ISLAND COUNTY: Transportation officials outline county road projects, funding shortfalls

Libby Williams reports from an Island County virtual town hall for the Stanwood-Camano News. Read the whole story.

Island County Commissioner Janet St. Clair recently hosted a virtual town hall to discuss statewide and county-specific transportation issues.

Key speakers included State Rep. Dave Paul of the 10th Legislative District and state Department of Transportation employees.

They Said It

“Most of my town halls are either focused on general county updates or county updates very specific to my district,” St. Clair told participants at the top of the meeting.

Rep. Paul has served in the state Legislature for seven years and was the vice chair of the transportation committee for two years.

He said one of his main focuses is a ferries caucus, working to champion ferries throughout the state, not just in the Puget Sound region.

“I don’t have a lot of news on ferries,” he said. “We know the governor selected a ferry contractor; he made that decision himself, and I know folks have strong feelings about that, but we’re moving ahead with that process.”

Paul said he’s also focused on maintenance and preservation of existing transportation infrastructure.

“I’ve talked with the governor; he and I really aligned on this, and I’d like to see our budget moving forward more on maintenance and preservation of roads and bridges,” he said.

Safety is also on Paul’s list of concerns, and he said he’d like to see the state Department of Transportation provide a list of prioritized safety projects.

“That’s what I am pushing for in the upcoming transportation budgets, is some more transparency about what that prioritized list of projects would look like,” he said.

“And then it’s my job to try and help us … fund as much of that list as possible,” Paul added, “so that we’re not having individual legislators pick and choose what they think are the most important safety projects in our district.”