Island County Commissioner Melanie Bacon (D-Langley) sent the following newsletter on Fri., Oct. 21, 2022.
Thank you for reading my newsletter for the 42nd week of 2022.
I’ve been feeling very frustrated today about the ferries. When I went to bed last night the Salish, the only boat serving the Coupeville/Port Townsend route, was still out of commission with a damaged steering ram; as I type this it’s still out so no boat is now serving that route (WSF has committed to a substitute boat by tomorrow if they can’t get the Salish fixed today). And when I woke up this morning it was to learn that there was no early morning service at all on the Clinton/Mukilteo route; they did transition to one boat and then to two over the course of the morning.
Once again, I’m reaching out to you to see if anyone reading this newsletter would be interested in serving on the Coupeville Ferry Advisory Committee. There is currently no one serving on it—and I think it would be very helpful if we had an active committee interacting regularly with Washington State ferries on behalf of this route. If you would be interested, please let me know.
Regular Agenda
You can watch this week’s Tuesday meeting at this link.
Resolutions Approved
| Resolution C-69-22 (consent agenda), Declaring Legal Holidays for the Year 2023. |
| Resolution C-70-22 (consent agenda), Authorizing Adoption of Welfare Benefit Plan Documents. |
| Resolution C-71-22 (consent agenda), Establishing a Supported Employment Program in Island County. |
| Resolution C-57-22 (regular agenda), Public Hearing on Expanding the Boundaries of the W & B Waterworks 1 Water System and Incorporating the Service Area Boundaries Into the Coordinated Water System Plan. No one from the public participated. This was a Planning Department Public Hearing; soon we will have a Public Works Public Hearing for the franchise on this same matter. If you have any interest in hearing elected officials show repressed annoyance over the tedium of minutiae that is often part of legally-required public decision making, you can listen to this beginning at mark 06:52. |
| Here is the agenda for our October 25th 10:00 a.m. meeting, including instructions on how to attend virtually. |
Upcoming Public Hearings
Tuesday, October 25th, 10 am:
| Franchise Renewal PW2022-0013 – Beverly Beach Improvement Club for water distribution line (Whidbey Island). |
| Resolution C-67-22, Adopting Island County’s Six-year Capital Improvement Program for the Years 2023-2028 |
Tuesday, November 1st, 10 am:
| Franchise Renewal PW2022-0103 – Sandy Point Owners Association for a water distribution (Whidbey Island). |
| Petition to Open County Road right-of-Way known as Ander Park Road, Parcel No. 23035-220-2270 (Whidbey Island). |
Board of Health: Our monthly Board of Health meeting was held on Tuesday. The agenda is here; the audio is here.
| Liz Baxter from North Sound Accountable Community of Health gave a presentation updating the BOH on the evolution of their purpose and their investments impacting Island County. You can hear this at 00:05:44 in the above audio; the slide presentation is available here. |
| From Island County Public Health, Dr. Shawn Morris, our Community and Family Health Manager, and Leah Wainman, our Assessment and Health Communities Manager, gave a presentation on Foundational Public Health. It included great charts related to maternal and child health, the discrepancies on average age in the different areas of Island County, and a big discussion on falls among the 65+ population (the leading cause of death for seniors in Island County and the #1 reason for emergency room visits to Whidbey Health). These slides start at page 13 in the above agenda; the audio can be heard beginning at mark 00:43:20. |
| The BOH held a public hearing on Public Health’s proposed fee schedule update. The three minor changes will lighten the regulatory load for farm stands. The new fee schedule starts at page 8 on the above agenda; the 3 changes can be seen on page 9 (adding “Including self-service farm stands (potentially hazardous foods)” in the vending machine section; and in the Temporary/Seasonal Events section the addition of “Farmers Market, including on-line market (Permit to operate in the Market)” and “Farmers Market Vendor Only”). The audio begins at mark 01:24:50. |
Work Session
The agenda for this week’s Wednesday work session can be found at this link; the audio is here.
| Shawn Morris of Public Health and COVID Response Manager Don Mason talked about our process in moving from a pandemic response to an endemic mode in which COVID is treated in the same manner as our other communicable diseases. Because of our citizens making informed decisions, Island County had the third lowest case rate in the State despite our higher-than-average citizen age. You can hear this discussion at 00:02:17. |
| We discussed increasing the Solid Waste rate structure in accordance with the Garbage & Trash Collection Services CPI. As we talked about benefits we could provide to citizens by keeping up with this CPI, one thing mentioned was how this will help us save up for the new trash compactor that will allow us to have a more environmentally-friendly transfer station. Mark 01:05:00. |
| Next week is a 4th week, so there will be no work session. |
Budget: We had two budget meetings scheduled for this week, but only held one; the other has now been rescheduled for Monday the 24th .
This week’s Budget meeting recordings:
Next week: We will have 2 budget meetings next week:
| Monday the 24th, 9:30 a.m.: Use this link or by telephone: 1-323-433-2396 Meeting ID 836 519 832# |
| Tuesday the 25th, 1:00 p.m.: Use this link or by telephone: 1-323-433-2396 Conference ID 656 448 641# |
At next week’s Council of Governments (COG) meeting (Wednesday at 9:00 a.m.), our state legislators will talk about the upcoming 2023 session, and representatives from our federal legislators will attend as well. This agenda, including how to attend, can be found at this link.
Next week’s Island Regional Transportation Planning Organization (IRTPO) meeting (Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.): the agenda, including how to attend, is here.
Last Friday I was given a very informative tour of WhidbeyHealth (I had never seen the changes made to the hospital from the expansion of a few years ago). I was especially gratified to see the two deep-cold freezers in the Pharmacy that the county provided to the hospital in 2020, which allowed our county providers to be among the first in the state to offer COVID vaccines. My thanks to everyone who arranged for this tour and gave their time to talk with me.
National Drug Take Back Day is Saturday October 29th. If you have unused prescription drugs you need to dispose of, see your local pharmacy for more information. Or in Langley, you can go to the South Whidbey Community Center from 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. to drop off your unused drugs for safe destruction. They will also have family activities available.
Update for my constituents on Lone Lake who came to see me at Crabby Coffee on Monday to talk about the blue-green algae problems: I now have a better understanding of the separation of powers associated with management of this lake. WA State Department of Ecology determines if the lake itself is to be closed or not; Island County Public Health works with Public Works to determine whether to close the park; the tidelands are not owned or under the jurisdiction of the county—they’re under the purview of State DNR. I’m still working on this—but wanted you to know I’ve been following up.
Monday Tea with Melanie: 3:00 p.m. at Crabby Coffee in Freeland in the WiFire Community Space, 1651 E Main St, Freeland. Tea is on me.
I just received a message that the Salish will be back in service today at 2…just in time for the rain…
Thanks,
Melanie
“You pray for rain, you got to deal with the mud too. That’s a part of it.”
~ Denzel Washington
