Hello,

I want to keep you informed about what I am doing at the County Council. Here are three subjects I have been working on.

Rural Tourism

Good jobs should always be front and center. Many jobs can go away or move, but not jobs tied to the beauty of a river or the Cascade Mountains.

Outdoor recreation is a big driver for our local economy. Last year, $2 Billion was spent on outdoor recreation in Snohomish County. Nearly 15,000 jobs are tied to the sector. I am working with a group of people to tell visitors about our wonderful Sky Valley and encourage them to visit, to spend money here, and to use the river that connects our communities like a string of pearls.

The Skykomish-Snohomish River Valleys Rural Tourism Workshop series started in March with visioning and planning sessions. The communities of Skykomish, Index, Gold Bar, Sultan, Monroe, Snohomish and Lake Stevens met monthly for day-long workshops covering Agriculture and Culinary Tourism, Small Town Experiences, Adventure Travel and Outdoor Recreation - topics selected by the communities.

The goal of the workshop program is to empower area leaders, electeds, businesses and non-profits with planning tools to develop these focus areas and increase sustainable tourism programs for their communities and region.

For additional information about the sessions visit www.Snocotourismworkshops.org. The series is an initiative of the County Strategic Tourism Plan.

Fireworks

I have put forward legislation that would allow residents to petition the county to designate their neighborhood a no-firework zone. Many people have said they want a complete ban, but I also hear from folks in my area who really like a lot of BOOM, so this is an attempt to find a way for people to work with their neighbors to figure out and implement the will of the neighborhood.

Here is an article in the Herald and an editorial on the same subject.

I would like to know where you are on the subject.

Drug Take Back Program

I voted to implement a drug take back program in my role as a member of the Snohomish Health District Board. The program will require pharmaceutical companies to provide collection options for consumers to dispose of unused prescription drugs.

A third of all prescription drugs including opioids never get used, that’s a third that are a potential threat to end up on the street and can be the path to addiction and heroin use.

The Partnership for a Drug Free America reported that 73 percent of teens said it was easy to get prescription drugs from a parent’s medicine cabinet. We need to provide a safe, secure, environmentally sound way for people to dispose of those drugs and this take back program is a good step.

In 2014, 28 police stations around the county collected 8,000 lbs of prescription drugs and this program will improve on that success.

For more information you can visit the Health District’s pharmaceutical stewardship webpage.

If you want more information on any of these ideas, please contact me at your convenience.