SEQUIM — Staff with the city of Sequim and partner agencies plan to bring together city residents to look at local issues at a hyper-local level.
Whether the issues are of code enforcement, affordable housing or something else, residents can participate in a community engagement event set from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 9, at the Guy Cole Convention Center in Carrie Blake Community Park, 202 N. Blake Ave.
The event serves as a kickoff to Service Fest in June 2018 in which work parties will partner with Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County volunteers and its RV Care-A-Vanners program on improvement projects pinpointed by residents.
To focus the event on specific needs of certain areas in the city, Sequim City Council members unanimously approved a new neighborhood map July 24 that places the city into seven regions based on such factors as physical barriers or the Urban Growth Area.
Assistant City Manager Joe Irvin said he worked with Sequim Police Chief Sheri Crain on the map as a “way to align our services and recognize each region has its own needs.”
“We welcome neighbors to come in September and see what needs to be done,” he said.
“No job is too small.”
Sequim City Manager Charlie Bush said the kickoff event will allow residents to discuss names for the regions, service project ideas for the areas and ways to make those neighborhoods better.
“It’s a good way for getting engagement and making it fun while creating a sense of place for each of these neighborhoods,” Irvin said.
This effort to bring neighbors together stems from a 2015 partnership with Habitat for Humanity to map Downtown Sequim for Neighborhood Revitalization projects and the City Council’s goal to holistically address needs such as infrastructure.
Bush said these early efforts led city staff to host Rally in the Alley events where large dumpsters are left for residents to throw away items. The June rally brought in more than 18 tons of trash, Bush said.
Two more rallies are scheduled before the end of the year, Irvin said, but where and when hasn’t been set.
While council members supported the new neighborhood region map, they did have some concerns about the regions.
Mayor Dennis Smith said the regions are all so diverse with schools and businesses that “they all have different objectives for what needs to be ‘revitalized.’ ”
Deputy Mayor Ted Miller also felt the scope might be too broad and felt 50 regions might have been more reasonable.
However, Councilman Bob Lake said he liked the idea of “making it broader and creating connections that wouldn’t be there any other way.”
No projects have been determined prior to the community engagement meeting, Bush said, but several kinds of connections between neighbors could occur there.
Bush said fire chiefs with Clallam County Fire District No. 3 are looking to form Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) within each region and the Sequim Police Department aims to use the regions for patrolling.
In the 2018 city budget, Bush said city staff plans to propose funding for supplies to each region for CERT training.
Irvin said city staff also will propose $20,000 for Service Fest projects to work on next June.
Colleen Robinson, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County, said her agency will look to partner with service clubs and students along with Habitat’s volunteers on the projects to save on labor.
“We’re anticipating we won’t be able to finish everything,” Irvin said. “It’ll be a way we align projects and get them completed.”
National effort
Along with Service Fest, Robinson said Clallam County is one of 25 Habitat for Humanity chapters participating in a Quality of Life Framework study to measure neighborhood outcomes.
She said the initiative grew from Neighborhood Revitalization efforts to more surveying and tracking community’s quality of life.
“We know people who grow up in a Habitat home are breaking the cycle of poverty,” she said.
“We know that from 40 years of data, so we want to start collecting that data [here].”
Bush said Sequim is likely one of the smaller communities participating and in bigger cities, they are picking particular neighborhoods to study throughout a few years.
“They’re getting away from a one-size-fits-all approach,” he said.
Bush added that along with new data on neighborhoods, the area might be open to more grant opportunities for Neighborhood Revitalization.
For more information on Habitat for Humanity of Clallam County, visit www.habitatclallam.org or call 360-681-6780.
Contact the city of Sequim by visiting www.sequimwa.gov or calling 360-683-4139.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
Seven new regions in the city of Sequim will be used by residents and city staff to pinpoint issues for code enforcement, affordable housing and other issues. (City of Sequim)
