The not-quite-final Weatherwax vote, released at 4:15 p.m. today by the Grays Harbor County elections office: “retain” has 1,862 votes, or 66.69 percent; “sell all or part” has 930 votes, or 33.31 percent. (Almost identical to the first tally.)

With 2,792 votes counted so far, and 3,279 ballots mailed out to Ocean Shores voters, that’s an 85 percent voter-participation rate.

Another ballot count comes Nov. 19. Click here for the county-wide voting.

The following letter arrived too late for publication in this week’s newspaper:

While the Citizens for Balanced Growth gloat over their victory, I hope they stop to remember the four city employees who face the New Year without jobs.

I find it ironic that many of the same people who wanted to retain Weatherwax are the same people who stand before the city council and bemoan the city’s fiscal irresponsibility.  To all those folks, welcome to the club - the club of the fiscally irresponsible!

When I moved here in 2001, the then city council bragged about not having raised taxes.  Meanwhile, the city’s infrastructure deteriorated.  (Had they made the decision to fix the roads back then it would have cost us a whole lot less money.)  We voted most of those folks out seeking council members who would make the hard decisions.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get what we wanted.  Instead, we now have a council that’s afraid to make the tough decisions; a council that abdicated its responsibilities by putting Weatherwax on the ballot.  Shame on them.  What’s next?  Are we going to vote for every single decision that this spineless council doesn’t want to make?

The Weatherwax vote was only advisory.  Ok, let’s keep SOME parts and sell others – reach some sort of compromise.  The city council needs to find its backbone and soon.  They have many hard and probably unpopular decisions to make.  If they can’t make them – then they should step aside.

Robert Stermer-Cox

The Grays Harbor County election office released a second ballot count on Friday. (The final results will not be certified until Nov. 25.) With 2,726 votes counted on the Weatherwax question, 1,821, or 66.8 percent, had voted “retain,” with 905 (33.2 percent) voting “sell.”

According to Vern Spatz, Grays Harbor County Auditor, 3,279 ballots were mailed to Ocean Shores residents. With a potential 553 votes to be counted, the “retain” lead is insurmountable.

Retain it is.

 According to Vern Spatz, Grays Harbor County Auditor, 3,279 ballots were mailed to Ocean Shores residents. As of this morning, “we’ve received  back 2,371.” That number did not include all of the mail collected at his office yesterday, nor “400-plus” votes from the box at the Convention Center that were delivered to Montesano last night.

    Last night’s first count of just over 2,000 voters showed 66 percent voted to “retain” Weatherwax.

       Spatz is expecting Ocean Shores to meet his county-wide projects of at least 80 percent voter participation. (Ocean Shores would need to have 2,624 votes counted to make the 80 percent mark.)  The vote count will be up-dated late Friday afternoon, with another update on Wednesday, and a final certified count on Nov. 25

Two more council members weighed in with comments on the preliminary count:

Peggy Berry: “I believe the residents in our community sent a fantastic statement to our city leaders.  RETAIN THE WEATHERWAX!  This is exactly what I heard from the people in 2007 when I walked door to door campaigning for city council. Thank you to everyone who exercised their right to vote.  Now we can move forward continuing to make Ocean Shores the best place to live in Washington State.”

 Robert Crumpacker: “I am very happy the voters seem to have given a clear message that they see the long term wisdom of keeping the Weatherwax intact.  Property is not something  that can be replaced   here  and especially a very unique property !!   I believe we can now move forward to other important issues while moving to institute the will of the voters.”

“Yes, we can change!” Obama said in his victory speech tonight.

“No, we will not change!” the citizens of Ocean Shores shouted, regarding Weatherwax.

Shortly after 8 p.m., the Grays Harbor County Auditor’s online site reported that with 2,010 votes cast, 1,383 (66.49%) voted “retain” on the Weatherwax advisory vote. “Sell” received 697 votes (33.51%). The total of votes counted was right around two-thirds of Ocean Shores’ registered voters, and most felt it was a clear, resounding message from the citizens to City Council: don’t mess with Weatherwax.

Larry Phoenix, leader of the Voice for Positive Change group that urged a “sell” vote, did not question the results. “The citizens of Ocean Shores stated what they wanted to do, and that’s fine with me . . . the vote came out to retain, that’s a closed issue for us, we’ll move on to other issues.”

John Clark, who with his wife Catie founded Ocean Shores Citizens for Balanced Growth to protect the Weatherwax, said the vote was “extraordinary. Two-thirds to one-third! That’s better than I ever thought we would do. I knew we would win this, because civic pride leads you to protecting things like this . . . What this vote tells me is people really understood what was going on.

“I love the pride of these citizens of Ocean Shores. The message obviously is not to sell it. What ‘retain’ means to them will be clarified in the future. But it can’t mean anything to any serious city council person except protect it for nature and green space.”

Dave Creighton is in his 12^th year as a city council member. The sell-or-keep Weatherwax issue “reared its head a few times over the years. Maybe this will put it somewhat to rest. . .

“From a personal standpoint, I had given thoughts to some golf holes being moved and things around those lines. But to be honest, all I wanted was whatever the people of Ocean Shores wanted. . . .. For me it’s a win. We brought it up to the people, and they decided.”

Mayor Dean Bunkers said he was surprised by the early results. “I didn’t think it would be that big of a split. … That certainly has sent a clear message to the city council. It’s kind of done what we wanted it to do, to get an idea what the citizens wanted.”

By 3 p.m., 250 people had dropped off ballots at the Ocean Shores Convention Center. If you don’t want to mail in your ballot (which must be postmarked today to be counted), this is the only drop-off site on the North Beach. The Convention Center will be accepting ballots until 8 p.m.

Ocean Shores resident Joan Jennings delivers her vote, while volunteer Sam McDeavitt looks on.