Island County Commissioner Melanie Bacon (D-Langley) sent the following newsletter on Fri., Jun. 10, 2022.
Thank you for reading my newsletter for the 23rd week of 2022.
- Resolutions & Proclamations passed this week.
- Resolution No. C-44-22 (Consent Agenda): Initiating a County Drainage Project for Scatchet Head Culvert Replacement, Whidbey Island
- This Week’s Work Session.
The focus for work session this week was to review progress on our departments’ 2022 work plans. I was pleased to see that most 2022 goals set by departments are on track for completion this year.
- As we discussed 2022 work plans and our intentions going forward into 2023, we repeatedly returned to our ongoing conversation on a Climate Action Plan. You can hear this happen, for example, in Part One of the audio during our discussion with Public Works at mark 00:08:38 as well as in our discussion with Public Health at mark 02:30:40.
- This week the Commissioners authorized me (as chair) to sign an employment contract with Michael Jones to become our first Island County Administrator. Next Tuesday will be the Board’s first chance in an open public meeting to discuss why we selected Michael.
- A number of people have expressed confusion as to why the county would put a roundabout in downtown Freeland when the roundabout the county really needs is one on the highway at the intersection of Honeymoon Bay Road and Bush Point Road. Your commissioners couldn’t agree with you more. Unfortunately, SR 525 is under the jurisdiction of WSDOT and the county doesn’t have the authority to build a roundabout on the State’s highway. We have repeatedly and continue regularly to express our opinion about this with the people at the State. They express engineering concerns; we focus on public safety. We’ll keep working on this.
- We saw 123 new cases in Island County that were reported to the state this last week. Such rates used to freak us out; today it’s considered “low”. Reminder: these days, the majority of cases are not reported to the state—most people do their own at-home testing and just stay home until they get a negative test. So, the numbers of sick people are undoubtedly much higher than 123, but happily no one died of the disease this week in our county. https://www.islandcountywa.gov/Health/COVID%20Manager%20Report%20Library/BOCC%20Brief%206-3-2022.pdf
- The Board discussion on the proposed LIHI purchase of the Harbor Inn in Freeland has been postponed again, this time due to some contract questions. I’ll keep you informed about when to expect it on our agenda.
- I have been appointed by Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz to serve on the Wildland Fire Advisory Committee. Created by the Washington State Legislature in 2015, the purpose of the advisory committee is to generally advise the Commissioner of Public Lands on all matters related to wildland firefighting in the state. I’m the representative of Western Washington counties on this committee. What do I know about wildland fires, you may ask? Nothing, my friends—I just worry about it a lot, along with so many other things these days. Happily, the committee is packed with experts on this topic, and I’m a pretty quick learner.
- Monday Tea with Melanie happens from 3:00– 4:00 p.m. every week at Crabby Coffee in Freeland (in the WiFire Community Space, 1651 E Main St). Tea is on me.
Thanks,
Melanie
“A Nation should not be judged by how it treats it highest citizens, but its lowest ones.”
— Nelson Mandela
