Letter to Editor | Paulsen’s dedication, pragmatism, community values, thoughtfulness and hard work make him best candidate

We are voting for Justin because he gets things done and we hope you will vote for him too.  We are so impressed with the hard work Justin has done for the County as chair of the Ferry Advisory Group working with the County Commission to get us to a point where the State has finally acknowledged the seriousness of the transportation woes faced by our islands and made $1.5 million dollars available to create an interim solution.  Justin has also been a member of the group that brought us the invaluable water taxi service to save the day when the ferries go down.

Justin has also served as a Parks Commissioner for Orcas Island for the past 10 years and helped our island create beautiful new pickleball courts, a new dog park with separate facilities for large and small dogs, and new dugouts for the softball and baseball teams.  And he did all of this without raising the Park District’s levy by bringing together service organizations to assist with part of the work, saving our taxpayers thousands of dollars.

He is always willing to help a neighbor and pitch in on a worthy cause.  Many people and businesses have been the beneficiaries of his dedication to providing high value, affordable solutions to problems.  We experienced this firsthand when our Health Care District learned our central skylight could not be reused when we were putting a new roof on our primary care clinic.  Justin came up with a solution that was elegant, timely and within budget.

When we heard Justin speak at this season’s candidate’s forums, he impressed us with his thoughtful response to questions about the issues our island communities are dealing with.  He has clearly given enormous thought to how our islands can best prepare for the future, whether it be our changing climate, our growing population, the impact of tourism on our resources and infrastructure, or keeping housing affordable for the service providers who make life on these islands possible.

It is this combination of dedication, pragmatism, community values, thoughtfulness and hard work that we think makes Justin the best qualified candidate for position #2 on the County Council.