Jim Orvis will run for port board

Jim Orvis, a retired U.S. Navy captain, will run for the Port of Edmonds Commission, Pos. 4.

“The Port Commission’s failure to take a stand in opposition to building King County’s Brightwater sewage treatment plant in Edmonds is a breach of the public trust,” Orvis said in a written statement. “I will stand against any plan to locate Brightwater in Edmonds. I will also work to make the port less dependent on the resident’s tax dollar for its operations.”

Orvis is a board member of the Washington Tea Party, the Edmonds group formed around opposition to Brightwater. He participated in that organization’s scoping document and its response to the Brightwater draft environmental impact statement, he said. He testified at House and Senate hearings in Olympia in 2002 and 2003 and spoke in support of bills to limit the ability of jurisdictions to cite facilities outside their boundaries.

Orvis spent more than 31 years in the U.S. Navy prior to retirement. He served two combat tours in Vietnam and commanded a cruiser in the 1991 Gulf War. He also held command of three other ships and served as the Chief of Staff and Deputy Commander of the USS Abraham Lincoln Battlegroup in the Persian Gulf. He managed projects ranging from multi-million dollar shipyard overhauls to the fuel budget for the entire U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Just prior to leaving the Navy he held command of the University of Washington Navy ROTC (NROTC) Unit and served as the department chair.

Since he and his wife Mary settled in Edmonds, Orvis has been active in the Edmonds Public Education Foundation and the Blue and Gold Foundation, an organization devoted to enhancing the NROTC program at the University of Washington. He also coaches the NROTC midshipmen in the sailboat leadership training program. His son, David, an Edmonds City Council member, and daughter, Lisa, live in the Edmonds area.