As we welcome a new year, it’s also a time to reflect on the top news events of 2018. Here are is our Top 10 list, chosen by Leader staff:

1. Salish Coast Elementary opens. The first day of school was delayed a week due to a construction labor strike, but on Sept. 12, the new school opened on the site where Grant Street Elementary was for the past 60 years.

The new building includes space for fourth- and fifth-grade students who had been at Blue Heron Middle School for several years. Head Start also relocated into the new building.

When moving into the new building, Salish Coast Elementary Principal Lisa Condran praised her teachers for coming together “as a community” and supporting one another through gestures as simple as helping each other unpack.

Condran noted professional movers had been retained to assist the teachers, so none of them would strain their backs or exhaust themselves before the start of school.

Because the structure of Salish Coast Elementary encourages more carpooling, bicycle riding and parking at a distance from the school, Condran said there would be no fewer than four crossing guard spots from 7:35 to 8 a.m. and from 2:30 to 2:45 p.m.

While construction work continued after the start of the school year, Port Townsend School District Superintendent John Polm said the on-site machinery would be sectioned off, with no work done while students were in the building.

2. Water Street improvements. This project included the replacement of cracked pavement, widening of sidewalks to enhance streetscape and replace aging utilities.

The total cost was about $3.9 million, city officials have said.  

Construction of the Water Street enhancement project began Jan. 2, and the city’s portion was completed on schedule in early July 2018. At the end of the year, Jefferson County PUD was installing wire for completing the undergrounding of power lines and providing new service connections to the buildings.

Once all wires are in place, then the new street lights can be installed and the power poles removed.

The PUD is proceeding on this work through the spring of 2019 and expects to have the poles removed in 2020.

Water Street serves as the public entrance and first impression to historic Port Townsend. Yet the street and sidewalks in many places were inadequate, unsafe and not very inviting for pedestrians, bicyclists and cars alike, city officials have said.

During the past six years, the city has made significant improvements to portions of the historic downtown, including along Water Street. It has continued those efforts west, with improvements from Taylor Street to the ferry terminal.

The project also provided other important benefits and preventative maintenance by replacing aging infrastructure, and an 80-year-old water main and old side sewers that served the historic buildings, city officials have said.   

3. Postponement of Point Hudson jetty replacement. The Point Hudson jetty was a top priority for the Port of Port Townsend in 2018.

On Jan. 10, port commissioners unanimously voted to authorize preparation of a $3.2 million bond package to fund replacement of the failing south jetty at Point Hudson in the summer.

At that same meeting, members of the maritime community expressed their concern for the future of Point Hudson.

“The port has raised rates and driven business — both boats and prospective tenants — away,” veteran boatbuilder Ernie Baird said at the time.

Baird and other members of the marine trades in Port Townsend worried about the economic feasibility of the jetty project.

In February, port commissioners struggled to decide when the construction phase of the project should start. It would be less expensive if it started in the summer, but it would force the cancellation of the Wooden Boat Festival.

On March 20, concerned citizens packed the Port Townsend Yacht Club meeting room. Hearing their worries, commissioners voted 2-1 in favor of delaying jetty work from summer to fall.

But on May 23, port commissioners rejected all bids for the project.

“The port simply lacks the resources to proceed with the project at least within the timeframe (the port) originally anticipated,” Deputy Director Eric Toews said at the time.

Now, the port has jetty replacement set for 2021 in its capital projects budget, with an unknown funding source. But the failing jetty might require earlier action.

“We’re willing to explore any avenue to accomplish protection of the marina, because it is critical to protecting the economic vitality of the east end of Port Townsend,” Toews said in December.

4. Maritime Center offers to manage Point Hudson, later pulls out. In January 2018, the Northwest Maritime Center proposed the Port of Port Townsend agree to a 50-year master lease of Point Hudson in return for $4.5 million in cash and improvements, annual lease payments of $350,000 to the port, and 15 percent of revenue over a baseline year.

The center’s 164-page proposal stated Point Hudson should remain a historic and authentic working maritime area.

The proposal envisioned Point Hudson as an authentic working campus, an educational campus and a vibrant waterfront accessible to residents and visitors alike.

Jake Beattie, executive director of the Northwest Maritime Center, said at the time the proposal was intended to preserve Point Hudson more or less as it is now.

After discussing it over several months, port commissioners weighed the option of a lease shorter than 50 years.

“On the one hand, I’m happy to have a 50-year lease because I think that, in 30 years, the asset (Point Hudson) will be underwater,” commissioner Bill Putney said at a meeting April 11. On the other hand, “Point Hudson is part of a public trust that the Port holds.”

In May, the Northwest Maritime Center withdrew the proposal after inaction from the Port.
“The Maritime Center said, ‘We need to know by Jan. 1, is the port going to lease to us or not,’” interim executive director Jim Pivarnik said in November.

