MELANIE BACON: A Message From Commissioner Bacon – Week ending February 11, 2022
Island County Commissioner Melanie Bacon (D-Langley) sent out this newsletter on Feb. 11, 2022.
Hello everyone!
Thank you for reading this 6th week update for 2022.
- At our Wednesday work session this week the Board of Island County Commissioners was treated to a really great presentation from the Whidbey and Snohomish Conservation Districts (the Snohomish CD serves Camano Island). Our conservation districts are a fabulous resource for citizens and youth, including through their Firewise Program, the Agland Stewardship Program, their work on farm buffers, training citizens on rain garden installation, their forest health advisory assistance, their work with food resiliency partners, the Sound Horsekeeping program, salmon recovery work, their Annual Plant Sale, and so much more. Contact the Whidbey Conservation District or Snohomish Conservation District to get assistance on your own project (for example: if you want to write a Forest Management Plan for your property). To learn about upcoming events, go to whidbeycd.org/news-events or www.snohomishcd.org/events.
- We also received an update from the Housing Authority of Island County. The Housing Authority is funded primarily through the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), but does also receive some funds from the county. The Housing Authority is holding in-person meetings now, and Housing Authority board meetings are open to the public. They occur at 9:30 a.m. on the 2nd Tuesday of every month, at 7 NW 6th Street, Coupeville.
- Island County has 329 new reported COVID cases this last week (Thursday-Thursday), half of the previous week. This number is likely underreported as many positive cases are not seeking testing or use a home test kit and do not report the results to the state data. Unfortunately, there were three additional COVID death last week in Island County, bringing our 2-week death total to 5. Hospitalizations and deaths naturally lag case counts. This week’s report: https://www.islandcountywa.gov/Health/COVID%20Manager%20Report%20Library/BOCC%20Brief%202-11-2022.pdf
- We were glad to welcome 11 new employees at the County this month and congratulate eight employees who had their 5-year anniversary and two who just celebrated 15 years with the county. We’re feeling good right now about our attraction as an employer to both new employees and existing staff. One of the things the Board has been focusing on is employee morale, and I’ve heard a lot of positives about how our employees are feeling about their jobs lately. This ultimately manifests as great public service for the citizens.
- This was a pretty quiet week for me at work, which was great because I spent most of my time working on an affordable housing plan. At the Board meeting on January 18th, we continued the Public Hearing on whether to implement the HB1590 sales tax—the 1/10th of 1% sales tax for affordable housing—to March 22. I said in that meeting that I would not vote for any tax without a plan for how to spend those dollars. This week I finally had time to research what such a plan might look like. I expect the Board of County Commissioners will have our first discussion about it this coming Wednesday at our work session. The meeting starts at 9:00 a.m.; the Commissioners section, in which we intend to talk about the Commissioners’ priorities for 2022, is on the calendar to start approximately at 10:20 a.m. To attend telephonically, you may access the meeting by dialing 1-669-800-5335 and entering meeting ID number 481 746 6323.
~Melanie
“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.”
Ursula K. Le Guin
