In 2014, Sequim’s newsmakers included the failure of a $154 million school construction bond, a fire that changed Sequim’s downtown landscape, breaking ground of a multi-million-dollar Civic Center and a legal fight over two city initiatives, a fake kidnapping that made news outlets across the region, an election that saw few yet significant changes, and a number of government agencies and community members trying to figure out what to do with legalized pot.

Here, by month, are some of the highlights (and lowlights) of some of Sequim’s top news stories from the past year:

January

In late January, a group of members with the Museum & Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley attempted to change leadership at the center’s annual meeting on Jan. 24. In March, after a series of resignations, election of a new board of trustees and a brief closure and reopening of the exhibit center, the Museum & Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley moved ahead with and without some key pieces. A near-complete overhaul of the museum’s board of trustees and staff include executive director DJ Bassett’s resignation on March 28.

The conflict, board of trustees secretary Bob Stipe said at the time, stems from the museum’s former trustees and staff not revealing financial information.

The museum lost $138,998 in 2013 and was expected to lose $65,458 in 2014. The museum closed its Second Chance Consignment Shop on Feb. 25 due to declining revenues. In May, new management reopened the store.

The Olympic Medical Center Foundation came under the public’s eye after donors and a former staff member alleged declining revenue at events and excessive overhead expenses. A Gazette investigation revealed the foundation’s events such as the Sonny Sixkiller Golf Tournament and Duck Derby were netting less. The golf tournament grossed nearly $90,000 in 2011 but netted about $8,000 while its 2012 net was about $4,500. Over a five-year span the foundation’s 990 reports show losses starting in 2008 ranging from $27,122 to $361,752 per year.

Since the story, foundation leadership created an executive committee to oversee operations and have outsourced its day-to-day finances. Some of the donors have spoken on record that they are happy with changes instituted.

February

Gary Smith, a soft-spoken, longtime Sequim farmer of Maple View Farms, was named the 2013 Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year on Feb. 25. Past president of the Dungeness Valley Agricultural Water Users Association and the Sequim Prairie Tri-Irrigation Co., Smith was a key player in conserving water by irrigators as the state Department of Ecology imposed the Dungeness Water Rule on the river’s watershed at the beginning of this year. Earning a Community Service Award with honor for his multiple volunteer efforts was Al Friess, while Patsy Mattingley was bestowed a Community Service Award. Leo Shipley, who contributed more than

$2 million toward the Sequim Senior Activities Center (now known as the Shipley Center) was honored with the chamber’s Humanitarian Award.

March

Sequim landmark El Cazador closed on March 3 and owners announced they are selling the building and the historical Clallam Co-op grain elevator. El Cazador served as a landmark business for 33 years in Sequim while the grain elevator’s site dates back to the early 20th century. The property was up for public auction several times but those were postponed and ownership of the landmark has not been settled by the end of 2014.

Jamie Michel, project manager for the North Olympic Salmon Coalition, details the $3.8 million project 3 Crabs Restoration Project to the public, a project including shoreline armoring, reestablishing wetland lagoons and realigning 3 Crabs Road to restore the beach and estuary. Construction is expected to begin in the summer of 2015 and finish later that year.

Sequim Police opened an investigation on March 21 into 28-year-old Jerry Pedersen, SHS assistant varsity girls basketball coach, after allegations emerged that he had an inappropriate relationship with a 15-year-old player. Police interviewed high school staff and students and later obtained cell phone records and stored data that led to Pedersen’s arrest on April 1. Police investigated and stated in court documents that Pedersen and the then-15-year-old-girl on the basketball team allegedly were in a relationship. He faced five felony counts from police-obtained text messages shared March 1-23.

In October, Pedersen was sentenced to 30 days incarceration, followed by 30 days of electronic monitoring. Pedersen pleaded guilty to the five felony charges on Aug. 21 but just prior to his sentencing a judge approved an amendment to Pedersen’s original plea. Instead, Pedersen was allowed to plead guilty to the one charge and the court dismissed the other charges.

In late March and early April, four captains from Clallam County Fire District 3 participated as incident command trainees during the Oso landslide. All four captains shadowed the Oso command staff, and the training, fire district officials say, helped prepare command staffers to handle complex incidents here in Clallam County.

