What?
Hello everyone. Oh, it does come through. That's good. Um That's
disconcerting actually. Oh, ok. Um I will call this special meeting of the board
of county commissioners to order. This is our, our second uh community outreach meeting.
We do this on non election years for the when, when most of our electors are not
up for election. So, you know, we don't flirt with electioneering and everything,
but uh we are really happy that you're with us Roger and this one might be have to
be a little briefer than our last one. But um we really do value you being here and,
and the public will be able to watch this later as well. So this is an opportunity
that we take to kind of share the, the full tapestry of what the, the county does,
the services that we offer um throughout the county in, in, in port towns and everywhere.
So we're gonna take some time first. We're going to pass it off to uh our county
administrator, Mark mcauley who is going to go through a brief uh slide show on some
of the details about the county, the many, the many services that we offer throughout
the county and then we'll go and we'll do a quick round of uh uh brief summaries
and introductions by our elected officials and department directors that are with
us. And then the second half of the meeting is for the public to ask questions and
answers. So you'll have some, plenty of time for any questions that you have Roger.
Um With that, I think we will just get started and we'll, we'll pass it over to Mark
mccauley. Can I get a check real quick that we can be heard? Willie Online? Yeah.
Hear you loud and clear. All right, great. So I'm gonna pass this over to Mark. Right.
Does this actually work? It works. It, it only works for the report. Ok. Well, Howie
Roger, how are, how are you tonight? Are we gonna see you a second time down south?
Ok. Good. All right. So I'll whiz through this a little more quickly because when
you are with us again and we'll hopefully have a larger crowd and I'll take a little
more time to whiz through these slides. But uh anyway, this is um just a quick summary
of the county, what we do, how we're organized and some of our priorities uh that,
that we're currently paying attention to. Um And I'm Mark mccauley, the county administrator.
And um what that means is that I serve at the pleasure of the board and organize
activities in the county and work with the other elected officials that are here
tonight to try to conduct the business of the county in an efficient and organized
way. And so county do many things and this is a collage of photographs uh that or
it's intended to show some of the varied uh tasks that we do in the center top. You
can see our, our county sheriff folks and then to the right of that, you can see
our road crew, um, that, uh, operate out of Port Hadlock. They're the ones that do
the chip seals on roads and keep the snow plowed in the wintertime. Uh, middle left
is our treasurer, Stacey, uh, Prada. She's here and she'll speak to you here in a
little bit. Uh, on the right hand side, uh, Public health and Apple Martin, our public
health director is here and we'll talk about her department, um, middle at the bottom.
Uh, I think is our solid waste, uh, where people take their recycling and their,
and their refuse and lower. Right. That's a sort of a dated photograph that's, um,
that's W C extension and that's Mallory Weinheimer talking to somebody about wheat
control, but she is now the county forester that we contract with to manage our forests.
So,
all right. And I said we do a lot of things. This is a word scatter shot like a shotgun
blast of various things that the county does. Um, and the people in the room are
responsible for these things and they'll talk about those things when it's their
turn
so complex organization. You know, the city of Port Townsend has seven elected officials
all on the city council, but we have a com a commission of three commissioners and
they're here today, Kate, I and, um, and Greg, but we have eight other elected officials
and that would be two judges, the sheriff, prosecuting attorney, our clerk, auditor,
assessor treasurer. Um And I, I think I got them all anyway, complex
organization. And we have about 360 people that populate those elected offices and
the departments that you see at the bottom there, seven of them, central services,
community development and so on. So, uh you can see the complexity of the organization
right there.
And that's a graphical representation of uh our organization. And underneath each
box, you can see a number of little word sets there that describe the tasks, some
of the tasks of each of the organizational elements in the county. And that's not
a complete list, but it's probably the major items that each department does. And
you know, there's probably 75 of them on that chart, but there are many more beyond
that. So that's just a nice picture of how complex counties are.
So, uh organizations need leadership and this is a snapshot of leadership. And the,
and the theme here is that we have some stability and we have some change. Uh the
fellow in the middle with the glasses and the ball cap. That's our public works director.
Monnie renders, I think he's been here 30 years. So he's the uh the example of stability
but then surrounding uh Monty uh to the right is uh Josh Peters, who's our new community
development director. And so that represents a transition because Brent Butler, this
gentleman over here in the red shirt uh was the community development director, but
he's now our chief strategy officer. So there's a change there. Uh You can see my
photograph on the left. I was replaced in the central services director role by the
fellow to the left of me. And that's Chris Coy who's sitting right here and then
the photos on the bottom uh lower left uh Keith Harper uh superior court judge um
with the suit jacket uh was replaced by uh Brandon Mack uh on the left in the white
shirt with the tie. And then the nice lady in the red hat was Ruth Gordon who uh
until December 31st 2022 was our county clerk who was replaced by uh Amanda Hamilton.
