[Previous entry: "Another Reason To Live Here"] [Next entry: "Free Training To Be An Oil Spill Responder"]

02/09/2010: "Council Protest On Orcas"

(A portion of the Exchange on Orcas)

It was assumed by the County Council that their trip to Orcas on Monday to conduct a little business and take a field trip of the Eastsound wetlands would be non-eventful; however, a surprise!

The first sign that something was up occurred when they noticed "a whole bunch of people, some with signs" in the parking lot of the fire station where the council would start their day. One of the first items always on the agenda is "citizens' access time," and it quickly became apparent that quite a large number (by one count, 250 of them) of the Orcas voters were there for some access time.

They were there to protest the closing of the Exchange Center, a popular place to peruse at the Orcas transfer station where things not wanted by one person can be left, and picked up by another person; and to give voice to their concerns and recommendations for a long term funding source for the solid waste program.

The part that perplexed the council members and Public Works Director Joh Shannon was that no one, at anytime, had so much as even raised the question of closing the Exchange. If fact, they were not even aware the rumor was out there.

None of the upset citizens had contacted the council members about the rumor, but somehow, someone, had started the rumor, and so former SWAC chairman George Post and a "whole bunch of people" decided it was true, and they were upset.

When asked how many wished to speak, as many as 60 or 80 of the estimated 250 people present raised their hands. Council Chair Richard Fralick asked Director Shannon to address the crowd, but even after Shannon's statements that there were no plans at all to close down the Exchange, 20 or 30 still wanted to talk about it.

There were so many in attendance that the council had to move to a larger space, and the public access time that under normal conditions starts -if at all- and ends in three or so minutes, dragged on for an hour.

Chair Fralick had to call a halt to it after the time to conduct the business of the agenda was slipping away. All in all, quite the start of the week for the council members