ISLAND COUNTY: A Message from Commissioner Bacon [Mar. 29, 2024] (MELANIE BACON)

Island County Commissioner Melanie Bacon (D-Langley) sent the following newsletter on Fri., Mar. 29, 2024.

Thank you for reading my newsletter for the 13^th week of 2024.

Today is National Vietnam War Veterans Day, a day that recognizes the U.S. Armed Forces and Uniformed Services personnel with active-duty service between Nov. 1, 1955, and May 15, 1975. As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, we are working on organizing an event to honor these veterans who live in Island County. If you are interested in being on the mailing list for this event, please contact either me at district1@islandcountywa.gov, or the Whidbey Veterans Resource Center at whidbeyvrc@gmail.com. My thanks to those who’ve already reached out.

• Regular Session.  The agenda and recording for the Tuesday March 26^th Regular Session is here.
  • We received no public comments this week during our regular comment period.
  • We held two public hearings. The first was for a franchise Renewal for Whidbey Country Club Estates Div. #3, Sewer Collection System. The Board approved this franchise renewal; the public hearing begins at mark 00:02:26 in the video recording.
  • The second public hearing was on Resolution C-08-24, “Adopting the Revised Countywide Planning Policies for the Purpose of Coordinating the County’s 2025 Comprehensive Plan Periodic Update in Accordance with RCW 36.70A of the Growth Management Act.” This begins at mark 00:06:05 in the recording. We received two public comments during the meeting, and in response a couple of minor changes were made to the plan. One written comment we received requested that the Board adopt the “low” growth projection instead of the proposed “medium” growth projection, so I asked Planning to address why we should adopt the “medium” projection instead of the “low” or “high”. This explanation can be heard at mark 0:17:52 in the recording (basically, in the past we adopted a projection below the medium, which we have surpassed by far in all areas, so we felt that since we have been growing faster than anticipated over the last ten years we would be wise to anticipate and plan for at least the medium growth projection). The Board adopted the Countywide Planning Policies as proposed, including the adoption of the “medium” population growth projection of 15,000 new residents over the next twenty years, with the minor changes mentioned above.
  • The agenda for our Tuesday, April 2^nd regular session is here. On that agenda: the two public hearings shown below. Also. Island County will spend almost a half-million dollars over the next three years to have our closed landfill monitored and maintained (for gas emanations and groundwater sampling). That contract will be discussed on Tuesday.

• Upcoming BOCC Public Hearings (held during Tuesday board meetings, beginning at 10 am):
  • April 2: Opening an unopened County Right-of-Way known as Rowe Road (Camano)
  • April 2: 2023 Budget Amendment
  • April 16: Crescent Acres Water System
  • April 16: PBR application 382/23, 16 acres on Camano Island
  • May 14 (pending BOCC approval of date): Franchise Renewal Saratoga Beach (Whidbey)
  • May 21 (pending BOCC approval of date): Marshall Drainage District Assessment
  • May 21 (pending BOCC approval of date): Franchise Expansion Sierra Country Club
• Work Session. There was no work session this week (4^th week of the month).
  • The agenda for the April 3^rd work session is here. On that agenda: a preliminary discussion of the Board’s 2025 Legislative Priorities; an amendment to the Rural County Economic Development (RCED) grant awarded to the Port of South Whidbey in 2018; a revisit of the 2025 Comprehensive Plan – Goals and Policies; a review of Conservation Futures Fund applications; purchase of a new mower for Parks; Solid Waste compactor financing; expansion for franchise # PW2019-0110 – Sierra Country Club, Inc; and an agreement with Ziply for North Camano broadband expansion.
• On Wednesday, March 27^th, the Council of Governments (COG) and the Island Regional Transportation Planning Committee (IRTPO) met.
  • COG (9 am): Agenda here; recording here. On that agenda: a continuation of our discussion on Rural County Economic Development Funds, and a round-table discussion on the Value Statements of members of the COG (for the Comprehensive Plan).
  • IRTPO (10 am): Agenda here; recording here. The IRTPO held a public hearing on the draft Regional Transportation Plan, and adopted the draft shown here.

