Counsell-Geyer elected as new Quileute Tribal Council chairwoman
Quileute Nation press release
Jan. 27, 2009
The Quileute Nation at La Push has announced the formation of a newly-elected Tribal Council. The Quileute Tribal Council members are: Chairwoman, Anna Rose Counsell-Geyer; Vice-Chair, Lonnie Foster; Secretary, Carol Hatch; Member at Large, Tony Foster; and Treasurer, Bonita Cleveland.
“Chairwoman Counsell-Geyer is honored to hold the position of Chair and looks forward to serving the great nation of Quileute,” said Quileute Nation spokesperson Jackie Jacobs.
OlyCAP cutting Forks Community Center connection
By Chris Cook - Forks Forum Editor
The Quillayute Valley Park and Recreation District (QVPRD) is facing a challenge in finding a way to manage community meetings held at the Forks Community Center.
The center, which opened in February 2008, will likely soon need a new onsite manager.
Meetings at the center are facilitated by the Port Townsend-based Olympic Community Action Programs (OlyCAP) organization.
The organization has given to Sandra Carter, board director of the QVPRD 60-day notice that they are leaving the center.
On Jan. 19 OlyCap Executive Director Timothy Hockett wrote to Carter, saying “?(OlyCAP) will discontinue its management and operation of the Forks Community Center effective March 19, 2010.”
Groups meeting at the center include the weekly Feeding the Five Thousand free lunch put on by the Forks Nazarene Church, American Red Cross meetings, plus a wide range of other community forums and gatherings.
OlyCAP signed an operating agreement with QVPRD for the management of the City of Forks-owned community center on Feb. 15, 2008.
OlyCAP has been associated with programs in Forks for about 30 years, according to Hockett’s letter, held at the new community center located adjacent to the shuttered Forks Pool building, and the nearby, older, former senior center officially known as the Forks Recreation Center.
Costs, with utilities the most expensive item, and what Hockett cited as a lack of “appropriate support” from QVPRD were given as the reasons for opting out of the management agreement, which has been run open-ended since the operationg agreement expired in Dec. 2008.
“Our mission is to help people, but they cannot be expected to shoulder the responsibility of the QVPRD,” Hockett’s letter states.
Carter held a QVPRD board meeting last week. At the meeting she said she is working on a response to Hockett and a plan to keep the community center operational.
Mayor proposes community initiatives
By Chris Cook -Forks Forum Editor
Mayor Bryon Monohon fulfilled a campaign promise Tuesday night at the City Council meeting.
Monohon presented a plan to create with the council three major initiatives to be undertaken this year that would benefit Forks and the West End.
The goal of the plan is to “get out in the community,” he said at the meeting, and “step forward as leaders.”
And to “answer the question (often posed by local residents) ‘What is the City working on and doing for me?”
“These goals should be apolitical and non-controversial as possible” and no-cost, he wrote in a hand-out distributed at the meeting.
He polled the council on topics to be focused on, suggesting youth activities, business development, town beautification, Fourth of July committee support and others.
The project should involve bringing together as wide as possible group of community organizations and groups, he added.
The mayor asked the council to consider the plan over the next two weeks and come back to the next council meeting, scheduled for Monday, Feb. 8, with a response.
Monohon invited the community to provide input on selecting the three initiatives, either talking to him or to a council member.
His strategy in implementing the plan with the five-member council would be to have two groups of two councilmen work together on an initiative, plus have one of the council men work directly with him.
Stephenie Meyer: More Twilight writing possible
Forks is the setting for a new graphic novel version of the mega-selling book "Twilight." A 10-page excerpt from the book is being published Friday, Jan. 22 in the weekly issue of
Entertainment Weekly.In an interview appearing in the issue, Twilight author Stephenie Meyer is asked if she'll write new Twilight material. Here is her answer:
When this project is done, are you done with Twilight?
"I can’t say that I am done with Twilight forever. I’m not working on anything new Twilight-related now, and probably not for a while. But there’s still a possibility that I’ll go back and close some of the open doors."
Biomass Boiler Plant groundbreaking announced
Student pick-up/drop-off changes due to construction
Quillayute Valley School District announcement
The Quillayute Valley School District invites the public to attend the groundbreaking ceremony set for Thursday, Feb. 4, at 3:30 p.m. at Forks High School by the old boiler plant located behind the 1925 building by the bus loop.
The District will begin pre-construction work and site preparation for the construction of the Bio-Mass Boiler Plant. Beginning Monday, Jan. 25 through the remainder of the current school year, there will be changes to the Forks Middle School and Forks High School bus pick-up and drop-off stage for the safety of all students. The bus route will begin pick-ups and drop-offs of FMS and FHS students on Camas Street.
The Forks High School parking lot between the new addition and the middle school will be renovated during this construction phase for the Bio-Mass Boiler Plant.
For additional safety of bus traffic, parents and staff of Forks Elementary School students are encouraged to use South Elderberry Avenue, rather than Camas Street to access the elementary school during scheduled bus times between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m., as well as between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m.
Students, staff, and parents will also no longer be allowed to park on Spartan Avenue directly in front of the main entrance to the lower hall of the 1960 wing of Forks High School due to bus needs.
QVSD auction set for March 20-21
The Quillayute Valley School District Class of 2010 scholarship auction is scheduled to run the weekend of Saturday, March 20 and Sunday, March 21.
The event is held at the Bank of America’s community room in Forks.
Students are now soliciting for donations for the two-day auction.
The auction starts on Saturday, March 20 at 9 a.m. and ends at 9 p.m. On Sunday, March 22 the hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Donations are being accepted through the days of the auction.
Guest auctioneers include students, volunteers and community leaders.