The voters elected her to be our clerk and she is sitting right there.
So big organization complex. A lot of different departments, a lot of different functions.
360 people takes a fair amount of money for us to be able to perform the work that
we do for the benefit of the citizens here. And this is a snapshot on the left side.
Um, total budget for 2023 is $81 million spread. And that's not a full list of where
the money is spread. But those are pretty good examples. General fund being the largest,
that's the fund that, that pays for the auditor, the treasurer, the two courts, the
prosecuting attorney and, and the other general fund functions and then the public
works budget is larger this year because we're building a sewer and Hadlock. Um,
and uh the tri area sewer budget is beneath the public works. Um And then on the
right hand side, you can see our projected revenues for the year of 79 million and
you'll notice that revenues are less than expenses. And so we cover that difference
using fund balance that we built up in prior years.
Yeah. All right. Well, organizations like ours, we're always faced with challenges
and we are also given opportunities and there are a couple of examples of those on
the left. I think everybody in the room uh has felt the impacts of, of inflation.
I think our inflation rate two years ago was 8.5%. And last year it was 5.5. Um,
not sure what it is this year, but everything the county wants to pay for, to provide
services, the cost has gone up substantially. And that's a challenge uh because our
revenues are, uh, they grow at a fixed rate. Um And then on the right side are a
number of our priorities. Uh We're developing a strate strategic plan. Uh We're interested
in economic development and of course, housing and homelessness is always a huge
issue. And um for some wildfire, a significant initiative of the county is that um
Chris Goy, um my deputy and the central services director is um conducting, conducting
an effort to uh create a community wildfire protection plan uh to help protect us
against the, the fires that we could potentially see here in the county because of
rising temperatures and dry forest stands.
All right, a couple of big issues, I mentioned housing and homelessness. We've made
some progress here. Uh on the upper left, that's the New Seventh Haven Affordable
Housing Project that was built at a cost of 16 million facilitated by the county.
Uh We sold them some land for about 10% of its market value and um they uh acquired
uh tax exempt bonds and financed it using grants and other monies. And that is now
home for 43 families or individuals that um have um
subsidies to help, help pay for the housing. And then upper right is the Lander Street
Project of Habitat for Humanity. Six different units there that are um almost ready
for occupancy and then lower left is the Caswell Brown Village. Um That's where uh
our hun unhoused folks in the county. We can house up to um we have 50 units there
and those folks were previously housed at the county fairgrounds. And so, uh so this
is a tremendous improvement in the lives of the people housed there. And then lower
right. Uh The Mason Street Project Habitat for Humanity. They brought the, bought
the old airfield there in Hadlock and will be constructing 105th. Uh We don't know
the exact number but in the vicinity of 100 and 50 affordable housing units. So that'll
make a dent in our housing problem to some degree. Then of course, in Hadlock, we
have the sewer project and that red line is the boundary for phase one where sewer
service will be available. Um I believe in 2025 and that will facilitate denser development,
multifamily housing units and uh Q F C will be able to expand finally after years
of wanting to but not being able to
and then community development. This is a, this is a huge uh priority for the county.
Uh We've had severe challenges here for a number of reasons. One is staffing and
the other is a, a recent ordinance that imposed some uh pretty complicated requirements
on us to verify that parcels that people own are legal, lots of record and we have
to analyze the ability to develop um those parcels before we can issue permits. And
um and we're about to embark on uh um a new comprehensive plan for the county that
I think is due in 2025. Yeah. And that's a, that's a significant effort that will
involve the entire community, city of Port Townsend and, and so on.
And then I mentioned forestry. Um Heidi Eisenhower has really stepped up on the forestry
front. She helped um uh work with D N R to have two parcels uh returned to the county
under the trust land transfer program. And the young lady I mentioned before, Mallory
Weinheimer with Chike Forestry has done a really good job of doing selective thinning
on parcels owned by the county generating revenue for us and making those forest
stands uh better for recreation and reducing the fire risk and improving the health
of those tree stands. And so that work will continue
parks and rec another big um another big priority. Um You know, I I just did 10 miles
on the Larry Scott trail, which is a tremendous regional asset uh for this county
and we have other trails as well. Um I want to draw your attention to the uh photo
at the upper right. And I think they have a bigger and better photo of that. Uh No,
it's about the same size. So uh this is, this is a jump playground located at the
H J Carroll Park. Uh It's an accessible playground and my grandkids are going to
be here on Monday and we're taking them to that park because I have a um a granddaughter
that needs a playground like this because she can't climb on regular equipment because
she's, um, she's mobility challenged. And so I'm really thrilled that I can bring
my granddaughter to a park like this. And upper left, you can see where all the money
came from. Um, money from a variety of sources. We raised private funds. Uh, the
Michael Barry Memorial Foundation contributed Jefferson health care, the county contributed
capital money and then the state through an R C O grant. So a, a beautiful regional
asset that I really think sets the example and, and really makes Jefferson County
a a very progressive uh county when it comes to this. And then of course, the COVID-19
pandemic, you know, we're all in here, no masks. We think the pandemic's over. But
as we heard from Dr Barry on Monday, who's our health officer? People are still getting
sick. Some people are still passing away as a result of having contracted it. So
it's not gone. Uh You know, we're pretty much in the endemic phase and um Apple Martin,
our health director can answer any questions if you two gentlemen have any on that
subject.
