Island County Commissioner Melanie Bacon (D-Langley) sent the following newsletter on Fri., Jun. 24, 2022.
Happy Summer! Thank you for reading my newsletter for the 25th week of 2022.
- Well, after last week’s newsletter you might have wondered: did she get COVID? I’m still testing negative—but my partner has it. He brought it home from a trip out-of-state. So I’m planning to spend this beautiful summer weekend at home, just in case. Happily I don’t have a busy calendar next week.
- Today I attended a meeting (virtual) with Rep. Rick Larson, sponsored by local members of the Citizens Climate Lobby. I asked him to be a leader in Congress in reducing carbon emissions. I said that at the local level we can pass zoning codes and public health codes to help mitigate the impacts of climate change on our population, and we can pass a climate action plan that focuses on local resilience actions—but we do not have the authority at the county level to pass laws that will decrease carbon emissions, thereby slowing down increases in temperature that threaten our islands through sea level rise, so we need him to do that for us. He spoke about his work on a variety of bills, including working for green ferries and electric busses, and asked us to let people know that the climate elements of the Build Back Better Act are still alive.
- Resolutions & Proclamations passed this week.
- Resolution No. C-44-22 (Consent Agenda): Initiating a County Road Project for Penn Cove Road Realignment, Whidbey Island.
- Resolution No. C-45-22 (Consent Agenda): Approving and Authorizing 2022 Public Sale of Tax and Title Properties.
- Also on our Tuesday consent agenda the Board of County Commissioners approved the purchase of a building at 80 N. Main Street, Coupeville. Several years ago, the Board bought an empty lot on 1stStreet in Coupeville with the idea of erecting an additional county office building because our current office space is inadequate for our functions (for example: I was HR Director at the time of that lot purchase—the office study indicated that Human Resources had only 1/3 the space necessary for our department, because we had two people squeezed into space designed for one, another person working in a storage area, and no meeting area. And this was only one office—all of the offices in the county have similar space issues). But erecting a new building on the empty lot in today’s economy would cost many millions of dollars—whereas buying an existing building cost us less than $1M. With this purchase, and the purchase of another building we’re investigating, we do not anticipate building anything on the empty lot in the foreseeable future.
- The Board of Health met this week.
- Taylor Lawson, Epidemiologist, and Betsy Griffith, Outreach Behavioral Health Counselor, gave a very interesting presentation: Healthy Youth Survey and Proviso Youth Behavioral Health. This was the first item on the agenda, and you can hear it on the audio linked above; the presentation itself can be found here. They presented data on such things as alcohol and drug use, and mental health, among our young people.
- Dr. Shawn Morris, Community & Family Health Manager, provided a Communicable Diseases Update. You can hear this at mark 01:39:42. Shawn spoke about monkey pox (very low risk of county spread; no cases in Island County so far; 1 case in Washington) and other diseases currently being tracked by public health professionals, as well as COVID.
- Epidemiologist Jamie Hamilton provided an EPI report and COVID brief; you can find these documents beginning on page 31 of the agenda above.
- Since this was a 4thweek there was no work session. Also, the Council of Governments (COG) did not meet this month. However, the Island Regional Transportation Planning Organization (IRTPO) did hold its monthly meeting.
- We reviewed the draft update to the IRTPO Coordinated Public Transit – Human Services Transportation Plan. Human services transportation are types of transportation services that are specifically designed to serve people with special transportation needs. The Public Review Draft of this document will be available on August 12, and the Public and Agency Review and Comment Period will be from August 23 to October 21. I’ll provide more information when the Public Review Draft becomes available online. The final plan will be adopted and sent to WSDOT by December 1.
- The representative from Washington State Ferries spoke about the public ferry meetings that were held in the middle of the month. You can find a recording of those meetings at this link.
- COVID. Childhood COVID vaccine for ages 6 months to 5 years arrived this week and has been distributed to those providers giving vaccinations to children. Vaccinations at 7 locations in Island County began Thursday, June 23rd. These 7 locations are: NAS Whidbey Island medical clinic; Pediatric Associates of Whidbey Island, Oak Harbor and Freeland; Camano Island Health Systems; SAARS Market Pharmacy, Oak Harbor; and Island Drug Pharmacy, Oak Harbor and Clinton. This week’s COVID Manager report.
- Upcoming Public Hearings: On July 12, 2022 there will be two Public Hearings held in association with Ships Haven Drive: one to vacate a portion of the county road right-of-way and the other to open an unopened county right-of-way.
- I heard from two groups this week regarding their needs for more pickleball courts—South Whidbey Parks and Recreation, and the Camano Island Pickleball Club. This is a fast growing sport in our county, and I’m very interesting in seeing how the County can support our parks and athletic groups in providing access to pickleball courts. Certainly there will be more to come on this in future.
- Langley is working hard on their Housing Action Plan, and I attended one of their Government Stakeholders meeting this week. I’m grateful that Langley has identified workforce housing as a critical issue in the community, and look forward to being part of that conversation.
- Monday Tea with Melanie happens from 3 – 4 every week at Crabby Coffee in Freeland (in the WiFire Community Space, 1651 E Main St). Tea is on me.
Thanks,
Melanie
“When the sun is shining I can do anything; no mountain is too high, no trouble too difficult to overcome.”
— Wilma Rudolph