The auction raised $61,677 in 2009. The auction dates back to the 1960s.
All funds raised go towards scholarships for qualified applicants. Student recipients may apply twice for a scholarship, with a chance of funding for their third and fourth year possible on a case-by-case basis.
Donations of items to sell can be dropped off at the Forks Chamber of Commerce’s Visitor Center, with senior class members and at the Bank of America.
Fundraising food sales by Class of 2010 parents are also featured. Funds raised go towards the Senior Safe Night party set for graduation night in June.
The event is broadcast live on Forks radio stations KBDB and KLLM.
Clallam County officials to visit Forks
Clallam County Commissioner Mike Doherty, joined by Clallam County department heads, will field questions from the public at meetings set in Forks on Wednesday, Jan. 27. The group is scheduled to attend the 7:30 a.m. meeting of the West End Business & Professional Association, and the noontime meeting of the Forks Chamber of Commerce. Both organizations meet at JT's Sweet Stuffs, 81 N. Forks Ave.
2009 Twilight count nears 70,000
By Chris Cook - Forks Forum Editor
The visitor arrival count is up almost 500 percent year-to-year at the Forks Chamber of Commerce’s Visitor Center.
Chamber director Marcia Bingham said Tuesday that by today the total number of visitors signing the guest book at the center could top 70,000 for 2009.
“We’re going to beat this year,” Bingham predicted, looking ahead at 2010. She said visitor arrivals began picking up the day after Christmas, with about 200-250 Twilight fans arriving most days since.
Visitor Center manager Mike Gurling said moving the City of Forks welcome sign has added another popular attraction to the visitor center- Forks Timber Museum complex located just south of Forks. The Forks Revitalization Committee with the help of the City of Forks recently moved the sign from an isolated, marshy field further south along Highway 101. The group used community development funds provided by First Federal.
Casting calls for proposed Twilight in Forks reality TV show underway in Forks
Chris Cook photos
Santa Monica, Ca.-based television producer Zig Gauthier invites potential Twilight in Forks reality television series participants to a casting call held at the Twilight Lounge in Forks on Tuesday, Dec. 22. Young Forks men Sergei Holmquist, Cory Maldonado and David Cook stand behind Gauthier awaiting their chance at the casting call.
Dazzled by Twilight owner Annette Root poses with Zig Gauthier in the Twilight Lounge on Tuesday, Dec. 22 during casting for a potential reality television series based on local residents life in Twilight's hometown. Root is remodeling the former Vagabond restaurant-bar on N. Forks Ave. and plans to reopen the restaurant in the first quarter of 2010.
Forks High School students (from left) Heather Nelson and Taylor Pearson are joined by Spartan graduate Lauren Henry at the Forks casting call. The trio is pictured filling out a questionnaire that will be used to determine who might be selected for the reality television show.
Updated Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2009
By Chris Cook - Editor Forks Forum
Los Angeles-based television producer Zig Gauthier held a casting call at the Twilight Lounge (former Vagabond restaurant/bar) in Forks on Tuesday, Dec. 22, and was scheduled for a second round on Wednesday, Dec. 23.
Gauthier
is proposing to film a reality show in Forks that would star local
residents. The concept for the show would be presented to television
networks who would decide whether to commit to backing the project.
On Tuesday the casting call
started at noon and was to end by 4 p.m. On Wednesday, prospective
participants were to be interviewed from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Gauthier
said in a call from Santa Monica that he is working with Annette Root,
owner of Dazzled by Twilight, on the logistics of the casting call. He
said Root has been very helpful in arranging for the Forks interviews.
A
typical casting call consists of filling out information about yourself
including contact numbers and then standing in front of a back drop to
have a digital photo taken. The producer then goes over the photos and
information and may, or may not, call back those they are interested in
appearing in the show.
In a press release the Los Angeles producer said he will be considering both individuals and groups when casting.
The press release asks:
“Do you have a dynamic, outgoing personality?”
“Are you TV friendly?’
“Do you permanently live in Forks?”
On the Web:
www.redvarden.com
IN FORKS
Chris Cook photoA SHOWTIME cable TV channel crew is filming footage in Forks this weekend. The scenes of Forks will be used as short segments accompanying the first television broadcast of the film "Twilight," which is set in Forks, but filmed mostly in the Portland, Ore. area. Here Forks Chamber of Commerce Director Marcia Bingham is interviewed Friday morning, Dec. 11 by a SHOWTIME producer while a soundman and camera man record her. The showing is set to air beginning in mid-January.
Tammy Klebe contributed photo
The SHOWTIME crew visited Forks High School to have students tell what it is like to be a "real" Spartan student, as compared to Bella Swan, Edward Cullen and other fictional Forks High students dreamed up by author Stephenie Meyer. Pictured in the Forks High School library on Friday afternoon, Dec. 11 are students (left to right) Roberto Rodriguez, Taylor Pearson, Devin Chastain, Tanner Brower, and Taylor Morris.
Forks south side welcome sign moved
Chris Cook photo
The City of Forks Welcomes You sign located south of town was moved to a new location on Wednesday, Dec. 9. City and state road workers placed new poles in place and relocated the sign, working Tuesday and Wednesday. The sign, as well as similar sign located near the Calawah bridge along Highway 101 on the north side of town are popular backdrops for snapshots taken by visting Twilight fans. Bill Sperry told Forks Chamber of Commerce members on Wednesday that lights are being installed to highlight the signs at night. He said the Forks Revitalization Committee and the City of Forks are working together on the project.
The south side sign was formerly located in a marshy area which lacked safe parking for fans to pull over. The new location of the sign is located adjacent to the Forks Timber Museum and near the Forks Chamber of Commerce's Visitor Center. Both locations provide paved, off-road parking for visitors.
