Plans for a $7.8 million roundabout in Blyn are back, led not by WSDOT but by the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe—without public input or transparency. The project promises climate resiliency and tribal art, but critics warn it could choke Clallam County’s only commerce route. This Flashback Friday reveals that in 2021, safety experts raised red flags, and Commissioner Ozias publicly opposed the roundabout—while privately drafting letters of support. Now, with no answers from tribal officials and no oversight from the state, the same concerns echo louder than ever.
Talks of a Highway 101 roundabout in Blyn, at the Jamestown Tribe’s Longhouse gas station on Sophus Road, have returned. The new proposal is billed as a partnership between the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe and WSDOT to “connect tribal communities while preparing for climate resiliency.” The $7.8 million project includes side street improvements, tribal artwork in the center, pedestrian and bike amenities linked to the Olympic Discovery Trail, lighting, and median safety upgrades. It would also “build Longhouse Market Trail through sensitive area.”
The project site is Highway 101 at Sophus Road — right between the Tribe’s gas station and marijuana dispensary. The planning documents even state, “WSDOT will perform acquisition of non-tribal lands, as necessary.”
When the Tribe appeared to be quietly reviving the roundabout, CC Watchdog reached out to WSDOT Region Administrator Steve Roark for details. His response was telling:
"The Jamestown S’klallam Tribe is the lead agency for the proposed roundabout at Sophus Road and US 101. The WSDOT is not currently working on anything related to the project, so I would recommend reaching out to the tribe to determine if they are reinitiating the project. Wendy Clark-Getzin is the tribe’s Transportation Program Manager.”
In other words, the state transportation department doesn’t know what’s happening with a redesign of a U.S. highway. A sovereign tribe is the lead agency, and there is no public transparency.
CC Watchdog then contacted the Tribe’s Transportation Program Manager, Wendy Clark-Getzin, with three simple questions:
Is the Tribe reinitiating the roundabout project?
Are engineering plans available to the public?
Will any private property be taken for the design?
That was in early February. No response has ever been received.
There is only one highway in and out of Clallam County. Our government has handed over the design of it to a sovereign nation that has no obligation of transparency or accountability to county residents — and we’re still the ones footing the bill.
Flashback to 2021: the first roundabout fight
This is not the first time a roundabout has been proposed at this location. Back in April 2021, the commissioners held a work session with the Tribe on the same project. At the time, the argument wasn’t about climate resiliency, but about improving traffic safety in Blyn.
County Engineer Ross Tyler strongly objected to how the process was being handled:
“I am acutely aware that the Tribe did not at any time reach out to the County Road Department to seek our input, they seem to be end running us.”
Tyler emphasized that the County Road Department had learned about the proposal only four days before the meeting, despite Sophus Road being a county road. He wanted to review the Tribe’s earlier designs for an overpass, which he felt would be far more appropriate for a highway carrying tens of thousands of vehicles per day.
Tyler spelled out the safety concerns:
“This is not the right solution for highway 101.”
He noted that roundabouts don’t eliminate accidents — they just change the severity of them when drivers are slowed to 15–20 mph. He warned that adding a pedestrian crosswalk at the west side of the roundabout, with 17,000–20,000 cars daily, was a recipe for trouble, especially during events like the Lavender Festival.
He also warned about commerce:
“This is the only commerce route we’ve got. This is the one that brings our heavy truck traffic… A roundabout is a permanent chokepoint.”
Instead, Tyler pushed for an overpass — more expensive, yes, but proven to reduce accidents by separating traffic flows and routing pedestrians and bikes over the highway. He reminded the commissioners that Sequim has a bypass with five overpasses for this very reason, not roundabouts.
Commissioner Ozias’ two faces on the roundabout
Commissioner Mark Ozias has pointed to this issue as proof that he is “not beholden to the Tribe.” In a recorded interview, Ozias said:
“One action that I’ve taken, along with the other commissioners in the last year, that would be an example of taking a position contrary to what the Tribe would like to do, would be with regard to the roundabout that they want to build in Blyn. That’s something that I don’t support; this board has not supported it, and I had no problem staking out a public position of opposition to that project. I am not beholden to the Tribe. I do not feel beholden to the Tribe.”
But the record from April 5, 2021 tells another story. Commissioner Ozias drafted and presented a letter of support for the Tribe’s roundabout and presented it to Commissioners Bill Peach and Randy Johnson.
At that work session, when the Tribe presented their roundabout design, Commissioner Ozias repeatedly defended it. When Engineer Tyler pushed back, Commissioner Ozias interjected:
“In other words, the roundabout is the design that WSDOT says best meets the safety and traffic flow needs for that portion of highway.”
Yet at the same time, WSDOT had not endorsed the project.
Commissioner Ozias doubled down later in the meeting:
“Roundabouts, generally speaking, on highways are an increasingly common choice for WSDOT.”
Despite Tyler’s warnings, Commissioner Ozias went as far as to draft a second “enthusiastic letter of support” for the Tribe’s project.
Commissioners Bill Peach and Randy Johnson refused to sign on, citing safety and transportation concerns raised by both citizens and the trucking industry. Even the county’s own CFO, Mark Lane, weighed in from personal experience living in Gig Harbor:
“The roundabouts were known as one of the more dangerous intersections, not one of the safer ones.”
Faced with opposition from his fellow commissioners, Commissioner Ozias pulled the letter back. Later, he reframed the entire episode as proof of his independence — claiming that he stood against his campaign’s top donor, the Jamestown Tribe. The paper trail says otherwise.
Flashback Friday lessons
The Blyn roundabout is back. The arguments are the same. The concerns are the same. But the difference now is that the Jamestown Tribe is officially the lead agency, not WSDOT, and the public is completely shut out of the process.
The same questions from 2021 remain unanswered:
Is a roundabout the safest option for our county’s only commerce route?
Why was the County Road Department cut out of the process?
Why ignore the warnings of our own engineer while deferring to a design that benefits a single commercial hub?
And why does Commissioner Ozias continue to claim he opposed the project while the record shows otherwise?
This is why Flashback Friday matters. It shows us what was said, what was promised, and what was quietly forgotten. In this case, it also shows what was ignored: the voice of the public, the warnings of experts, and the importance of transparency on the highway that carries our county’s commerce and safety every day.
Share this post