April

Work began on the new $16.1 million, 33,000-square-foot Sequim Civic Center. Lydig Construction, the contracted Bellevue outfit, put up fencing on April 7, around the site on Cedar Street, while city officials held an official ground-breaking ceremony in May. In early December, the city council agreed to a $530,000, three-phase project to enhance the center’s plaza. Completion of the civic center is targeted for late spring of 2015.

Two men in ski masks faked the kidnapping of their young relative at Carrie Blake Park on April 11, though they claimed they notified the Sequim Police Department of their intentions. They later posted a video of the incident on YouTube.

When witnesses found out it was a staged event, several yelled at one of the men and the child’s mother. Sequim Police Chief Bill Dickinson initially pursued charges of an unrestrained child, dangerous behavior, a city ordinance, and failure to get a filming permit, but later that day, City Attorney Craig Ritchie declined to press charges in a case that brought national attention.

Charges were brought against the two brothers and child’s mother but they were dropped on July 11.

A $154 million Sequim School District construction bond proposal failed on April 22, garnering just 43.5 percent of the votes; a 60 percent “super majority” would have been required to approve it. The 20-year bond would have paid for projects that include an $87 million overhaul of Sequim High School, $25.5 million for a new elementary school, $17.7 million in renovations to Greywolf Elementary School and $8 million in renovations to Helen Haller Elementary School, as it transitions into the new home for Olympic Peninsula Academy and other community programs. Sequim School Board directors later vote to reduce the proposal by more than a third (see November).

April 2 county officials with the Department of Community Development opted to not interpret marijuana as “agriculture” and thus require I-502 (legalized recreational marijuana) potential processors and producers to go through the county’s zoning Conditional Use process.

Following ample community push-back at public hearings for multiple conditional use permits for marijuana-related activity, by October the Clallam County Board of Commissioners approved temporary zoning controls (Ordinance 896) to further establish siting, establishment, notification and operations of any structures or uses relating to recreational marijuana.

DCD staff have processed a total of 18 zoning conditional uses for recreational marijuana production and processing. Of the total, 13 were approved, two were denied and two were withdrawn (one of the withdrawn conditional use permit applications, the applicant re-applied for a permit on the same property with a similar project scope and was approved).

Sequim City councilors opted to enact and continue a moratorium preventing marijuana production, processing and sales including the city’s lone recreational salesperson, currently won in a lottery by Gardiner man David Halpern, from operating until the state Legislature meets in 2015 and tentatively makes a decision on merging medical and recreational marijuana sales.

May

Because of a 15-percent new patient increase since the beginning of the year, the Jamestown Family Health Clinic announced it has to stop accepting new patients with the exception of Medicaid-insured patients. Clinic officials said they anticipated an increase of new patients with the onset of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act effective January 2014, but they thought the patient increase would spread out over time.

At least three houses were struck by lightning May 9, shortly after noon; fortunately no injuries were reported.

In early May, representatives from the North Olympic Library System talked with Sequim School District board members about the possibility of a shared building with Sequim High School. Plans for a library expansion were shelved until at least 2015.

An attic fire destroys Sequim Consignment Co. and the neighboring Baja Cantina Fresh Mexican Grill at 820 W. Washington St. on May 19. Employees from both businesses evacuated with one employee examined for smoke inhalation, but no major injuries were sustained. Washington Street was closed for about four hours and fire crews used 2 million gallons of water to extinguish the blaze.

Nathaniel Olson, a 27-year-old Sequim man, was charged with second-degree murder in late May with an aggravated circumstance following the shooting of a Port Angeles man on May 22.

Olson was arrested and booked at the Clallam County Correction Facility on suspicion of homicide. Clallam County Sheriff’s Office reports deputies responded to a disturbance at a home on Monroe Road east of Port Angeles, where they found Port Angeles resident Matthew Baker, 25, dead from an apparent gunshot wound. Ron Cameron, chief criminal deputy for the Sheriff’s Office, said that a birthday party was being held and Baker was alone in the living room with Olson, a Sequim High School 2005 graduate, when witnesses in the dining room area heard a single “pop.”

Deputies found Baker on the floor dead with a gunshot to his chest, Cameron said, and that Olson was sitting in the room where the shot was fired with a semi-automatic handgun, a .45-caliber Sig Sauer 191, nearby. His trial is tentatively slated for May 11, 2015.

June

A multi-agency effort to find a reportedly missing Sequim woman ends June 3 when family members confirm Lauryn Garrett, 23, was seen in a Fred Meyer store in Shoreline on June 3. The case garnered regional and national attention after her disappearance on May 1.