And then of course, um during the pandemic, the federal government appropriated huge
sums of money and distributed that money around the the country. And uh Jefferson
County uh received 2.4 million um through the Cares Act, which was a President Trump
thing. And then Arpa uh was subsequent to, to that, I think the President Biden,
uh we got 9.64 million there and we distributed the money for the projects that you
see here. The most notable of which is the uh Hadlock Sewer project. And we also
gave 900,000 to uh Jefferson County uh P U D for broadband. And we gave the city
500,000 for their uh Evans Vista project and so on and so forth. And then having
distributed all this, uh we found that we had about 834,000 left. So we did a last
call. We got 48 requests for funding and we funded these 17. Um And
so we, I think we've made very good use of that federal money in this community.
So how do you get involved? Well, you came tonight. So that's, that's a good start.
Um You can also tune in to our board meetings on Monday mornings at nine o'clock,
either by coming to the courthouse or by joining us remotely using the Zoom link
that we always publish on our website. And then of course, we have boards and commissions
that members of the public can volunteer to serve on. And we currently have a, a
number of vacancies that are listed here. So I would encourage you to, if you're
interested in getting involved. Uh We'd be happy to facilitate that involvement.
So with that, um I think I'll turn it back over to Commissioner Brotherton. Thank
you, Mark. Um Yeah, a big suite of services offered by the county and the, the next
phase in this meeting today is a, a quick introduction from all of our elected and
directors that we have with us. We'll go around, I'll bring the microphone to you.
And uh, I don't know, brevity is uh is, is great, you know, maybe a, a good haiku
about what you do. It would be great um Or, you know, a few minutes. So, uh I'm Greg
Brotherton, you're your district three county commissioner and the current chair
of the B zero cc. And we, we all sit on, you know, dozens of boards and, and work
on all sorts of things. And um I'm happy to, to go into more of those if there's
any questions about any of the boards and I'll pass it off to Heidi. Hi. Hi, Forest.
So I'm glad you joined us. Um My name's Heidi Eisenhower and I'm the district two
commissioner and I grew up here in the community and have a life of loving my community
and that's why I decided to run and give back. So I um I'm not gonna talk about all
the committees I am, but yes, we're on each, on a lot of committees and um most recently
today I was working on solid waste issues with our team, so I'm gonna pass it to
Chris Goy. Hello, gentlemen. My name is Chris Coy. I'm the central services director
as well as your deputy county administrator. Uh We oversee in central services facilities
uh that are run by the County Information Services, which includes uh all the computers
that the fine folks here used to perform high quality service uh as well as our fleet
department which we call er and r all the cars that we use to make sure things get
delivered to the places they need to go and a number of other things uh along those
lines, but uh happy to answer any questions. Thanks, Chris, I'm Apple Martin and
I work at Jefferson County Public Health. I'm the director there and um well, I don't
know, I have a lot to share but I can't make that into a high. No, no, no. Hi, Cooper.
Sorry. Um Would love for you all just to know that, you know, public health is the
mission is to help um mitigate and prevent diseases first and foremost and we have
a number of programs too many to list um that are divided into various categories
such as prevention work. Um We do community and family health services that reach
out to uh folks generally in the age of um you know, in utero, up to about 64 years
old. That's sort of the gamut of who we serve. We have clinical services, we do foot
care for elderly who are less mobile and need that support. We do all kinds of services
with nurse, nursing staff, whether that's um tracking communicable diseases, those
might be sexually transmitted diseases or those might be things like tuberculosis
or hepatitis. Um We worked a lot during the pandemic as you probably know, we um
give guidances. We work in tandem with our uh county health officer, Doctor Barry
and she's my colleague and um we work really hard to just uh make sure that the health
of folks in Jefferson County is maintained or um or promoted and enhanced. Um We
also do environmental health services that can include things like um septic repairs
or septic system reviews and applications permits. We do um food quality uh
safety. We do um you know, folks that want to work in restaurants and need food handlers
permits. We um we do those types of trainings. We have all kinds of programs that
really um work together to hold the whole person and the health of those folks in
our county um from lots of different angles. So I'll pass it on and I will bypass
all this extra information. There's flyers in the back if you have questions or concerns
about any of the programs that might be useful to you or, or otherwise. Thank you.
