Letter to the Editor: Park and Rec District Essential

We would like to encourage you to vote for the Park and Rec levy (located at the very end of this year’s ballot).

As you probably know, the County, because of its own significant budget challenges, is withdrawing all financial support of Orcas Rec over the next week.

Orcas Island’s five elected volunteer commissioners have spent the better part of 18 public meetings over the past year listening to Orcas residents’ concerns and priorities.  We feel strongly that we’ve come up with a sustainable model that is modest in it’s request and efficient in its mission, guaranteeing the future of so many programs that we feel are essential to the well being of many of our citizens, particularly our younger ones.  Should you want to know more, go to our website at OrcasParkAndRec.com.

In most communities in which we grew up had a Park and Rec district – I’m guessing yours did too – it wasn’t considered ‘icing on the cake’ when we were kids, but rather an essential part of community to provide positive, healthy extracurricular activities and well maintained spaces.  At an average cost of under $5/month, we think it’s a reasonable and worthy investment.

Kids can’t vote, so it is up to adults to do our best for them.  Buck Park, a generous gift to Orcas’ residents, is going downhill and needs maintenance.  The school, with its own well-known budget challenges, has limited funds to spend.   Valuable, well used and time tested programs that have taken years or even decades to develop through the efforts of generous donors and tireless volunteers are in jeopardy.  A modestly funded coordinating body through which we can provide insurance and organization at a central location simply makes sense.

We encourage you and your friends to get out and vote.

Thank you,

Martha Farish, chair; Bob Eagan, Jim Bredouw, Ian Lister and Vicky Vandermay