HomeMy WebLinkAboutMarch 2014From Mayor David King March 2014
Three Year Strategic Plan
City Council has held two of three Monday evening workshops at the Cotton building developing a
“bridging” strategic plan to set Council priorities for the next three years as we revise our Comprehensive
Plan. The workshops are being led by a local resident (and farmer!) who has developed an accessible and
efficient strategic planning process with results that fit on a single letter-size page. Central to the plan are the specific
goals adopted by the organization in order to meet its objectives. The draft goals of the City’s plan are:
Deliver an updated Comprehensive Plan by June of 2016– Job #1 for the period which will involve community
members, the Planning Commission and Council. To be successful, this process will require the thoughtful
participation of our whole community…and a very significant allocation of our staff’s time.
Increase capacity for diverse business development in the Howard Street corridor – By connecting Howard
Street to Discovery, we will improve circulation on Sims Way (SR 20), provide new, utility-served land for com-
mercial and light-industrial uses and advance our plan for economic growth in that area.
Source funding for:
O Water system
O Mt. View Commons
O City Library
O City Parks & Recreation
O City Streets
Establishing a sustainable future for public services and facilities is the objective here. These are tasks
that can’t be deferred until the Comp Plan update process is complete. Each one has or will have a sepa-
rate additional public process.
Provide organizational capacity to support our investments in Fort Worden & Downtown – The City is invested
in the future of our waterfront and Fort Worden and we will need to support desired outcomes as these areas
develop [more staff time].
Invest in organizational capacity for proactive leadership, operations, and responsiveness to citizen concerns
– Serving the community is the most important job we do. The impending retirement of key senior staff, the
fact that we’re still operating under reduced staffing as a result of the economic downturn, and Council’s de-
sire to improve public outreach - which also requires staff time- make this one of our most challenging goals.
The City’s final workshop on this plan will be March 10.
Parks Functional Plan
On February 18, Council approved first reading of version 3 of the Parks, Recreation and Open Space Functional Plan.
This is a BIG DEAL.
In the hierarchy of City planning documents, functional plans link the Comprehensive Plan to the actual ordinances and
resolutions that Council adopts to implement our Comp Plan goals. As I mentioned in December’s newsletter, the City
has functional plans in place for water, sewer and streetscape. But as “version 3” indicates, we’ve been challenged to fi-
nalize a parks plan for what seems like forever. It was delayed for years by issues with the Port over Kah Tai and by con-
troversy over the content and format of the plan generally. It was most recently suspended so that the joint planning effort
with the County on behalf of parks and recreation could go forward.
Granting agencies like RCO (The Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office) rely on functional plans to deter-
mine grant eligibility and RCO considers a plan that is older than six years to be out of date. Since our current plan is fif-
teen years old - “almost old enough to drive “scolded one Parks Advisory Board member – the City has been at disad-
vantage in getting funding for parks projects from the state and many private foundations. Now that our parks planning
process with the County has concluded with no significant changes in structure or funding, we’ve returned to finish our
plan.
The link on the City’s home page entitled “Third Draft Parks Plan Update” takes you to the Parks and Recreation page
where you can see version 3 and its appendices:
http://cityofpt.us/user/image/parks_functional_plan_updated.pdf
http://cityofpt.us/user/image/appendices.pdf
A possible second reading and final adoption is scheduled for the meeting on March 3, so we might have approved it
by the time you read this. As an overview of the City’s circumstances and ambitions with respect to Parks and Recrea-
tion it is a worthwhile read for anyone that cares about the subject – which from my experience is pretty much every-
one that lives here.
Property Tax Time
My property tax bill arrived on February 22 with an 18% reduction in the value of our home. From struggling to understand this
tax, our least intuitive revenue source, I assumed that since the my assessed value went down along with everyone else in the
City due to the first reassessment of values City-wide in four years my tax would be about the same or increase slightly due to the
1% allowable by law that was approved by most of our taxing districts. I knew I would be paying less for emergency services in
2013 because the ceiling for the EMS levy is $.50 per thousand of assessed value and it was already pegged at the maximum in