Thank you. Um, so I'm Stacey Prada, the county treasurer and this is, uh, this is
my third term. Um We collect the property taxes and we serve as the bank for all
of the districts. The um, Port P U D, everything except the city of Port Townsend
and where we collect taxes and we hold all of their money and invest it. Um
Basically, uh we've been working on a new financial system with the auditor's office
and really trying to, uh get the county finances in much better working order and
more streamlined and more transparent and accessible to the public. We do have monthly
meetings um regarding the budget and just today I posted all of those reports, um,
on the web and so you can get online, you can access them. You can always call or
email our office. We'll send you a link or provide information. But big picture is,
we're here, we'll answer questions, we'll do it daily and we'll get to what you need.
So I'll leave it at that or, well, I'm gonna be handing it to the assessor, but
assessor says how much money you owe? Treasurer collects the money. So,
I'm Jeff Chapman. I'm the county assessor. Um, I've been in this county for about
40 50 years and, uh, been in the office since. Well, I started in the eighties and,
uh, with me is, is Chuck our, um, one of our appraiser, one of my appraisers and
Sherry Schuld, who's the chief deputy who's got over 40 years in the assessor's office.
So, uh, we go back to before growth management that wha when the country when that
county was still pretty wild and um we've watched the changes over the years. We
part of it. Uh what our main purpose is, we keep the parcel records for the county.
In other words, um when you go online and you look up a parcel and you want to know
uh how many acres is it? What's the value of it? What's it used for? Who are the
past owners? We're the ones who keep all that information both for the incorporated
county and for the city of port towns. And so we're the assessor for the city as
well. Uh We divide the county into six areas. We reinspect 1/6 of the county each
year. Chuck and, and the other appraisers go out and do that and then we pick up
all the new construction in the county every year. We put it on the rolls and then
we come up with a value for all that property, which is the base distribution that
by which taxes will be set. And then we work with the various taxing districts that
levy and they give us their budget and how much that we need to collect and we divide
it out across the base for that taxing district, come up with a levy rate and then
distribute it to all the people who, how many taxes they'll pay. Um, just because
your value goes up by, you know, 50% say, doesn't mean your taxes go up by 50%
because it's the base So if everybody goes up the same amount or everybody goes down
the same amount as far as how they're valued, the levy rate adjusts, you still got
to collect the same amount of money. Um, taxes generally always go up and they will
next year with the, you know, voters voted in a couple of fire district levies that
were significant increases and that will show up in your 2023 taxes as an increase.
And, um, it, what we try to do is keep it fair so that the distribution of value
across everyone is fair based on what that property could be sold for on the open
market. Uh, we do other things. We help with the fee. Uh, you know, there are fees
that are in addition to property taxes and they're distributed also by certain criteria
as to who pays how much. And, uh, we, we handle that and manage that and, uh, and
like I said, we work with the tax take to make sure that they get the amount of money
they want and, and that the levies are correctly calculated. So sure you have anything
to add. Ok, we do have exemptions. So, uh, for people who qualify exemptions, please
do, we have a senior exemption. The amount of income criteria that you qualify for
is going up next year. Not as much as we originally had thought. We had hoped it'd
go from 40,000 from being the upper limit. For qualifying income to around 50 to
55,000. But no, um, it's based on Countywide median income and that was
recalculated by O F M and it was a lesser amount than we had originally been, led
to think it would be. So it's gonna go from 40,000 to 45,000. So if your income,
if you're over 62 your income is 45,000 or less, then you can qualify for this exemption
and that'll get you exempt from all the special levies. You know, the voted levies
like school levies and then it can get you a percentage off your regular levies as
well. Mhm.
Uh My name is Brent Butler and uh I am currently the chief strategy officer and I'm
sitting in today for um uh Josh Peters, who's the community development director.
Um, and the community development department has um, a building um division and really
the building division um performs a lot of the life safety inspections. It includes
the office of the fire marshal and they conduct all of the plan reviews outside of
the city limits. And I want to point out that the city has its own building department
and we're only responsible for those properties outside of the city limits. But before
you get to the building department, typically, you have to um, intersect with our
Development Review division and that's responsible for all different types of land
use permits among the more difficult ones which are our shoreline uh permits and,
um, and the shoreline permits are done in accordance with the Shoreline Master Program.
And we also have as one of our stewarding documents. The Comprehensive Plan. Now,
I want to point out that, uh, uh, we did hear the county administrator point out
that the Comprehensive Plan is coming up to be adopted, uh, or it should say, um,
a periodic review in 2025. And we're also doing that in conjunction at the same time
that the city is also going to be doing their uh update, periodic update. Now, what
are the things or the activities that are really important to know uh that are shared.