Sequim’s only bowling alley, Sequim Olympic Lanes, closes its doors June 8. The 6,000-square-foot facility had been open since the 1950s.

In mid-June the Sequim Valley Funeral Chapel changed ownership. New owners Danny Wakefield and half-brother Chris Price bought not only Sequim Valley Funeral Home, but also Harper Ridgeview Funeral Chapel in Port Angeles and three cemeteries: Mount Angeles Memorial Park, Sequim View Cemetery and Dungeness Cemetery.

To the shock of local and worldwide pop music fans, Emblem3 — the band with roots in Sequim — announced one of its members, Drew Chadwick, is embarking on a career as solo artist. The band announces the lineup change on its website on June 20. Emblem3’s concerts continued capping their 2014 tour with a show in Omaha, Neb., on Dec. 20.

City officials and advocates get serious about a major revitalization effort to the Guy Cole Mini-Convention Center inside Carrie Blake Park, with about 25 dignitaries and residents attending a brainstorming session on June 26. A $750,000 remodeling project begins in November, with Sequim students with the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center leading the early efforts.

July

The board of commissioners of the Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center (SARC), a community-owned facility, unanimously voted in mid-July to ask voters to approve a levy in February 2015. The six-year property tax levy of 12 cents or less per $1,000 of assessed valuation would generate a total of nearly $2.5 million. SARC Executive Director Scott Deschenes estimates the 26-year-old facility’s reserve funds will fall below $500,000 by the end of 2014.

CJ White, a popular local teen who recently had turned 18, drowned July 19 in Lake Cushman while with family members at a reunion.

Meredith Powell, 25, a former teacher with Sequim roots, pleaded guilty to three sex crimes charges on July 23. A Tacoma judge sentenced Powell to six months in jail in late August. Powell was facing up to five years for two counts of child rape in the third degree and one count of communication with a minor for immoral purposes in Pierce County Superior Court.

Sequim area petitioners with the Freedom Foundation looked to put two propositions to City of Sequim voters. One, a proposition called “Collective Bargaining Transparency Act” would mandate the city to notify employees of its bargaining unit and the public prior to meetings between the city and the bargaining unit. The meetings also would be open to the public. The second proposition, the “Collective Bargaining Protections Act,” provides collective bargaining protections by prohibiting inclusion of a union security clause, prohibits gifting of public funds for the benefit of City of Sequim unions and prohibits public work stoppages. The two initiatives were unanimously declined by Sequim city councilors in early September.

Judge Erik Rohrer in Clallam County Superior Court denied the propositions go on the Nov. 4 ballot deeming it too late and he later sided with the City of Sequim to dismiss a suit by Susan Brautigam, a Sequim resident represented by the Freedom Foundation, saying the city was using its powers granted by the state Legislature to deny the propositions.

A 14-foot-by-10-foot hydrotherapy pool at Olympic Medical Center was in danger of closing following a July meeting of the medical center’s board of commissioners where it was announced the center would need $50,000 to install a new liner. However, in November it was announced that enough funds were raised through an anonymous $25,000 donation, a fundraiser and months of gathering community contributions, to reline the center’s hydrotherapy pool.

August

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge finds its way to Sequim, first with 19 staffers at Sequim’s The Home Depot on Aug. 18. Many more chilly showers follow.

Two national media outlets gave high praise to Sequim for its retiree-aged population in August. The city and its greater area was promoted as the best city to grow old and be happy in by the Huffington Post on Aug. 11, while Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” TV program gave Sequim top billing on Aug. 13 with a nearly identical list.

September

In early September, deep cracks and an uneven playing surface led Sequim School District officials to close two courts at Sequim High School, leaving three total courts for public access at the school and in the City of Sequim. The closure hindered the high school boys’ teams’ practices and meets and community members’ recreational play. Maintenance staff attempted repairs later on but have found the cracks requiring much more repairs than anticipated.

In November, a new group, the Sequim Community Tennis Fund, formed to seek donations to install tennis courts in Carrie Blake Park for community use.

A Carlsborg man, Deeon Emilio Gonzales, 20, is arrested for allegedly trying to take his ex-girlfriend’s life with a knife on Sept. 20. He pled not guilty on Oct. 3 in Clallam County Superior Court. Sheriff’s deputies report that Britni Gallauher, 18, also of Carlsborg fell on her back while holding a 1½-year-old daughter the two share, and that Gonzales allegedly continued to stab her. She allegedly was stabbed five times — three times in the back, near the left shoulder and the stomach. Gonzales pleaded guilty to the charges on Nov. 19 in Clallam County Superior Court and is serving 26 months in jail.