2013. But my overall tax is lower than last year by a greater amount that can be attributed to that.
It’s a consequence of equalization – finally putting district assessments on the same schedule. Here’s the history of recent asses-
sed values used in the City and County:
Last year the City’s assessed valuation was updated for the first time in four years. Since the assessed value (AV) of
the County was reduced in 2011, 2012 and 2013 city taxpayers have born a greater and increasing portion of the total
property taxes collected relative to County taxpayers for several years. That has now been "equalized" by our devalua-
tion so the tax I pay to the County this year (and other taxing districts that use the County's assessed value like the
PUD) will be less as taxpayers outside the city take on a higher percentage of the total. Also contributing was that com-
mercial property within the city was devalued less than residential property so commercial property owners will bear
more of the total within the City. With the exception of EMS the total tax collected by all jurisdictions will not be less and
in fact will be more by the 1% increase and new construction where taken
Bicycle Etiquette
I see more and more people of all ages are using bikes all year round as their preferred choice of basic transportation.
As a lifetime bicycle rider I look at this as a good thing and I’m glad to have the company.
However increased use of bicycles on our network of sidewalks and trails increases opportunities for conflicts between
riders and pedestrians. In order to protect continued multi-use of this wonderful system in our community bicycle riders
need to take responsibility for walkers’ comfort as well as their safety, and that means not zooming past and startling
an unaware pedestrian however safely it can be done, even if there’s music playing in their ear buds.
Streets are murkier. Although there are some regulations specific to the City for riding on sidewalks and trails, our mu-
nicipal code largely defers to state law for regulation of bicycle use on public streets. An excellent booklet on bicycle
commuting in Washington is available here:
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/NR/rdonlyres/BFB1C856-DE5B-47A7-8C3A-39247E6112F8/0/newcommute4webpdf.pdf
Biking on the street I behave as a slow car. Although by law I have the right to ride in the center of the travel lane, as a
courtesy to drivers I usually get off to one side so that I can be passed if there’s no bike lane. But I use left turn lanes
and trigger turn signals like a car. And I stop for red lights. When I’m in my car I defer to bike riders, particularly any
that are rude or stupid, based on who is more likely to get hurt in an encounter. I favor more citations for bicycle riders
who violate traffic laws as well as for drivers who harass or endanger cyclists.
To drivers who don’t ride, it’s time to stop stereotyping bike riders. A driver cutting me off or stealing a parking space
doesn’t mean all drivers are jerks, just that one. Similarly a rude bicycle rider is a rude individual, not a member of a
rude class.
Year County AV Change City AV Change
2010 5,421,260,420 1,463,343,405
2011 4,922,402,055 -9.20%1,468,539,440 0.36%
2012 4,648,734,415 -5.56%1,469,136,180 0.04%
2013 4,418,216,296 -4.96%1,219,761,437 -16.97%
-19.72%-16.58%
Friends of the Port Townsend
Library
Used Book Sale
Saturday, March 8
9am - 3pm
(8am for Members of the Friends)
Held at the Community Center in
Uptown PT
New Drinking Water Treatment Facility March 2014
City Staff is pilot testing the next generation of drinking water treat-
ment for the City of Port Townsend, which is scheduled to be operat-
ing by the Fall of 2016. While our City has a long history of providing
safe drinking water from the Big and Little Quilcene Rivers in the
Olympic National Forest that meets or exceeds federal drinking water
regulations – a recent EPA regulation requires additional treatment
for surface water supplies.
Why is More Treatment Needed? In order to ensure adequate
treatment for Cryptosporidium, a microscopic parasite that is re-
sistant to chlorine treatment, the City had planned on an ultraviolet treatment facility. However, treat-
ment requirements have recently changed due to the Washington Department of Health‘s expecta-
tions for managing public access within our municipal watershed.
What Does the Water Rate Increase Pay For? Rates will pay back low interest loans for pilot test-
ing, permitting, design, and construction of a filtration and chlorination treatment facility. The facility
will be built on city-owned property next to our existing water storage reservoirs. This will bring the
City‘s water system into compliance with mandated federal standards.
Want More Info? Visit the ―Current Projects‖ page on the City‘s website at
www.cityofpt.us/CurrentProjects.htm
Three Water Filtration Systems Piloted
Three vendors have supplied membrane filtration systems which the City
began pilot testing in February at City Lake. The final report on the testing
will examine the performance of each system and how well each removes
particles from the water.
