Port Angeles – Fluoridation options for the Port Angeles City Council will be one of the topics addressed at Tuesday night’s city council meeting.

After a series of public forums as well as a community survey, the city council voted to continue fluoridation back on December 15th of last year. That riled up a number of city constituents after 56% of the respondents to the public survey voted against the continuation of fluoride in the city’s water supply.

One of the strategies of the fluoride opposition group is to petition a change the structure of city government in a way that would have all of the city’s elected officials come up for election at the same time.

The backlash over the fluoride issue now has the city council looking at five options that will come up at Tuesday night meeting.

Option 1 is to continue with the present plan to continue with fluoridation for the next ten years at a cost of $20,000 per year.

Option 2 is to continue the fluoridation but to offer water customers $100 towards a water filtration system. That move could cost the city $220,000 if all 2,200 customers opted for the filters, and would likely end up in an increase in water bills.

Option 3 would be to discontinue the fluoridation process.

Option 4 calls for getting an advisory vote onto the next ballot which could cost the city between four and eight thousand dollars depending on the amount of issues on the ballot.

The last option is the most detailed. It would stop fluoridation but then call for up to $40,000 in funding for what the city calls a “Oral Care Health Initiative.” Sources of funding this last option could come from grants to reduce what the city would spend.

The fluoridation issue is sure to attract the citizens of Port Angeles, who packed the last city council meeting to participate in the debate. That meeting starts Tuesday night at 6:00 PM at the Port Angeles City Hall.

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