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Comment of the day
“I get a great big lump in my throat thinking about the day when my little girl looks up at me with her big blue eyes and her curly pig tails and asks me why we can’t go to the library anymore.”
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on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 4:33 pm and is filed under North Coast News.
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I find these statements in the law very apropos:
(2) Agencies shall to the fullest extent possible:
(f) Encourage public involvement in decisions that significantly affect environmental quality.
(g) Identify, evaluate, and require or implement, where required by the act and these rules, reasonable alternatives that would mitigate adverse effects of proposed actions on the environment.
Thank you sir, for your continuing education of us folk. I appreciate it very much.
State Environmental Policy Act- which requires mitigation of a project’s impact on the environment as well as the community. Traffic, Wetlands, Sewage, Water, Soil, and a whole host of other issues. More can be found at: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=197-11
Excuse my ignorance, loved your comment Mr Peck but could you tell me what SEPA stands for?
I agree with a lot of what Randy Peck is saying — and that has to be a first! If we pass a EMS levy/lift, that will free up money in the General Fund that should be used for the library and interpretive center. But, if we pass a levy for the library (or vote to join Timberland) and interpretive center, then we are freeing up more money In the General Fund for something else. Like what? More matching on sidewalks to nowhere? Expanding our airport for jumbo jets? Wait, how about a second roundabout at the entrance to town.
Did anyone else notice that the City paid for flowers to be planted and cared next to the Council Chambers this past difficult year, but the police station just had weeds out front while the library had a few plants donated and planted by the Friends – half of the library plants are now dead, of course, since the plastic holding back the piled dirt from the sidewalk has sagged over the months into the planted area. Seems that our priorities are A) City Hall and those therein, and B) um, I’m not sure there is a B).
If you want to know what is happening, just ask them. They will tell you that they are going to do. First is the Ambulance Utility. That is the general name, but it is really the Ambulance and EMS Utility. They are going to charge every dwelling in the city, except campground sites and empty land as the ordinance is currently written. We all know that they never get calls to campground sites, right.
The second thing is going to be a Library and Iterpretive Center Levy,similar to the EMS “Lid Lift” that failed. They are going to make you put your money where your mouth is to support the library and IC. If it does not happen until the spring. It will be about 32 cents per thousand for that. That has a benefit and a catch.
The benefit is that the money is earmarked to those entities. Then it is up to the library board to operate the library properly with a look to the future with what they are given. Maybe now they will consider non-property owner library cards to raise additional revenue.
However, the catch is that as sales taxes, building permits, B&O, licenses and other income increase for the city, you are stuck with the levy until it expires. So, the general levy will not go down and they will have the potential of more money to spend on things they want as the economy improves.
So, the net result is that the taxes and fees will go up and we will probably not see any reduction when things get better. That is unless we require it to be in the ordinance. That means that we demand that if they want us to pay for the library, like we did out of our basic taxes before, then they need to reduce the basic tax proportionally to the increase in revenues as the economy improves. That means that the basic tax goes down the 32 cents to compensate us for helping now.
The annual ambulance utility will probably be with us forever. It will just get renewed.
Also, SEPA should be supported with an ordinance that says ALL departments are included. The library and IC can not be excluded for any reason. Just because someone puts a private library on their property does not exclude the property owners there from using the public library. Maybe we need a real citizens SEPA committee. It should not be in the hands of anyone but the citizens. What is developed impacts the quality of live of the citizens and not staff. Their personal opinions about libraries, interpretive centers, streets, police and fire should not be important. They represent the citizens.
we all have to remember that the ship was sinking before Mayor Bunkers was elected. kind of like the mess one George Bush left our current president. but, we can’t whip the guy no longer around, just the one we got.
Let me try to clarify one point about what appears on the city council agenda. Please remember who prepares the council agenda for the council to approve. Dean Bunkers once told me that nothing appears on the council agenda unless it has had his prior approval. Draw your own conclusions.
I don’t really know the in’s and out’s of who does what mayor vs council…whatever. But here we all are, suffering from a little shell shock, and no one is stepping up to answer our questions. Where are the explanations? Was there really no other choice? Can we have a vote to decide what gets cut? If not, why? How temporary is temporary? Can we have a date? If not, why? How was the decision ultimately made? What’s being done to fix the problem?
I think the citizens of Ocean Shores are fairly intelligent and understanding people. If things were laid out on the table and shown to us by whomever is running this show, and it made sense and was logical, wouldn’t we all say “okay, I get it, now lets all work to fix it”?
It just feels like we’ve had the rug pulled out from under our feet and nothing makes sense. People get frustrated when things don’t make sense.
And yes, Reb, my comment was a bit soppy…but let me send you a picture and I bet you’ll agree
The most I hear is that the mayor is to blame for all our woes, especially for closing the library and interpetive center. Lets remember, the mayor is an administrator on can only do what the city council directs him to do. The council has the final word on everything that happens in this city, not the mayor. I haven’t seen any constructive ideas from the council members, except one. It sounds like the council feel the mayor alone has the responsibility for comming up with the solultions and they only have to rubber stamp it. The mayor is working with a handicap passed down from the previous council and is doing the best he can with what he has to work with. Now how about the council doing its job!
They did not shut down the airport and they did not shut down the golf course. Does this make sense?
We didn’t give the mayor his EMS levy, so now the vengeance has to be taken by closing the library.
Can someone provide some history on how the OS Library started up in the first place? Posting a link of an existing story would be fine.
After reading Justin’s comment I feel like a grinch for my remark. Justin you make me feel there is a lot of hope for your generation.
A trifle soppy, but it sure makes its point!
I go there and help straighten the book shelf’s for volunteer service all my volunteer service has been at the library and I go there every day after school and on weekends and I have no idea what i am going to do without the library what should i do?