Pivarnik said the Port makes closer to $550,000 a year. If the maritime center paid a $350,000 annual lease payment, the Port would lose about $300,000 a year, he said.

“I went back to Jake (Beattie) and said, ‘These numbers aren’t going to work,’” Pivarnik said. “But I did tell him that, in the Port’s mind, it’s not a dead issue.”

5. Port executive director, director of operations resign. The past 12 months came with change for the Port of Port Townsend. While struggling with big decisions, the port underwent a large administrative change.

On Aug. 15, Sam Gibboney resigned as executive director, effective immediately. Gibboney had held the position since June 2016.

In her resignation letter, Gibboney said she “took the job of executive director at a time of tremendous change and significant and operational challenges.”

A few days later, the Port hired Jim Pivarnik as the interim executive director. Pivarnik had been working as the executive director at the Port of Kingston. Before that, he had been the deputy director at the Port of Port Townsend.

“In addition to assuming the regular responsibilities of a Port executive director, Pivarnik will also assist the commission in the process of retiring to retain a permanent executive director,” the Port stated in a press release Aug. 19.

Since Pivarnik took the reins, the administrative staff was cut further. The Port eliminated the director of communications position, previously held by Kimberly Matej. Then, director of operations Greg Englin left to take Pivarnik’s former position as the executive director at the Port of Kingston.

In November, the port named Toews deputy director.

Toews, Pivarnik, and Director of Finance Abigail Berg will divvy up management duties.“When Greg left, it left a big hole here obviously, so what Eric and I have decided to do is to split up his duties,” Pivarnik said. “In the deputy director position, it is two-fold. One, he is the de-facto operations person, and when I’m gone, he is basically in charge. He has signature authority and will be able to take over the port if I’m gone.”

6. Gun range controversy. On Dec. 18, 2017, the Board of County Commissioners passed a one-year moratorium on modifying existing or establishing new commercial shooting facilities, sparking a yearlong debate on the place of shooting ranges in Jefferson County.

The moratorium was put in place after Joe D’Amico, owner of Fort Discovery, released a proposal to build a shooting facility on his property north of Tarboo Lake in Quilcene.

In January 2018, the commissioners approved a mediation agreement with a resolution provider to provide services for the county and D’Amico, who took issue with the moratorium’s impact on his business plans.

Then in February, commissioners held a public hearing to decide whether to end or continue the moratorium. At the hearing, members of the public called for more regulation on shooting ranges in Jefferson County.

Commissioners sought to add more regulations after they decided to continue the moratorium until Dec. 17, 2018. An advisory board made up of 12 community members drafted an ordinance that would require any shooting facilities to obtain operating permits. The advisory board met 15 times during the summer, for more than 40 hours, to develop recommendations for county staff, with a culminating discussion Sept. 10.

After hundreds spoke at a public hearing, the commissioners struck the public testimony due to complaints that the hearing had violated the state Open Public Meetings Act.

Finally, on Oct. 24, the commissioners heard public testimony. A week later, on Nov. 2, commissioners passed the ordinance in a 2-1 vote, requiring all commercial shooting facilities to obtain operating permits. On Nov. 21, Fort Discovery filed a lawsuit, challenging the validity of the ordinance.

Days before the moratorium expired, commissioners passed another ordinance in a 2-1 vote, to close loopholes in a land-use code regarding shooting facilities. Immediately after the vote, the Tarboo Ridge Coalition, which opposes the proposed shooting facility at Tarboo Lake, filed an appeal to the state Growth Management Hearings Board.

7. Boiler Room closes. On Aug. 7, Boiler Room board president David Faber announced the youth-centered cafe would cease operations in its location at 711 Water St.

Established in 1993, the Boiler Room was intended to “build community by providing a safe space for the growth and improvement of individuals,” according to the program’s mission statement.

The program offered free food every day and served 32,266 meals to the community last year. It also provided job training and self-improvement programs.

Before the decision to close was made, the Boiler Room board considered options.

“We’re still having conversations about what might happen next,” said Amy Howard, Boiler Room executive director. “And we want to have those conversations with the community.”

Between declines in donations and volunteers, as well as attempting to serve what have become conflicting needs, the Boiler Room did not have the funds to continue.

“The Boiler Room has become more of a day shelter, when it was originally intended for youth services,” Howard said. “Our donations went off the edge of a cliff starting in January of 2017, and volunteer and youth engagement have been down.”

In an effort to continue their programs, the Boiler Room board asked for community proposals to take over operations. But after the board did not receive any serious or feasible proposals, it discussed beginning to liquidate the organization’s assets during a community meeting Sept. 19.

