PORT ANGELES — Owners of a tract along the Waterfront Trail have cleared it of scotch broom and Himalayan blackberry to make the area safer, they say.
A wetland and waterfowl habitat on the land just east of the Red Lion Hotel was not harmed by the work, city planners said Wednesday.
The property — owned by Jack and Shirley Glaubert of Sequim and Gerald G. Austin of Port Angeles — is not far from the scene of the Christmas-week slaying of Melissa Leigh Carter, 15.
The teenager’s body was found Dec. 26 in a brushy hollow along a path that leads from North Vine Street to the Waterfront Trail.
Police Chief Tom Riepe, following the February arrest of Robert Covarrubias, who is accused of the rape/killing, suggested that property owners in areas above the trail cut brush to make it safer.
“We opened it up so it’s more visible,” said Austin.
