Island County Commissioner Melanie Bacon (D-Langley) sent the following newsletter on Sat., Sep. 23, 2022.
Thank you for reading my newsletter for the 38th week of 2022.
Regular Agenda
You can watch this week’s Tuesday meeting at this link.
| The 5 franchise public hearings scheduled for this week were continued to October 4. You can see more information on these public hearings below. |
| Because we had a lot of time on our hands Tuesday after continuing the public hearings to October, I took the opportunity to give a cranky rant during our Commissioners’ Comments time about something absolutely no one else seems to be bothered by: the decision by our President to fly the United States flag at half-mast for eleven days to mourn the death of the Queen of England. It is very rare for me to go off on something like this; if you want to hear me rail about something pointless, you can find it at the 00:09:13 mark in the above video. |
| Here is the agenda for our September 27thmeeting, including how to attend virtually |
Upcoming Public Hearings
Tuesday, September 27, 2022 at 10:00 am:
| Adoption of Island County’s Six-year Transportation Improvement Program for the Years 2023-2028. |
Tuesday, October 4, 2022 at 10:00 am:
| Franchise PW2022-0009 – Kerry M. and Susan M. Wenthin for sewer collection line; (Whidbey Island); Section 31, Township 30N, Range 2E. |
| Franchise PW2022-0008 – Double View Community Club for water distribution line; (Whidbey Island); Section 3, Township 31N, Range 2E. |
| Franchise 447 – Faranda Community Water Association for water distribution line; Plat of Faranda Division #1; (Whidbey Island); Section 19, Township 33N, Range 2E. |
| Franchise PW2022-0037 – City of Oak Harbor – within Urban Growth area; water distribution line; (Whidbey Island); Section 31, Township 30N, Range 2E. |
| Franchise PW2022-0038 – City of Oak Harbor – outside Urban Growth area; Balda Road water distribution line; (Whidbey Island); Section 10, Township 32N, Range 1E. |
Tuesday, October 18, 2022 at 10:00 am:
| Franchise PW2022-0038 – City of Oak Harbor – outside Urban Growth area; Balda Road water distribution line; (Whidbey Island); Section 10, Township 32N, Range 1E. |
The County is transitioning our virtual platform from Starleaf to Microsoft Teams. We are still scheduled to use Starleaf for next week’s regular meeting—but many of our other meetings have already moved to the new platform, and you should expect the Board meetings to change soon too. So if you always just use the same Starleaf link to attend one of our meetings, you should pay attention for the day that link no longer works.
This Week’s Work Session
Link to agenda here; audio here.
| We had a great discussion about how best to incorporate our climate goals and concerns into our plans going forward. I’ll talk about my thoughts on that in more detail in a separate bullet below, but you can listen to our conversation beginning at the 01:36:44 mark. |
| We had a great discussion about how best to incorporate our climate goals and concerns into our plans going forward. I’ll talk about my thoughts on that in more detail in a separate bullet below, but you can listen to our conversation beginning at the 01:36:44 mark. |
The agenda for next Wednesday’s 9:00 a.m. Council of Government (COG) meeting, including how to attend virtually, is here
The agenda for next Wednesday’s 10:30 a.m. Island Regional Transportation Planning Organization (IRTPO) meeting, including how to attend virtually, is here.
I attended the Solid Waste Advisory Committee meeting on Monday. Did you know that Island Recycling in Freeland now takes mattresses and Styrofoam? And we heard a great presentation on EPS waste stream reduction (Expanded Polystyrene–that white stuff your appliances and toys are packed in). We’re not there yet, but I have every expectation that within a very few years our recycling options in Island County will be everything we all hope for.
In several conversations this week, it became clear that the Board of Island County Commissioners now has a new vision—and in fact, I have asked that we revisit our Mission Vision Statement next year to encapsule this new perspective within it. We remain focused on Public Safety of course—that is what counties were created for and is the reason we tax the public to provide such things as roads, law enforcement, and zoning; County government exists to ensure local Public Safety for residents and visitors. But your three County Commissioners are now united in wanting the County to begin viewing our Public Safety codes and policies using these three lenses: health, equity, and climate. So, for example, now when we discuss a proposed new road, besides talking about the purpose and the cost, we might ask questions like these: How would this road encourage walkers and bikers? How will this road impact the transportation needs of marginalized people? How will we control the run-off from this road to protect nearby watersheds? And similar questions related to ensuring maximal health, equity, and climate resilience for all of our citizens today and in the future, as part of our public safety responsibility. I’m very excited about this. I hope you will be too.
Again this week, the County saw two more COVID deaths. What’s happening now is, people with other dangerous conditions are dying because they’re unable to combat COVID in addition to their other illnesses. Please, if you are an immunocompromised individual, please get the new Bivalent Booster.
Monday Tea with Melanie: 3:00 p.m. at Crabby Coffee in the WiFire Community Space, 1651 E Main St, Freeland. Tea is on me.
Thanks,
Melanie
“I know it’s Fall already. But once you let pumpkin spice creep into your house, the next thing you know, someone you usually love has asked Alexa to play Dean Martin Christmas songs. I’m just not ready for that.”
~ Anonymous