October

Kenneth Scott Johnson, 35, is serving 129 months in jail after eluding police and stealing two motor vehicles on Oct. 25 in Sequim along with his third failure to register as a sex offender. The final charge led Clallam County Sheriff’s Office to issue a bench warrant. Johnson evaded law enforcement in the woods off Palo Alto Road near Youngquist Road on Oct. 23.

Two days later, Johnson drove off in a stolen car after a Sequim Police officer pulled it over. At the intersection of Maple Street and Sequim Avenue, he stopped and took another car at gunpoint with a shotgun and continued onto U.S. Highway 101 and eventually was stopped near Discovery Bay. He pleaded guilty on Nov. 21.

November

While much of November’s Nov. 4 general election was anticlimactic — several incumbents garnered easy victories — Clallam County’s political landscape changed. Republican Bill Peach of Forks edged Democrat Sissi Bruch of Port Angeles in their bids to replace outgoing commissioner Mike Doherty. Mary Ellen Winborn ran away with the county’s Director of Community Development position, topping incumbent Sheila Roark Miller by a wide margin.

Port Angeles’ Mark Nichols topped Sequim resident Will Payne for the county prosecutor job, Shoona Riggs beat out Kim Yacklin for the Clallam County Auditor job and voters picked incumbent Rick Porter over challenger Cathy Marshall for Clallam County District Court 1 Judge.

A two-year-long effort to widen U.S. Highway 101 from Kitchen-Dick Road to Shore Road nears completion, with a partial opening of the four-lane highway on Nov. 8 and full opening about a week later.

Officials with Sequim Union Bank sent closure notices via mail to customers on Nov. 12 that the bank will shutter its doors in February 2015. The Sequim branch is one of many Union Banks closing as the corporation vacates the Olympic Peninsula. The Port Angeles, Port Townsend and Poulsbo locations also will be closing the same date as the Sequim branch. The following week the Bremerton, Gig Harbor and Silverdale branches also will shutter their doors.

On Nov. 17, the Sequim School Board of directors vote to bring a $49 million school construction bond proposal to voters in early 2015, following April’s bond vote failure. The February 2015 plan would pay for land and the building of a new elementary school, adding four classrooms, a gym and service kitchen at Greywolf Elementary School, adding six science classrooms and band/choir rooms at Sequim High School and tearing down an unused portion of the Sequim Community School.

The bond also would include a major renovation of the district’s base kitchen, fund renovations at Helen Haller Elementary School’s A and D buildings, renovate Sequim High School’s science classrooms into general education classrooms and convert a portion of the Sequim Community School that Olympic Peninsula Academy students use now into a district maintenance and warehouse building.

City of Sequim city councilors and Clallam County commissioners agreed to a 30-year agreement to allow wastewater from the county’s Carlsborg Urban Growth Area to be treated at the city’s wastewater reclamation facility on Nov. 24.

Initial estimates for a collection system and pump station in Carlsborg that will transport wastewater to the point of delivery in city limits and transferred to the city’s wastewater reclamation facility will cost about $13.3 million through 2030. County officials plan to fund the project with a $10 million loan from the Washington State Public Works Trust Fund and funds from the Clallam County Opportunity Fund allocated to the Carlsborg Sewer Fund created in 2010.

December

The Sequim Lavender Farmers Association — Jardin du Soleil, Lost Mountain Lavender, Olympic Lavender Farm and Washington Lavender — announced in December they are dropping the annual Lavender in the Park event during Sequim Lavender Weekend while adding a bulk rate for visitors during Sequim Lavender Weekend.

Visitors of the Sequim Lavender Farm Tour on July 17-19, 2015, will pay $10 per car load instead of per person. Purple Haze Lavender Farm’s owners also announced they are branching off on their own during the event for its own Purple Haze Daze.

Fire Chief Steve Vogel for Clallam County Fire District 3 announced he plans to retire on Aug. 31, 2015, after starting as one of Sequim’s first paid paramedics. Assistant Chiefs Ben Andrews and Tony Hudson are tapped to compete for the position with fire commissioners making a decision tentatively in April 2015.