Uh One of them is the Climate Action plan. Climate Action plan was adopted, it was
done in collaboration with the city and the Climate Action plan has. It's one of
its implementation tools, the Sea Pacer program that's commercial property assessed,
clean energy and resiliency. And that program is really to reduce the contribution
of the built environment to greenhouse gasses by um allowing property owners to
have a reduction or uh in the in their real debt coverage costs by spreading the
cost of the debt over a longer period of time. Another shared um responsibility is
our Countywide planning policies really important. It's outlined in the Growth Management
Act that we are to work with all of the, the cities in the county. We only have one
in our in our county and also the other uh special purpose districts to ensure that
growth and development is coordinated. And then another uh important document that
uh affects both the city and the county that stewarded it through our department
is our coordinated water System plan that's so critical because the coordinated water
system plan identifies areas that have fire flow needs, identifies the spacing of
fire hydrants. And it's a really critical component of, of infrastructure uh that
uh provides uh water throughout our community and also provides the, the fire resources
necessary. And most of these uh activities fall within what we call long
range planning. So when you think of there's the building team and then we also have
that the land use side. And so the land use site has two real branches, current planning
and um Mark mccauley did identify that we do have a new procedure in place, which
is called our site development review. And that's really to address the, the smaller
harder developed properties to identify um if it's legally uh conveyable and then
if it's buildable. And so our offices are open every day except Friday. And so we're
up on Castle Hill right next to Q F C. And so if you have any questions, just stop
on in.
Hi, good evening. My name is James Kennedy. I'm the Jefferson County prosecuting
attorney. And since uh about 2019, we have contracted with the City of Port Townsend.
So my office also handles criminal prosecutions for crimes that arise uh inside the
city limits as well. And we work very closely with the, uh, Port Town and police
department in that respect. We also provide legal support for the whole rest of the
county. Uh, providing legal advice. We work very closely with the Department of uh
Community Development. Uh I've had one of our deputy prosecutors uh for
most of last year, uh, writing the code that is going to support that Port Hadlock
Sewer you heard about earlier, which, uh as we learned, uh, from a legal standpoint
was rather complex. And, uh it's probably not something that most people would think
of. First when you're putting in a sewer, uh, would be the code that you would have
to write to get that in there. Um, also the county coroner for about the next year
and a half. Um, the, uh, the legislature has made some changes so that, that's going
to become a separate department, uh in 2025. And so, uh, one of the big tasks that
I have coming up over the next year and a half is gonna be getting that, uh, department
stood up on its own so it can stand on its own two ft. And other than that prosecution
is a big part of what we do. Just like the, the name of the office. Uh We prosecute
felonies, misdemeanors. And, um, we also have uh our therapeutic courts drug court,
mental health court. Um and we spend a lot of time trying to work on rehabilitating
folks in the criminal justice system. Thank you.
Hi, I'm Amanda Hamilton, your new county clerk. Uh The clerk is the record and financial
administrator for the superior court. Uh We receive process and um preserve and perpetuity.
All uh superior court documents received in causes of action from felony, criminal
to civil lawsuits, protection orders, divorces, probate and the like. Um, we serve
both the legal community and the public. So we're happy to assist with any, um, access
to court records. Nice to meet you.
Ok.
Hi, I'm Brenda Hunting Ford. I am the Jefferson County Auditor, um, just newly elected
but been in the office for quite a few years and our office, uh, has elections, recording,
licensing and accounting. Um, I brought uh, Quinn Ruel. She's our election coordinator
and Jesse Graves is my chief deputy auditor. So in our department, we handle accounting,
which is the financial, uh, finance office for the county. We, uh, do payroll
accounts payable, the budget call, um, budget status, monitoring, cash
and bank statement reconciliations and the annual report, our recording department,
uh, we record your land deeds, um, and we do marriage licenses there. We also are
an agent, a passport acceptance agent facility. So we became certified to the federal
government to accept passport applications for new and lost passports. Um, we do
licensing. We are an agent for the state of Washington Department of Licensing. But
do we do vehicle and vessel titles, license plates, registrations, disabled parking
placards. And we're an agent for a Department of Revenue because we collect the tax
on those transactions also. And then elections. Of course, we handle uh voter registration
and we actually um program and count the ballots. Um This
primary election has just school 3 23 swim school district we shared with Collin
County. And so we only have 400 voters in this primary election. So no one in the
city will be getting a ballot or in the county except for if you live in Gardner.
So spread the words because we'll get lots of phone calls because there's will be
lots of advertisement out there about the primary election, but 400 of our voters
will be getting a ballot.
