By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – The Port Angeles City Council Tuesday night elected Mayor Kate Dexter to serve a second term as mayor, and Brendan Meyer takes over as Deputy Mayor, replacing Navarra Carr.
Carr was nominated for mayor but declined. Dexter and Meyer accepted their nominations for mayor and gave their reasons for doing so.
“I certainly didn’t anticipate being mayor in an online world, which I think changed the role a little bit. It is a lot of work but it’s something that I have really enjoyed doing. I think that, while I certainly can appreciate the idea of rotating, I also think that there’s a lot that can still be learned by someone. So I certainly could still learn more by continuing as mayor that I think could be beneficial.
I think that you’ve been a great mayor, Kate. I think that you’ve run meetings very well, and I applaud you for that. But I do feel like it should be rotated. That’s why I nominated Navarra, because, you know, she’s Deputy Mayor, you were Deputy Mayor with Sissy. So that’s the reason why I threw my name in there and, whichever way it goes, it’s gonna be good.”
The vote was taken, and Mayor Dexter won with 4 votes including herself, Mike French, Charlie McCaughan and Navarra Carr.
Nominated for Deputy Mayor were Mike French, Navarra Carr and Brendan Meyer. The Council tried ranked choice voting for what sounded like their first time, and Meyer came out on top.
Tuesday’s agenda also included a presentation from the Washington State Dept. of Transportation’s Piper Petit, Design Team Lead on the upcoming fish passage projects in Port Angeles. We learned that the projects are not only expected to have a big impact on salmon recovery, but also on local traffic for about 3 years. The previous estimate was 2 years.
“Like I said, it would take about three years to complete. But of those three years, we’re really trying to reduce the amount of time that the community will experience significant traffic impact. It’s not going to be fun, but we’re trying to make it as painless as possible.”
The 3 projects, where Ennis Creek and Lees Creek pass under Highway 101 on the east end of town, and Tumwater Creek, near where Lauridsen meets the top of the Tumwater Truck Route, are expected to get under way in 2023. WSDOT’s Joey Burnell reminded the council why there are so many of these projects happening at once all-over Olympic Peninsula.
“If the city council is not aware, there is a court injunction against the DOT in the state. We must correct these fish passage issues by 2030. So that’s why we’re doing this. The court says we have to do it. And there’s hundreds and hundreds of these along Olympic Peninsula and western Washington that we have to do.”
WSDOT photo: Piper Petit (center) discusses a plan.