The Seegers/French race is coming down to the wire, and your ballot could decide it. Meanwhile, a vandal was caught on camera in Blyn, a Dignity Bus like the one Port Angeles is weighing already failed in Illinois, and county officials found a way to raise taxes without asking you. Here’s what you need to know this week.
Your Ballot Could Decide This Race
The Seegers/French race is going to be close, and both campaigns know it.
Fill out your ballot today. If you can, take it to a secure ballot drop box, because mail has been slow lately and you don’t want your vote arriving late.
One Last Push for Jake: Saturday on the River Road Overpass
This is the final push for Jake Seegers, and for getting Clallam County back on track after years of failed policies, tax increases, and reckless spending. Join Jake’s supporters this Saturday at 11 a.m. on the River Road Overpass.
Bring Seegers signs, patriotic gear, American flags, and anything else that reminds your neighbors it’s time to vote for change and get their ballots in.
Caught on Camera: Blyn Sign Slashed Again
Just over three months ago, someone slashed the John Birch Society’s sign on private property beside Highway 101 in Blyn.
When they put up a replacement, the owners said it would be watched. They meant it. Here’s what the camera caught this week:
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office is now asking for help identifying the suspect.
The 12-by-5-foot sign read “Get us out of the United Nations” and cost about $450. The footage shows a man holding an object in his left hand and cutting the sign off its posts. The owner told deputies it wasn’t the first time, which is why they put up the camera.
If you have information, call the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office at (360) 417-2459. You can also submit an anonymous tip through the Sheriff’s Office Online Reporting Portal by choosing “Crime Tips.”
They Came for the Wells. Now They’re Coming for the Septics.
Clallam County Environmental Health, the Jamestown Tribe and the Clallam Conservation District are hosting a community meeting tomorrow on the Pollution Identification and Correction (PIC) program. PIC tracks down sources of bacterial pollution, such as failing septic systems and farm runoff.
Private wells in the valley already fall under the Dungeness Water Rule, and tribal land is exempt. Attention is now turning to private septic systems, and tribal land is exempt from those rules too. The county’s meeting will be held at the Tribe’s Rainshadow Hall at the Dungeness River Center.
Want to Shape Sequim’s Future? The Planning Commission Has Two Openings
Getting involved is one of the best ways to shape how Sequim grows. The city has two openings on its Planning Commission. One is a four-year unexpired term ending in January 2031, and the other is a term ending in January 2030. You must live within the Clallam County part of the Sequim School District.
Applications are due by noon Friday, Oct. 30. You can email yours to clerk@sequimwa.gov, drop it off in person, or mail it to City of Sequim, Attention: City Clerk, 152 W. Cedar, Sequim, WA 98382. If you have questions, call 360-681-3428.
The Dignity Bus Has Already Failed Once
OlyCAP, an NGO on whose board Mike French serves, wants Port Angeles to put about $160,000 toward a $260,000 “Dignity Bus.” It’s a converted motor coach with sleep pods, built by The Source, a Florida nonprofit. A group in Kankakee, Illinois has already tried this. In 2023, Fortitude Community Outreach paid $175,000 for a 19-pod Dignity Bus from the same builder. By March 2025, its own director called it “not a long-term sustainable program. It is high maintenance, and there’s high costs of fuel” (Daily Journal).
It lasted two winters. In September 2025, Fortitude said the bus would not return. It needed repairs that “had not been part of the organization’s budget,” the maintenance person was gone, and the group was “actively looking to sell” it. Fortitude switched to renting hotel rooms instead. As of January 2026, the bus was still sitting “not in use.”
Before Port Angeles spends a dime, the council should ask OlyCAP for the full yearly cost of fuel, repairs, insurance, and overnight staff. It should ask who keeps the bus running, and what happens to the public’s money if it ends up parked in two years like Kankakee’s. And OlyCAP should first show what the $118,780 Sequim Safe Parking pilot actually delivered.
Totem Poles, Igloos, and Now a Teepee?
Totem poles aren’t traditional to the S’Klallam people. They come from the tribes of the northern British Columbia and Alaska coast, and even a Jamestown elder has said as much. Igloos aren’t S’Klallam either. They come from the Inuit. Yet Jamestown’s 7 Cedars Resort is now hiring for its “Igloo Experience.” See the job posting here.
It’s seasonal, and the pay is just over minimum wage. So would it be appropriate for someone in Sequim to open a business with a teepee attendant?
Squalor a Block From City Hall
It’s getting harder to convince people that everything is fine and nothing has changed. A recent section of the Peninsula Daily News was full of residents’ observations about Port Angeles.
They described homeless people by the city pier, encampments, abandoned shopping carts, filthy public restrooms, a drug problem, and the squalor on Peabody Street, one block from the courthouse and City Hall.
Remember, Mike French says it’s up to residents to reclaim our public spaces.
Out of Food, but Not Out of Catering?
The Port Angeles Food Bank reports that it is completely out of community food donations. Just a few weeks ago, though, the food bank catered a $50-a-plate fundraiser for Serenity House.
How did it have enough food to cater events a few weeks ago, and now it’s completely out?
Tonight in Forks: Ask the Commissioners About Your Taxes
The Board of Clallam County Commissioners will hold a Budget Town Hall tonight, Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 5 p.m. in the Forks City Hall Council Chamber, 500 E. Division St., Forks. The agenda covers the Administrator Recommended Budget and the Six-Year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), followed by a question-and-answer session.
Details, including instructions to attend virtually, are here.
Here’s what’s interesting. Last year the county faced a multimillion-dollar deficit and asked voters for a levy lid lift. Voters said no, and the county quickly found the money elsewhere, including by renegotiating its contracts with Sequim and Port Angeles. This year it faces a deficit of about the same size. This time it’s closing the gap with a criminal justice tax, plus a one-time boost to the general fund from separating the Veterans and Developmental Disabilities levies. The entire deficit is being bridged by raising taxes, and none of it goes to a public vote.
Funny how that works.
The League’s “Low Flow” Sign Has Some Partisan Company
If you’ve driven the Old Olympic Highway east of the Dungeness River, you’ve seen the League of Women Voters’ “Low Flow Alert” sign by the road, warning about water levels in the river.
These days, that sign has company: political signs, but only for Democratic Party-endorsed candidates.
That’s interesting behavior for a group that calls itself “nonpartisan.” The jig is up, LWV. You’re about as nonpartisan as a referee wearing one team’s jersey.
