Habitat For Humanity of East Jefferson County celebrated one of six “permanently affordable” attached homes on Sept. 21. The celebration doubled as East Jefferson Habitat’s 25th …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
We have recently launched a new and improved website. To continue reading, you will need to either log into your subscriber account, or purchase a new subscription.
If you had an active account on our previous website, then you have an account here. Simply reset your password to regain access to your account.
If you did not have an account on our previous website, but are a current print subscriber, click here to set up your website account.
Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.
* Having trouble? Call our circulation department at 360-385-2900, or email our support.
Please log in to continue |
|
Habitat For Humanity of East Jefferson County celebrated one of six “permanently affordable” attached homes on Sept. 21. The celebration doubled as East Jefferson Habitat’s 25th anniversary, chapter Board Director Brian Cullin noted.
“As of next week, we will have served 123 families,” chapter Board President Jim Golden said at the ceremony. “We’re building eight homes a year, twice what we were four years ago. We’ve built our first multi-family dwellings, and have instituted a program to keep the houses permanently affordable.”
“A year ago this month, we celebrated breaking ground on the six-home devel- opment we call Landes North, near Safeway and Kah Tai park in Port Townsend,” chapter Executive Director Jamie Maciejewski said. “Next week, we’ll dedicate the final two homes of the six.”
Maciejewski and Cullin agreed that the need for affordable housing has only grown in East Jefferson County, as Cullin recalled the chapter board reviewing seven finalists Sept. 26, who are eligible for Habitat housing, and the board noted how the applicants’ situa- tions “are getting noticeably more dire.”
As for Maciejewski, she pointed out how affordable housing affects the entire community.
“Our schools are losing students,” Maciejewski said Sept. 21. “Our busi- nesses can’t hire. Our grown kids can’t return to raise their kids here. And housing is at the root of it.”
According to Maciejewski, East Jefferson Habitat is currently build- ing two more homes, near Howard and Hastings streets, while another 10 homes are in design and permitting, eight for the Howard and Hastings area, and two for Irondale.
“We'll break ground on all or most of these between December and next summer,” Maciejewski said. “We’re get- ting ready to build 14 more duplex-style homes two blocks from Landes North. We expect to break ground on this new development, which we’re calling Landes South, by this time next year.”
Maciejewski pointed out that 13 years passed between East Jefferson Habitat’s first and 25th houses, from 1999 to 2012, while only eight more years passed until Habitat had built its 50th East Jefferson home in 2020.
“Next year, we’ll build house 75, only four years later,” Maciejewski said. “This much construction eats up huge amounts of land.”
To acquire more land, donors have aided East Jefferson Habitat in acquir- ing the 17-acre site off the old airfield in Port Hadlock last year, and within a few months, Maciejewski anticipates Habitat will conduct community meet- ings, to gather input on preliminary plans for a neighborhood to house 150 or more local families and individuals.
“We’re developing partnerships with local businesses and organizations, so we can realize the dream of a beauti- ful, mixed-income community, with green spaces and community gardens,” Maciejewski said. “We’ve also staffed up our critical home repair program in Quilcene, Brinnon and other unincorpo- rated areas of the county, (to) address issues like heat, clean water, septic and roofs.”
Maciejewski concluded that the East Jefferson Habitat board recently adopted a new strategic plan, focusing on three main areas:
1. Having enough resources to build and repair at least 20 homes a year.
2. Engaging more partners, including individual volunteers, organizations, contractors and other businesses.
3. Strengthening Habitat’s inner workings to further support its work.
Golf course dilemma reaches ‘conceptual end’
THOMAS MULLEN
PAPERBOY@VCN.COM
Mayor David Faber told The Leader that one of the City’s most contentious issues is effectively completed after a multi-year planning process and should see the future of the golf course settled, “for the next 20 years or so.”
He said he wasn’t certain of the ongo- ing costs of the project to bring multiple uses to the links but that he believed not much more is expected from the City’s Seattle-based consultant, Groundswell.
ization of a group designed to serve the
“City staff is in the process of negotiat- ing the operational contract with Friends of Port Townsend Golf Park (FPTGP) and in terms of the timelines, those will be worked out. We’re at the conceptual end, the big picture end of the process," the mayor explained. FPTGP is a formalization of a group designed to serve the multi-use vision of the space. The course has been managed by a private operator for the past 25 years and the mayor said it was his understanding they're moving out of town. Faber said he wasn't certain when citizens will see the many changes coming to the golf course.
“Between now and 12 to 14 years from
now, you will see inclusion of everything from walking trails to multi-recreational opportunities to expansion of play- grounds,” he promised.
The ReCyclery, a non-profit that pro- vides bicycle eduction, is one beneficiary of the plan.
“They’re currently located across the street in a building that doesn’t have running water,” he said, adding that it will relocate to an existing storage room.
Underused portions of the Port Townsend Golf Course, he said, will allow for mini-golf, which will be devel- oped alongside the existing clubhouse.
“Priority and the steps involved are not necessarily the same. Certain pri- orities will take longer than others. The first phase of this plan will have the course opening to public access, laying out trails, north, south, east and west so people can migrate across the golf course.” The course, he said, will remain a traditionally parred nine-hole course. “There are areas of the course not significantly being used. A tee box can be moved to facilitate the playground. The prairie expansion looks like it can be used in existing fairways, running across fairways in places.” A hous- ing component is planned to run along
Blaine Street.
“Those holes would be moved to the
driving range, which will become a virtual driving range with either a per- manent or movable amphitheater. And foot golf and disc golf can be used with existing holes,” he said, adding that the plan is a result of compromise by addition.
“This brings more intensive use and opportunities, which will hopefully drive the rejuvenation of the property.”
The mayor addressed the vitriol reflected in letters to the editor of this paper and comments the City has received during this process.
“A couple things were in play. One is that I’m a perennial optimist – I didn’t anticipate the amount of anger and frus- tration and I think that’s because a lot of people have their identity in what they think Port Townsend is.
“And second, there’s a worry that fur- ther change represents a loss for this group. There’s a coalition between the golf community, who are worried they could lose their recreation, and long- time residents, who are worried that this potential change could make Port Townsend hard to live in.”
The mayor said he noted that many of the public comments were rooted in a generational perspective--people who believe that their voices should carry more weight because their families have lived here for generations.
“I do hope that there is recognition that this council does listen to folks and we read all the concerns and listened to the people who spoke to us. This represents a really strong-considered, long-considered debate and the compro- mise meets as many of the concerns as possible,” Faber said.
New feathers for historic home
The Pilot’s Cottage at Port Hudson is being “refeathered” for the second time since the cottage was acquired by former Port Hudson Harbor Master Jana Allen in 1983.
Allen said the last roof lasted “only” 16 years.
“The quality wasn’t there,” she said.
The Pilot’s Cottage was built in 1936. Allen said it is the “oldest existing struc- ture” at Port Hudson. She pointed out they kept the “skip sheeting” method of construction in cedar to maintain the “structural integrity” of the historic building.
“Some roofers tried to get me to do
asphalt or metal,” Allen said, with a shake of her head.
Instead, last January she and her parter Bruce Tipton visited local mills and found 5/8s x 18 inch taper-sawn red cedar shakes at a mill by Lake Quinault. Jana and other family friends, Sam Langley and Dick Forsythe, stripped off the old roof which Jana said took about 10 hours.
Bruce and friend Paul Berkshire then tied themselves to the chimney and began work around Sept. 10.
Allen anticipated the work would be done by the end of September.
