Government

Gig Harbor Now provides citizens the information they need to oversee and participate in the city of Gig Harbor, Pierce County and smaller governing bodies.

Grinch moves from Rosedale to Skansie Park

Nov 29, 2023 | By: Chapin Day

On Monday, Mary Godwin-Austen suddenly interrupted her brisk morning walk along Harborview. She’d seen an old friend. On a roof top. The Grinch. A Who-ville House relic High overhead, three Gig Harbor Public Works employees, two on hydraulic bucket trucks, one clinging to the shingles, toiled to install a new addition to the Skansie Park

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Turnout in 2023 election slightly higher in Gig Harbor than elsewhere in county

Nov 28, 2023 | By:

The 2023 election is officially over after the Pierce County certified the results of the Nov. 7 balloting on Tuesday, Nov. 28. Results posted on election night held up in the handful of Gig Harbor-area races, with late-arriving ballots not significantly impacting the margins of victory. Local results In the Peninsula Metropolitan Park District, voters

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Developments would bring more than 150 residences to Swede Hill

Nov 28, 2023 | By:

Add northern Swede Hill to the list of Gig Harbor locales slated for accelerating suburban growth. West of Highway 16, on land sloping down to Burnham Drive NW and McCormick Creek, two local developers are shepherding separate proposals through the city’s permitting process that would add more than 150 residences on land now occupied by

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Pierce County program brings art to local intersections

Nov 21, 2023 | By:

If you’ve been stopped at a traffic light in Pierce County, you’ve likely seen some beautiful pieces of art in unlikely places. In an effort to bring art to the community and beautify the utilitarian boxes that house traffic signal wires, the Pierce County Arts Commission in 2022 began a project to wrap signal boxes

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Gig Harbor City Council slightly increases property tax rate

Nov 17, 2023 | By:

The Gig Harbor City Council voted unanimously to increase the city’s property tax levy by 1.14 percent in 2024 at a meeting Monday, Nov. 13. The 2024 levy will bring in $3,404,969, $83,187 more than this year. That calculates to a rate of about $0.6981 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation. The 2023 rate is

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In-person vs. virtual meetings at heart of disagreement between council member, mayor

Nov 14, 2023 | By:

What started as a discussion at a city council study session escalated with an erroneous email from city staff to members of the city’s boards and commissions. It then spilled over into public view with a dispute between Mayor Tracie Markley and Councilwoman Jeni Woock. At issue was whether certain city meetings should be conducted

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Derek Kilmer announces he won’t run for re-election in 2024

Nov 09, 2023 | By:

U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, announced Thursday that he won’t run for re-election in 2024. Kilmer, 49, is in the middle of his sixth two-year term representing Washington’s Sixth Congressional District, which encompasses the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas and most of the city of Tacoma. When not in Washington, D.C., the Port Angeles native

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Nearly 59 percent of voters rejecting PenMet levy proposal

Nov 07, 2023 | By:

Voters in the PenMet Parks district rejected a six-year levy lid lift request in preliminary ballot returns posted Tuesday, Nov. 7. Nearly 59 percent of 8,733 ballots counted as of Tuesday opposed the request, which would allow the district to collect property taxes of up to 6% more than the previous year instead of the state

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Ballots are due Tuesday, Nov. 7; here’s where to drop them off

Nov 03, 2023 | By:

Ballots in this fall’s elections must be mailed by Tuesday, Nov. 7, or placed in a drop box by 8 p.m. that day.  Local races on the 2023 ballot include a levy lid lift proposition for the Peninsula Metropolitan Park District; a PenMet commision seat; three Gig Harbor City Council positions, though only one is

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Phase 2/3 sports center layouts whittled to two similar plans

Oct 30, 2023 | By:

The two Phase 3 soccer fields could be on the same level or at different elevations. If at on height, a high school-sized baseball diamond could be overlaid on them.

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