The City will receive public bids from the three vendors in June 2014 and
select which one to use in our new treatment facility.
30
Miles of steel pipeline
delivers PT’s drinking
water from the Big
and Little Quilcene
Rivers
Source: City of Port Townsend
2008 Water System Plan
City Lake serves as a reservoir for PT‘s drinking water
Electrician wires filtration testing system
Street Lights
The PUD has installed
3 LED street lights on
Sheridan Street in the
vicinity of the hospital at no charge to the
City as a demonstration test. LED lights
have significantly lower energy usage, alt-
hough the initial cost is higher than con-
ventional street lights.
Currently our energy usage is around
$90,000 annually. To reduce this cost,
the City will be looking long term to convert street lights around town,
as other cities are also moving this direction.
This is an opportunity for public feedback. If you would like to com-
ment on the new lighting, give us a call at 379-5047 or use the Citi-
zen Concern form listed at the bottom of the City website.
Workparty at Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park
Join Admiralty Audubon on Sunday, March 16
anytime between 9 a.m. and noon for a workparty
at Kah Tai Lagoon Nature
Park. We will be focusing
on pulling Scot‘s Broom
and picking up garbage.
Park at the parking lot near
the bathrooms and walk
east toward the Benedict
Street entrance southeast of the small pond and
look for a white Chevy pick-up with a bright green
‗volunteer‘ sign.
Wear warm work clothes and bring work gloves
and pruners if you have them. Water, tea, treats
garbage bags and Scot‘s Broom pullers will be
provided.
Hope to see you there. For more information con-
tact 385-0307 or rosemarysikes@olympus.net.
Boiler Room Booster Club
The Boiler Room is celebrating the creation of the
Boiler Room Booster Club whose goal is to sup-
port the Boiler Room‘s mission.
Booster Club Membership tickets are $20 and will
be entered into a series of drawings:
A $60 prize will be drawn every other week
between March 1 and May 29; and,
A Grand Prize Winner of a sunset cruise for
two featuring a crab dinner, will be drawn from
all tickets on June 14.
Members may join throughout the drawing period,
so chances of winning vary at the time of each
drawing—join sooner to increase your chances!
Every ticket is entered into every drawing—
winning doesn‘t take you out of the pool either,
and you don‘t need to be present. All administra-
tive costs and the grand prize have been gener-
ously donated.
Membership is for six months and Booster Club
Members will receive special recognition in The
Boiler Room Zine. For more information, please
email boilerroomed@gmail.com.
The 2014 Victorian Heritage Festival
March 21 - 23
When thinking of Port Townsend‘s early days,
images of shipping and lumber, rough streets
and genteel houses spring to mind. Come
take a glimpse into those unique yesteryears.
Friday night begin with our Victorian Pub Crawl
featuring saloons, "shanghai tunnels," and fine
vintage cocktails through a staggering selection
of Port Townsend‘s (in)famous watering holes.
Saturday, 10:30 a.m.
there will be a Parade
downtown, with cavalry
drills (yes, horses!) and
walkers, both military
and civilian. Following
the parade and at vari-
ous locations around town, there will be
demonstrations of manly arts, bicycles, corsets,
and history, alongside old favorites like the
fashion show, steam boat rides, prize fighters
and Victorian teas. Cap the day with the Fash-
ion Show, then attend the Victorian Ball at 7
p.m. and the Contra Dance at 9 p.m. All ages
are welcome! Bring your stompin‘ boots!
Sunday we are offering a series of historic
building tours, both uptown and downtown, and
more teas.
See the website for details, schedules, prices,
and to order tickets: www.VictorianFestival.org.
Early-bird tickets are now on sale.
The Victorian Heritage Festival is organized by
Olympic Peninsula Steam with support from
Victorian Society Northwest, and celebrates
Port Townsend's unique role as an exquisitely
preserved historical seaport surviving and thriv-
ing as a modern city.
Mt. View Library Hours Starting March 1
Library hours: Monday-Thursday 10-7
Friday 10-5
Saturday 10-5
Sunday 1-5
Children's Library: Monday 10-5
Tuesday 10-5
Wednesday Closed
Thursday 10-5
Friday 10-5
Saturday 10-5
Sunday 1-5