving here four years ago, she wanted to somehow participate in city government.
She’s involved in too many other things, though, to join the Planning Commission or run for City Council, as did her husband, council member Ted Miller.
“There seems to be a good variety of people in the group, coming from all walks of life,” added Mary Miller, a retired nurse.
There are young mothers, a young father and several who are retired, for example.
Erzen, unlike Miller and Thomson, lives outside the city limit, but feels as strongly about taking part in community life.
A retired middle school writing teacher, Erzen is a past president of the League of Women Voters of Clallam County and served on the county’s charter review commission.
“I grew up in the Washington, D.C., area; I think government is in my blood,” she said.
And when it comes to community involvement, “the more you know, the more you can contribute.”
Erzen added that she would like to see Sequim Speaks develop not as a Dumpster for gripes only, but as an open door for ideas to flow through.
“Hopefully,” she said, “there will be suggestions as well as criticisms.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