• Planning Commission and the Comprehensive Plan Update: This is a link to the Planning Commission page. You can find details on their meetings and minutes, including Zoom info, here. The Planning Commission meets at 6 pm on the 1^st and 3^rd Wednesday of each month; the agendas are published at least a week in advance.
  • The Board of Island County Commissioners approved the Countywide Planning Policies at our Tuesday regular meeting.
  • The Council of Governments discussed each jurisdiction’s Value Statements at the Tuesday COG meeting.
  • The Comprehensive Plan Update public engagement website is now live: https://www.islandcounty2045.com/. I encourage you to join and participate.
  • The next meeting of the Planning Commission will be held Wednesday, April 3^rd. Agenda. On that agenda: Review Board of Island County Commissioners feedback on Planning Commission input on the Land Use Goals and Policies; workshop on Natural Resources Goals & Policies review and discussion.
• Congratulations to Deep Harvest Farm on Whidbey, https://deepharvestfarm.com/, which received one of the 541 grants and loans the USDA awarded nationwide for their Rural Energy America Program (REAP). Through the REAP program, the USDA provides grants and loans to help ag producers and rural small business owners expand their use of wind, solar and other forms of clean energy and make energy efficiency improvements. These innovations help them increase their income, grow their businesses, address climate change and lower energy costs. Deep Harvest Farm will utilize $8,753 to procure and install a renewable energy system, particularly a 12 kW solar array, resulting in yearly savings of $800 and replacing 7,000 kWh, achieving a 59% energy savings, enough to power one home.
• On February 20^th, the Seattle Times published an editorial by Island County’s Dave Hoogerwerf and two other previous Ferry Advisory Committee chairs from other jurisdictions, “This is what brought our ferry system here, and what could save it”. They talk about crewing, boat replacement, and maintenance challenges, as well as a ferry model whose adoption they believe would remake our ferry governance structure to the good.
• How progress happens in County Government: Sixth in a series.
  Week 6: How do I stay informed on an issue important to me?
  • There are many County newsletters available that you might subscribe to (besides this one). You can sign up for most of them here, to get email or in some cases text messages. Unfortunately, the CivicPlus system we use is not overly user-friendly for signing up (I myself, to test this out for you, had to jump through a number of what I consider to be unnecessary hoops to finally get signed up. Grr.) I encourage you to go to the list page and try to sign up—and if you can’t sign because you encountered the same problem I just did, contact the pertinent office and ask them to help you to get signed up for their newsletter. (And yes, I will be talking with someone about this. I imagine the difficulty is built in so bad people can’t spam folks by signing them up for things they don’t want filling up their email boxes. And I did finally get signed up, so it does work.)
  • Contact the department directly and ask them to add you to their mailing list when they send out updates on a particular issue.
  • Read the notices and articles in the local paper. For example, when we have a public hearing scheduled, we post it in the paper.
  • When there’s a public meeting being held on your issue, attend. Not only so that you can be informed on what they’re talking about at that meeting, but also so that you can get to know who the people are who are making recommendations or decisions on the thing that matters to you. Get their contact information so that you can email them if you have questions.
  • These days, almost all of our public meetings are recorded, although I’ve found that not all of the recordings are automatically posted online (neither recording nor posting is required by law—they’re just steps we take to provide more public transparency). If you can’t find a recording for the meeting you’re interested in on the County website, contact the department and ask them to send you the link—that might be just the impetus they need to get their recordings up on the web.
  • Someone is taking minutes at those meetings too. You’ll find that the depth of the minutes will rely on whether or not there’s a recording being done—if no recording, the minutes are probably more in-depth.
  • Let us know what matters to you. For example, if there’s something you’d like me to be more informative about in this newsletter, just tell me. If you’re wondering about something, probably someone else is too.
  • And you can always show up at one of our Tuesday Board meetings and ask about your issue. We will do our best to give you accurate, current information, and if it’s not something the Board is responsible for we will put you in contact with the people who have the answers.
  • Week 7: ??    Do you have a question you’d like me to answer regarding how progress happens in County government? If so, email me at district1@islandcountywa.gov.
• You can find all of my newsletters since January 2023 here.
• I have expanded my Monday meetings with citizens to include an hour each week in Coupeville. These are opportunities for you to meet in an open group to discuss anything County-related with me and anyone else who drops by. Below is my normal Mondays with Melanie schedule:
  • 1:30 – 2:30 pm, Cedar & Salt Coffee House, 200 S. Main Street, Coupeville
  • 3:00 – 4:00 pm, WiFire Community Space, 1651 E. Main Street, Freeland
  • 4^th Monday of the month: 5:00 – 6:00 pm, Clinton Community Hall, 6411 S. Central Avenue, Clinton.

Melanie

From President Joseph Biden’s proclamation from National Vietnam War Veterans Day in 2022: .

To the families of the over 1,500 service members who remain missing and unaccounted for, know that our Nation’s efforts to bring them home will never stop. 

We pledge our steadfast care and support to our Vietnam veterans, as we do for all of our veterans. We will honor our sacred obligation to you and your family. 

And to each of the 6 million Vietnam War era veterans who are with us today, we honor your service and all that you have done for our Nation.