— from Peg Manning —

On Tuesday, May 20, at 10 a.m., County Council will be meeting at the
Eastsound Fire Station and taking public comment.  There will also be
presentations from Public Works about their plans for Orcas.

This is an important opportunity for the citizens of Orcas to express
their opinions concerning what seems to me to be an aggressive program of
suburbanization of our island.

This program was presented at the public meeting in Orcas a few months
back but, as usual, the meeting was held in the middle of the workday and
lightly attended.

What became clear at that meeting is that certain County decision makers
choose to ignore the fact that we are a rural island, and that many of our
residents (and most of our tourists) are here because of that rural
setting.  As a result, and because ³there is grant money available,² we
have been subjected to an assault on our rural character under the guise
of overzealous engineering ³improvements.²

One example is the plan to replace the simple wooden bridge to Spring
Point with a $2.5 million concrete span more appropriate for I-5 than it
is over this tiny inlet.  The bridge is reportedly being designed to
federal standards (it has to be because it¹s grant money) to accommodate
two large trucks crossing at the same time.  Have two large trucks ever
even been at the bridge at the same time? If so, were their drivers
incapable of taking turns crossing?  I have seen no evidence that the
Public Works planners even considered replacing the bridge with a similar
small, wooden bridge.  Someone saw that federal money was available, so it
seems that we agreed to build a federal highway bridge in the tiny hamlet
of Deer Harbor.

Another is the Orcas Road plan‹another Mount Baker Road type project that
will forever change this scenic country road in the direction of something
wider, straighter, and faster, at the costs of millions of dollars of tax
money.  This plan will also likely bring into play the “roadside hazard
mitigation” plan, which includes removing just about anything that a
driver could run into if the driver is speeding and/or drinking (those
drivers represent the overwhelming majority of the cited accidents that
have occurred on the road).  In other words, large numbers of beautiful
old trees, rocks and other existing natural features are in jeopardy in a
misguided and doomed-to-fail effort to make our roads ³safe” for drivers,
no matter how fast or badly they are driving.  (The large old trees by the
Nigretto property are on the list of hazards, as are others on Crow Valley
Road.)  https://sanjuanco.com/PW/docs/CurrentBidProjects/Hazard_Map_2.pdf

We will undoubtedly see more ugly guardrails, which visiting bikers have
reported are not just unsightly but also are dangerous for them on our
rural roads‹the bikers report that they “have no place to go² if
threatened by a vehicle.  Has the County considered using some the WPA-era
guardrail designs rather than the steel?  I suspect we¹ll hear that we
have to use the ³modern² ugly ones because it¹s paid by ³grant money.”

Finally, despite the long public participation process for the Prune Alley
plan in Eastsound, the County Engineer has presented a plan that rejects
many of the concerns and preferences expressed by volunteers and citizens
in that process.  In particular, the County apparently sees no parking
problem in Eastsound, and has refused to implement the EPC¹s suggestion
for parallel parking along Prune Alley to alleviate it.  Instead, we are
told that we can post two-hour parking signs!  That is some strange idea
of rural character!  What¹s next?  Parking decal machines?

It¹s not too late to let County Council know that we are a rural island
and want to stay that way.  That we should be looking at rural solutions
to rural problems, not the latest engineering ideas from King County.  If
you have concerns about any of these issues, please come out and speak tot
he Council on Tuesday.

Peg Manning

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