News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area
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This year’s fire season, in terms of severity and numbers of fires, is a scary and devastating reminder that we live in fire country. The Cascade mountain range and the normal summertime temperature differences between western and eastern Washington are underlying causes for our wildfire season. But, an equally important part is the temperature rise during this century. Whether you believe in climate change or not, we all know that our fire season is more severe than previously. Each “biggest fire yet” becomes eclipsed by the next year...
Jim DeTro has been an Okanogan County commissioner for eight years and is running for another four years. This is why you should not vote for him. In 2016, after two of his compatriot county commissioners were defeated, he said that he would not run again. But, then he changed his mind because no other Republican registered. Although DeTro is the commissioner chairman, he is seldom involved except in his perfunctory role of calling for a vote or declaring a motion approved. His personal interest comments about wolves are inflammatory and...
February 23, 2018, the Washington Legislature decided they did not have to abide by the state’s voter-approved Public Records Act, which requires, with subsequent judicial rulings, that state officials disclose their records. The Feb. 24, 2018, Seattle Times article, “Records secrecy slam-dunk” has more details. This action was not legislative business as usual, with hearings, floor debates, negotiations and then a proposed bill. No normal procedures were followed. Both legislative bodies sidestepped their rules. Rejecting the Public Discl...
In 2016, hundreds of citizens spoke out against a possible move of Okanogan County’s juvenile detention facilities to the Spokane area to be managed by a multi-state business. That proposed move would have also meant a loss of 10-plus professional jobs and their contribution to the local economy. The pressure that engaged citizens used to dissuade our county commissioners from “robbing Peter to pay Paul” was effective, and commissioners rightly decided that the people DID NOT want this service, nor our children moved more than 200 miles away...
More than 60 engaged county residents attended the April 23 Community Outreach Meeting in Okanogan to hear Commissioner Chris Branch speak about Okanogan County. For almost an hour the commissioner spoke about current and future issues before the county, and the importance of being involved in good governance. He also answered audience questions. Afterward, attendees brainstormed ways to be informed that included attending commissioner meetings, researching county issues, increasing voter registration, encouraging citizen participation in...
County commissioner meetings are public - anyone can observe. Since they are open, the audience should be able to hear and understand the activities of the meeting, and maybe even ask questions. Most organizational meeting standards include advance notice of agendas, timely approval of minutes, available materials for topics discussed, time for discussion, and a record of decisions made. County Commissioners make their executive decisions through resolutions, which are normally recorded in the meeting minutes or may be attachments to the...
In the primary, Okanogan County voters demonstrated that they want change from the county commissioners. One incumbent did not get enough votes to run in the general election. The other was in an almost three-way tie with two new candidates. The reasons for change are many. The current commissioners have repeatedly put themselves on the minority view of many issues — road closures, ignoring citizens’ concerns, disregarding state law and regulations, micromanaging departmental expenditures and staffing, and litigating their agendas instead of...
Over the past three years, the current county commissioners have outsourced jobs to contractors in other counties. I assume they want to reduce the size of government and lower expenditures. But this has very negative outcomes on all of us. Okanogan County has the lowest annual income average of its citizens, the smallest population and largest land mass of any of Washington’s counties. Does it make sense that decent middle-class salaries of county workers are sent to and spent in other counties? We don’t like this type of action when big bus...
Our Okanogan County commissions are considering a grave injustice to families and the future of our county, thinking that a “potential” budget savings solution is to send our presently troubled children out of sight and out of mind. The Omak juvenile detention facility is aged and needs to be brought up to code. But, doing a cost/benefit analysis of capital improvement costs, operating costs and lost jobs against outsourcing this responsibility to another facility 140 miles away is incomprehensible and irresponsible. Do the commissioners have a...