Briefings - Apr 12

Tim was absent today for the briefings.

• ADAGE was never mentioned in more than two hours of briefings. Amazing that Community Development, Utilities, Public Health, and Public Works were all briefing Ross and Lynda at some point but ADAGE never came up. Go figure.
• Mark your calendars. A joint meeting of Port, City, PUD3 and the County will be held on Apr 28 at 10 am. Maybe ADAGE will come up at this meeting.
• The budget was briefed by the Auditor's office. Lynda stated that budget was sound except for outstanding union contract negotiations. Ross says Tim is going to be proven wrong - the glass is in fact half full. To which Lynda added there will be no double dip recession as predicted by (my words follow) the absent commissioner who has a degree in economics.
• Public Works (Charlie Butros) briefed that he and his fellow department heads are recommending the county phase in the implications of marine recovery area as defined by state law. Instead Mason County will identify marine "sensitive" areas which will be less restrictive giving the county greater flexibility. And then out of the blue, Ross asked the key question: does this meet state muster? To which Charlie Butros replied: yes the state understands. Say what, Charlie?
• Utilities (Emmett Dobey) told the commissioners that there has been some hysteria in Belfair regarding dirty water disposition by the BWWTF contractor. The public unnecessarily got Department of Ecology involved. Names of these citizens were called out at this briefing today in response to the request of the commissioners. I won't repeat the pesky citizens' names here. But if your ears are ever burning on Monday mornings, it could be someone is talking about you especially if you have spoken up about something that you think is wrong. Go you, pesky citizens!
• Emmett deserves a direct quote in my blog posting today. Belfair Waste Water Treatment Facility construction is "on budget". We'll be keeping an eye on this for you, Mason County.
• The Landfill/Transfer Station has seen an increase in revenue somewhere around $20K Emmett reported with a note of optimism. Ross then says: so can we increase the hours the facilities are open? To which Emmett replies: don't recommend increasing the hours and we may want to cut hours even further. That optimistic note sure wore off quickly.

That's all Mason County. You gotta love it.