Editorial: Make EPRC Open House a priority

There’s a lot going on these days; with the 1^st of May, it seems we’re all bursting from our long winter cloud with ideas and initiatives and plans.

How would you like to see a cement parking structure go up behind the Outlook Inn?

What do you think of one-way traffic up North Beach Road and down Prune Alley?

Would you like to wander down the paths and to the beaches of Madrona Point again?

Should every commercial building be required to have a second story to provide for housing?

There are meetings, forums, hearings and conferences scheduled almost daily for important matters. Some of them, unfortunately, are a waste of time – venting sessions or program-justification with little outcome – but the Eastsound Planning Review Committee’s Open House this Monday, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Senior Center, is not one of them.

The EPRC has come to a point where they are ready to transform concerns and plans into policies and realities. They have earned the respect, attention and cooperation of the County Council, administration and department staff.  Now they all need the most important element of their work – citizen direction.

As much as we may hold dear the “rugged individual” sense of pioneer independence, we all buy into local government. As a matter of fact, we voting citizens are the government.

The EPRC Open House comes at a critical time to impact local government. The local planning committee has narrowed down their priorities to doable goals.

Now’s your chance to make known your concerns and ideas about enforcement of planning and land use laws, how to respect and share Madrona Point with the Lummi Nation, ways to use acreage in the heart of Eastsound to treat stormwater runoff, and other matters.

EPRC member Patty Miller said in a priorities-setting meeting earlier this year, “Our goal for next year should be for us to be a vehicle for executing the community’s priorities.”

The May 4 meeting, in advance of a session with the county Planning Commission mid-May and with the County Council in June, is the time to weigh in, to vote on some of the most critical issues facing Orcas Island, now and into the near future.

An Olga old-timer said recently that at her first community meeting the three priorities were: moving the Olga dock back into place after the winter; disposing of the Sani-Cans; and purchasing grave liners for the cemetery. That was 15 years ago, and thanks to the EPRC, we have new priorities to keep our community beautiful, functional and livable.

Monday, 4 to 6 p.m. at the Senior Center. EPRC Open House .

Take the time to see and hear what our “Grassroots Governors” – the EPRC —  are doing for us, and let’s work together to put muscle into our plans.