Welcome to our guests here tonight. I'm Kate Dean, commissioner from district one,
which is largely the Port Townsend city limits. And I think the low attendance here
is a testimony to the fact that it's confusing for folks who live in the city to
understand that there's city government and county government and to understand the
difference between who does what. So you might be the two most informed folks um
Currently uh in understanding that. Um so I, I think largely because my district
is within city limits, I end up doing a lot more work at the state level and with
our federal partners. So happy to answer any questions um about that, I should say
that. Um, once we are elected, we do represent the entire county, but the three commissioners
tend to kind of break down the tasks that we take on based on the um uh the district
that we represent. So we represent everyone, but we tend to focus a little more on
the um, issues that arise um within our district. Um Just a couple of other things
I work on. Um, I'll be headed out shortly here to a fairgrounds meeting, uh a very
important meeting happening tonight out there. Um That's one of the issues that I've
been working on and um lots of, lots of other committees as the other commissioners
have mentioned. So happy to answer questions and discuss any issues that come up.
Thank you, Kate. We have a few directors on the line as well. So, Willie, can you
turn your camera on and say hi, hey, hello, everyone. I'm here with my, my dog right
now actually as well. This is Presley. Um, I'm Willie Bentz. I'm the director for
the Department of Emergency Management here with Jefferson County. I'm the smallest
department in the county. It's just me. I'm one other uh, full timer and four part
timers, although we're down to three right now. I mean, we work in all things, disaster
preparedness, um, emergency management and emergency response. So we're primarily
responsible for the emergency operations. Center, um which is the central gathering
and coordinating point for all agencies um responsible for um large disaster response.
Um We manage a various volunteer programs um including community emergency response
teams, our new Medical Reserve Corps. Um We manage the emergency um volunteer worker
program and help support J S R um our volunteer emergency communicators, our ham
radio operators as well as a few others. Um And we conduct community outreach and
education to try to convince um our communities to get rep um prepared. So we have
a partnership with local 2020 called in prep or Neighborhood Preparedness. I'm really
trying to encourage folks to take charge of their own disaster preparedness and talk
within their communities and kind of bind together um to get ready um for any major
disruptive event that might come our way. So, um we're a very small department. Um
We are founded and really built upon our, our volunteers and our community partners.
So, um I appreciate um everyone who showed up tonight and um I've been a big shout
out to all of our volunteers in their departments we work with as always. Thanks
a lot, Willie. I think we also have our interim Wazoo extension director, Bridget.
Do you, are you able to say hi?
Oh, oh, can't hear, we're not able to hear you yet.
Ok. Now, yes, we can hear you now. Fantastic. I'm Bridget Gregg. I'm, I am the interim
director at W S U extension. Our office uh houses the noxious weed coordinator, uh
noxious weed control board coordinator, the Marine Resources uh committee coordinator,
the master gardener program coordinator, small farms coordinator. And um we also
have a natural resource and environmental resources department out of W S U and uh
snap Ed has been housed out of our office as well. Uh We are a cooperative relationship
between W S U and Jefferson County, but we are a department within Jefferson County
and we provide environmental services. Uh Our stewardship education primarily more
than service. I do, I gonna go to the Jefferson County uh fairgrounds meeting here.
So, uh I will be stepping away shortly. Ok. Thank you very much, Bridget. Um So those,
those are uh many of our departments. We don't have the sheriff's department with
us today. I mean, they, they do have mutual aid agreements with the city of port
towns and of course, most of the law enforcement is provided by, by the uh by the
city police. Um So that I would be remiss if I didn't mention that while this is
an opportunity for us to get to know you, Roger and forrest better. Uh We, this is
not the, the last time that we are at your disposal. There's a list of all of our
addresses and phone numbers at the door and we are at your disposal any time. So
if there's an issue that comes up, you don't have to wait for another community meeting
to, to uh reach out to us. This is just our opportunity to reach out to you. So I
really do appreciate you guys being here and you're setting a high standard. I'm
gonna try to know everybody's name at every meeting going forward now and it's gonna
be a challenge. Um But I, I believe next on the agenda is actually uh it's, it's
your guys's turn. So I'm wondering if you have any questions? Yeah, for us, lay it
on us. Uh Thank you for all coming to my pre birthday party. Uh,
so many dignitaries uh in two weeks. So you're, you're early. Um, my name is for
Schumer and, uh, I'm not presently on any county boards or committees, but I'll give
you my short curriculum P T in the county. Came here in, uh Gardner in 1977 with
my nonprofit foundation, uh, and have been producing and preserving seeds of all
kinds ever since then. And even before that, and if you didn't know if you haven't
been here that long, there was a gardener store and I had the little office in there
which was the ceiling was about this high. Uh Next item would probably be, um, uh,
the planning committee for the H J Carroll Park in the mid nineties. That was fun.
Uh In 1999 I collected signatures to create a noxious weed board in Jefferson County.