Although the Boiler Room building has stood empty for several months, the conversation is not over.

“We have more equity than we have debt, so when the building sells, we’ll be able to figure out what we can do next,” Howard wrote on a Facebook post Oct. 1. “The idea is to have a new youth-driven plan, sort of getting The Boiler Room back to its origin. The way we get to that youth-driven plan is still being worked out. But this isn’t the end of the road, just a big fork.”

8. Resort near Brinnon nears approval. Supporters of the Pleasant Harbor Master Planned Resort proposed for Brinnon were handed a legal decision in their favor this summer, but efforts by The Brinnon Group to counter that verdict await a final judgment this month.

The nonprofit organization, which describes itself as “devoted to sensible development” in south Jefferson County, filed a land use petition in Kitsap County Superior Court to invalidate the developer agreement and supporting ordinance for a proposed resort near Brinnon.

Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Sally Olsen ruled the Brinnon Group’s appeals of two ordinances passed by the Jefferson County Commissioners on June 4 should be heard separately.

The Brinnon Group filed appeals with both the the Kitsap County Superior Court and the state Growth Management Hearings Board, but had also moved to have both ordinances reviewed by the Growth Management Hearings Board.

Philip Hunsucker, chief civil deputy prosecuting attorney for Jefferson County, explained the first of the two ordinances passed by the county commissioners in June approved development regulations that the county contends are appealable only to the Growth Management Hearings Board.

Hunsucker elaborated the second ordinance approved a development agreement between Jefferson County and the developer of the proposed Brinnon resort that the county believes is appealable only to a Superior Court.

The Brinnon Group appealed both ordinances to the Kitsap County Superior Court and the state Growth Management Hearings Board, and filed a motion for a stay of the Kitsap County Superior Court case, in favor of having both ordinances reviewed by the Growth Management Hearings Board.

A final decision and order is due to be handed down by the Growth Management Hearing Board on Jan. 30.

9. New sheriff, commissioners, judge, prosecutor and PUD director elected. Several new officials were elected in November’s general election. Chosen were Joe Nole as sheriff, Greg Brotherton as county commissioner in District 3, Mindy Walker as district court judge, James Kennedy as prosecuting attorney and coroner, and Dan Toepper as District 3 commissioner of the Jefferson County Public Utility District.

The results were certified Nov. 27.

Nole defeated incumbent David Stanko. Nole thanked his campaign team, supporters, endorsers, financial contributors, letter writers, parade marchers, sign wavers and Jefferson County citizens for “having the confidence and trust” to vote for him.

Greg Brotherton, a Quilcene businessman and former school board member, defeated opponent Jon Cooke.

“I’m going to jump into more learning, and spend as much time as I can with staff and elected officials,” Brotherton said after the election.

He added he is looking forward to learning as much as he can before he begins as commissioner this month.

Walker defeated opponent Noah Harrison to succeed Jill Landes, who had been a district judge since 2007.

“I am very grateful for the outpouring of support from my family, friends and community members,” Walker said after the election. “I could not have run the successful campaign without the energy, time and many talents of my supporters … each and every person who wrote a letter, hosted a meet and greet, door-belled with me, and volunteered or contributed to my campaign.”

Kennedy beat incumbent Michael Haas.

“I am exceptionally grateful for the support I received from the community this year,” Kennedy said after the election. “I look forward to stabilizing the office and returning the focus towards serving the community and victims of crime.”

Toepper defeated Tom Brotherton.

“I shall endeavor to be worthy of your trust and your faith in my ability to be an approachable, accountable and respectful commissioner for the PUD,” Toepper said after the election.

10. City manager agrees to stay on for six months. Port Townsend City Manager David Timmons remains on the job at least through June after attempting to retire from his position for more than a year.

Timmons and the city council had planned for his retirement by December 2018. But in a Jan. 4, 2018 letter to the council, Timmons stated an extra six months would help the city deal with a host of challenges, including hiring his replacement.

“When we met in 2015, the decision for me to leave was decided on a calendar year basis,” Timmons wrote in the letter to the council a year ago. “Given the status of the objectives and work plan for 2018, I fear now that my leaving at the year-end will be disruptive to the city’s ability to meet the main objectives it must complete in 2018.”

The process of recruiting a new city manager is expected to take six months and require hiring a third-party recruiting team to find candidates, because it would be too much work for the city to deal with internally.

Timmons outlined two options for the council to consider. The first was to stay with the current plan, in which Timmons would have left in December 2018. In this scenario, Nora Mitchell, city director of finance and administration, would have served as city manager until a new city manager is recruited. The second option, which was ultimately chosen, was to extend Timmons’ current employment by six months, to June 2019.

Port Townsend residents were invited to participate in the search to find a replacement for Timmons by completing and returning a survey by Dec. 14.