VICTORIA — The meeting started with a Native American greeting and a Twilight joke and ended with what appeared to be a strong desire of officials from the cities of Port Angeles and Victoria to become better, more affable neighbors.
Despite their measurable differences, the two city councils and senior staff members from each municipal government found common ground — or at least common hurdles — on several issues, including tourism and sewage management, while holding a rare meeting at Victoria City Hall on Friday.
The two-hour meeting, jokingly called a gathering of vampires and werewolves by Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin, was the fourth held by the councils of the two cities — which are separated by the Strait of Juan de Fuca and an international border — and the first in more than three years.
Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers said after the meeting that the two cities may begin hosting the gatherings twice a year, with the next one in Port Angeles this summer as removal of the two Elwha River dams begins.
Attending from Port Angeles were all council members but Pat Downie, who was out of the state.
Building ties
Speaking generally, Fortin and Port Angeles Mayor Dan Di Guilio both said they accomplished what they set out to do: build ties between the two communities.
“Really, ultimately, when you have those hands across the Strait, it is about helping neighbors,” said Fortin, who welcomed the visitors with a greeting used by Vancouver Island’s native people.
Said Di Guilio: “I saw a willingness from the folks in Victoria to do what they can do to work with Port Angeles and find those commitments to support each other.”
But the meeting went beyond political pleasantries.
Tourism — an economic driver in both communities — was a major topic, with both cities agreeing that they should join forces to attract visitors to Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula.
Rather than competing for visitors, both governments agreed they could both gain by encouraging tourists to indulge in Victoria’s more vibrant, urban atmosphere and the rugged Olympic Mountains during the same trip.
Collaboration
“There’s potential for really good collaboration,” said Victoria City Council member Lynn Hunter, who is also a board member of Tourism Victoria.
Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau Executive Director Diane Schostak, who attended the meeting, said she plans to follow up on the idea with her counterparts across the water.
“It was a good start,” she said.
Attracting more Vancouver Islanders to visit the Peninsula was also discussed at a meeting the Port Angeles contingent had with Black Ball Ferry Line management in Victoria earlier in the day.
Representatives of Black Ball — which operates the MV Coho, the vehicle ferry that sails between the two cities — agreed with Schostak and council members that few people in Victoria know much about what the area has to offer for tourists.
Marketing Peninsula attractions to Vancouver Island will continue to be a focus for the company, they said.
“It’s a great opportunity, but it’s also a great challenge for us,” said Ryan Malane, Black Ball marketing director.
Waterfront plan
Port Angeles’ plans to redevelop its waterfront, its use of sewage waste to make fertilizer and the federal dam removal project on the Elwha River also piqued curiosity among the Victoria representatives.
Victoria City Councilman John Lutton said his city may be able to learn a few things from Port Angeles’ plan to make its waterfront more attractive for residents and visitors after viewing a presentation on the redevelopment effort.
“I love what I saw there,” he said after the meeting.
Lutton referred to his city’s waterfront as catering too much to vehicles.
“Our waterfront is a parking lot,” he said.
Myers invited the Victoria representatives to attend the dam removal celebrations in September.
Fortin said after the meeting that they “look forward” to joining the festivities.
Sewage treatment
Victoria’s efforts to start treating its sewage was mentioned only in passing.
Currently, the city dumps 10.5 billion gallons of raw sewage into the Strait each year.
British Columbia in August approved the construction of a $739 million treatment plant for greater Victoria. But completion could be at least 10 years away.
Port Angeles, which has a sewage treatment plant, still sends some untreated effluent into Port Angeles Harbor when stormwater overflows its sewer system.
It’s embarking on a $40 million project to reduce overflows from up to 110 a year to fewer than two a year on average.
As part of its effort to treat the city’s sewage, Fortin said Victoria is interested in using sewage sludge — known as biosolids — for fertilizer.
Port Angeles currently has such a program, Glenn Cutler, Port Angeles city public works and utilities director, said at the meeting.
The first meeting between the Port Angeles and Victoria councils was held in Port Angeles in 1997.
The focus of that meeting was on reducing barriers to cross-border trade and tourism, said Bob Cross, who was Victoria’s mayor at the time and is now a Black Ball board member.
While momentum was lost on that front after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Cross said, he is glad to hear that the meetings may start happening on a regular basis.
“You got to keep working on it,” he said, referring to the cross-border relationship.
“I think that obviously, trade and tourism mean a lot to both sides of the Strait and the border.
“Eight percent of Canada’s business is south of the border. It’s really important to keep this going.”
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