We were one of the last three counties in the state to have a noxious weed control
board. And, uh I got rewarded by being the chairman for three years after that. I,
I say rewarded. I'm not sure. Um, my current activity is to uh identify, protect,
preserve Prairies in Jefferson County and on the whole North Olympic Peninsula, uh
through a nonprofit which we founded five years ago this month, it's called, uh Olympic
Peninsula Prairies. If you don't know what a prairie is, it is actually a very distinctive
type of land form or land use. Uh And uh any place that Camus grows in the county,
a word that I hope you're all familiar with by now. That is probably a prairie. It
may have been here for thousands of years and there's less than 1% of our original
prairie acreage left. So that's the crux of the issue and I work on it every day,
including out in the county uh collaborating where possible with uh our local tribes,
uh interested citizens. And right now we have a project started at Finn River. Uh
See if we can create a Prairie from scratch, you know, like the glacier did 13,000
years ago.
Yeah, you got. Ok. Mhm.
Uh Yeah, I don't think I need this. Oh, ok.
That's it. Uh I'll start off with, well, oh, I knew this was gonna happen
with a little piece and important leader. So this event was taking place and not
a great thanks the leader. But, uh, it seems the same that all you people took all
your time today to come here for.
Oh. Oh, yeah, I have a number of issues. One is a big one.
That's the thing. I mean, because several years ago the, uh, control people made
a car to get rid of the,
and at that time I was doing,
I had a lot and hours and hours
to get rid of it. Right. And work and work and
work. And I,
or
so I have to
more,
the voice is not. Could you speak into the microphone?
Oh, I'm sorry. Ok. So any of that, that was a hot button with me because I was involved
in it and I see it just getting worse and worse and worse. You get out there by Nesta
Corner, for instance. Uh, we used to have animals in the garden there. Now it's all
scratch.
Ok.
For one second. I don't know, Bridget, are you able to, are you still there? Are
you able to, to speak a little bit to, I don't know the, the scope of the issue versus
the, uh, scope of the noxious weed board
might not have heard part of that too. But, um, it was a little bit, I wasn't able
to hear other than some concern about Scott out at Ness's Corner. Well, I, I think
that the history of it was that there was Scotch broom, the noxious weed board informed
Ro where Roger was working that he needed to pull it out. He did and he seems to
have been the only one. There's a lot of scotch broom. Oh, ok. Um, well, I guess
I can, I can speak to, um, the fact that we have a new noxious weed coordinator,
uh, weed control board coordinator, uh, who is doing tremendous work right now. Really?
The, the onus, um, of we control is on the property owner and, uh, as we work
to form a, um, an official board, we need to have, uh, farmers on that board before
we can do official enforcement. But I believe that's the direction we're moving towards.
And, uh, you're certainly welcome to come to our office any time and make an appointment
with Sophie and we can discuss some of your concerns and Bridget. Do you know what
the, the budget of the noxious weed board is? Roughly how many, roughly about 100
and I wanna say 100 and 30 I'd have to look to be able to be, uh, sure, but it's
a very small budget and I,
and, uh, anywhere on that,
it's a challenge and they have crews they work with, you know, was Washington Conservation
Corps and, and Clown County weed control board right now, I think to get crews out
there. But the problem is larger than our noxious weed board can manage and, you
know, they do use poison. I mean, glyphosate is used for this, you know, if you cut
it off and put it in the stem, it's often a, an effective and, and non, non, you
know, it doesn't, it, it's, uh, but it's still, you know, plant by plant, it's not
like you can spray it or anything. But the, the biggest thing I see is, is, uh, prevention
and that's something that we're not doing right now. And I'd love to get, get going
on that and get into things like certified clean gravel. I mean, where you see, scotch
broom is usually on the periphery of roads and everything. And if you know, there
are, it's one thing to, to eradicate all the scotch room that we have. But it's,
it's, it's a big, big uh task, right? But, but what we can do is we can stop the
continual spread of it and we're spreading it every time we lay down a logging road,
every time we do road work and fail to wash our, our machinery after hitting some
scotch broom. So there's, there's systemic changes that I hope that we can make.
And I think Sophie, our new noxious weed coordinator is, is kind of hip to those,
those uh those tools. Um But it's got to take a lot of community input too. We hear
a lot. Uh I, I get emails all the time about scotch broom. There's scotch broom everywhere,
apparently right now, you know, it's bloom in bloom. So it's hard to miss right now.
Um And, you know, I've got a little bit on my property and I pulled, pulled it out
by the root. You have to do and, and next year I will have to do it again. So, um
yeah, a difficult problem, kind of a herculean task, but I appreciate you bringing
it up. Any other questions that you want to address? All right into the microphone,
please. Uh One thing I'd like to see at the center office road, I think it is
right there. That intersection of the uh uh road in, I'd like to have a street light
and you come into uh uh during the winter that start from havoc. It's hard to discern
where that is until you're right on top of it. You could put a street light there,
then that electricity, you can have a solar thing. Come on. So you'd have a light
right at that intersection that would be appreciated. Uh Also I I on uh being able
to see when you come to an intersection uh where you get community center out in.
