Tribe entices county to keep road closed
Land, traffic study, and consulting are possible rewards
For residents in Dungeness, this week's traffic obstacles were challenging. Construction at the roundabout by Hardy's Market resulted in a lengthy detour via Port Williams, Holland and Woodcock roads that nearly doubled travel time. High water undercut Ward Road and emergency repairs restricted the road to one-lane, alternating traffic causing significant delays.
Towne Road, the logical alternative to both traffic dilemmas, has entered its 19th month of a temporary shutdown. Planned never to close for a single day, the road was closed after the Jamestown Tribe demolished the old Army Corp of Engineers' dike prior to the new levee being completed, thus exposing the old road to flood risk.
Despite their actions causing it, Jamestown Tribe has sent another letter to the County Commissioners calling for Towne Road's continued closure. For reasons that remain unclear, the Tribe is pushing for an extended three-year closure of the rural route that has linked Sequim to Dungeness for over a century. Originally, the reason was so the roadbed could serve as an "outdoor classroom", now their stance has pivoted to collecting data on pedestrian use upon the road’s surface. Posted signage currently prohibits any pedestrian or vehicle access atop the county's levee however, a few individuals who have worked with one commissioner to keep Towne Road closed are allowed access.
The inaccessible, taxpayer-funded road has already impacted the community beyond drive times: An admitted delay in fire response left a family homeless and their pets dead, home insurance rates could more than double for Dungeness residents, the county's role in the closure has increased liability and risk for county taxpayers, and county leadership's actions have eroded the public's patience and trust. Still, the Tribe is urging that the 38-foot-wide county roadbed be converted to a walking trail and, to entice the commissioners to reconsider, they are offering to collect data on pedestrian use and even donate land. While the Sheriff, Fire Chief, and county have stated how the closed road impacts emergency response, the Tribe is urging that their own Transportation Project Manager evaluate emergency response routes.
A Towne Road update has been scheduled for Monday, February 12th at the commissioners' weekly work session. The meeting begins at 9:00am, at the courthouse in Port Angeles, and the public may attend in person or via Zoom. Public comment is not allowed (but will be allowed the following day at the regular meeting).
The new levee was engineered, designed and paid for with taxpayer money. It was engineered for vehicle speeds and paid for with our tax dollars it was not designed to be a foot trail and a private driveway. The tribe should have done all their studies prior to construction when they destroyed the beautiful walking trail that existed seperate from Towne Road traffic. The road before the levee was taken out by the tribe was not suppose to be closed for ONE single DAY period end of story. Yet here we are the tribe causing more county taxpayer money to be incurred with additional man hours & politics! Our Commissioners need to stop bending over to their every whim. The time for the tribe to do studies was before the project, traffic, property access, infact most developers pay for all additional improvements of the surrounding real estate to mitigate costs of building. Giving the County unimproved property does nothing for us the taxpayer, we get no benefit what-so-ever. It is obvious the JST’s intentions before this all began was to get Towne Road closed for good! That is why nothing was studied or transparently planned & they had a Commissioner who get his largest campaign donations from, you guessed it, JST. I for one am sick of my tax dollars going to benefit the tribe when they don’t pay their small members stiffens (profit sharing). All this money the JST is making should be going to build all of them beautiful homes like Ron Allen’s & monthly payouts like other tribes do for their members. Not buying up properties to support their corporate pocketbook. We are the ones paying the taxes, we want our road, the road that is paid for with our tax dollars, end of story.
Pepai for Commissioner 2027!