Uh Now the growth is coming out there. So if you want to make a left turn from West
Valley to come into town, you have growth coming out there so you can't see them
coming cars too. Well, uh I think on corner there's a big bush. I think that could
be written down a little bit. So you could see. That's a tough one to get out of,
uh, in heavy traffic. Uh, I don't imagine other areas. Uh, road wise. Uh,
I know if the county doesn't take care of itself in Port Town, they, they have the
award to be in the worst roads in the state of Washington, I'm sure. But
we had some bad ones too. The county is responsible for and that's, I think it's
16 and, yeah, this is going road and typical Q F C right there. That's pretty rough
right there. That intersection need to be passed.
All right.
Ok. Go on to your next ones. And, um, those are all questions for public works. So
we don't have representative today. They're a big, big department and, and they do,
uh, you know, cleaning brushes back off the right of way and making sure that intersections
are safe. Sometimes those are, are private residences and the issues are beyond their
control. But I know that they go and, and knock those back constantly. But, you know,
the, uh, they are funded largely from fuel tax and, and, and, uh, used to be from
pelt and other revenues. And so, uh, we have a very efficient road crew that is,
uh, does a lot with the little so you can always reach out to them and, and complain
about a specific issue and, you know, they take that and process it doesn't mean
that they're gonna, they have a crew that they can send right out to it, but they
are, are very responsive to those kind of issues. Uh, stoplights, probably unlikely.
Street light, street light is, is probably unlikely. Um, they're expensive and I,
is that a state highway there? Yeah, no, 1 16 is a state
road and there's so there's interface like Q O C is, is state road and county road.
Um, you know, as we, we do sewer work, I'm sure there's gonna be some improvements
there because a lot of the Port Hadlock sewer is gonna have to be in that. So, um,
I encourage you to come out to our uh um uh community meeting which is, uh, does
anyone know the date July 19th? And I, I think we can, we will try real hard to get
someone from public works. There might be able address these questions with a little
bit more authority. July 19th.
It about a year or two ago, the fellow comes along with the bus cutter and did an
excellent job. I had a lot of uh, Blackberry comes out across the street from my
house and there's a curve there, right? And I just passed through on west and
he didn't work the time I see, cut that back. So I, I could say, hey, great job,
you know. All right. Yeah. Uh Another thing that, uh, I can't understand
any common sense of a roundabout coming off the bridge. I can understand that in
the slightest if through a heavy truck where you had to slow down and, and you can
climb a hill, put a roundabout in there and you're really gonna clog up traffic,
uh, other than expense to put it also. So definitely, I wanna, I'll be a big holler
about that. Thank you. Thank you very much Roger. And a lot of people share that
sentiment about the roundabout. That's of course, been delayed this year and is a
wash out project. But our, our county engineer is, is fought really hard to get,
you know, voice any voice in that project. And you know, two of those roads that
come in there, you know, uh Paradise Bay and Shine are county roads. So we really
are stakeholders there. Um, you know, to a hammer, everything's a nail and it kind
of seems like to wash out. Everything looks sneezes around about right now. But,
um, it's, uh, it's, it's something that we continue to engage washed out on and I,
you will add your voice to the chorus. Yeah. Um, any other questions?
Well, you, you didn't know you had the half an hour to yourself. Yeah. All right.
Well, yeah, I'd like to let you know about a restaurant on the moon.
It's not any good no atmosphere. Oh, you're a man after my own heart. All right.
That's good. I thought I was gonna have to bring out the jokes. But thank you.
Um, all right for us. Do you have any questions?
Mhm. Eight others. Eight others. Yeah, I think we do need more outreach. So, thank
you, Roger for pointing that out as well. We'll, uh, we, we have a west end meeting
as well. We're going out to the whole reservation.
Mhm. Yep. Yep. Yep. We, we might get more people than at the Port Townsend meeting.
We might double it. So, but uh yeah, we'll have to learn their names. Um All right.
Well, I really appreciate you guys coming out and we'll record this. You can share
it with your friends and we will post it. Uh We have a moment if anyone else has
any, anything they'd like to share there is someone in the attendee list we assume
as staff might be, might be Josh Peters, but the initials could be for someone from
the public. So we wanna give that, we know for sure. Ok. I just, I didn't know if
it wasn't. We went, we would give the opportunity for public. We just, just in case
anyone that's online, you can, you can raise hand or hit Star Nine if you'd like
to ask a question or make a comment to the, to the folks assembled here. We'd love
to hear from them.
Yeah. Ok. Well, uh, you know, maybe we can all go to the fairgrounds meeting because
I think we're gonna wrap up a little early. So if there's no further questions and
no comments, I really do appreciate you guys coming out. We'll spread the word. The
next meeting is gonna be even better. Um, maybe not as much personal touch but, uh,
refresh, we've got refreshments. Yeah. Yeah. Have a cookie. Have some fruit, have
some water. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Um, ok. Well, thank you guys and with that, the
special meeting is adjourned. Have a great night.