December 2009 Meeting

State Representatives Anderson and Rodne

By Peter Rimbos, Corresponding Secretary

On Monday, December 7, the Greater Maple Valley Area Council held its regular monthly meeting. Our major topic was the Washington State Legislature with special guests District #5 Representatives Glenn Anderson and Jay Rodne. Your Area Council serves as an all-volunteer, locally elected advisory body to the King County Council representing all rural unincorporated area residents living in the Tahoma School District.

Sheriff's Precinct-Level Community Involvement Program

Major Dave Germani Commander of the Sheriff’s Southeast Precinct #3 held his Quarterly Forum to both listen to issues from the public and provide feedback. At tonight’s discussion Major Germani introduced Captain Scott Summers to discuss the Precinct’s planning for potential flooding in the Green River corridor due to detected weaknesses in the Howard Hansen Dam.

Captain Summers described details of the planning effort and its focus on the original concerns voiced by the Army Corps of Engineers. Fortunately, the current estimate by the Corps is a much reduced risk of a major flood event--primarily due to repeated grouting of weaknesses found in the base of the dam. That said, Captain Summers stated planning will continue to ensure public safety should emergency measures to evacuate become necessary.

A survey was done to identify potentially affected residences. The survey identified ~250 potentially vulnerable residents in the upper and middle portions of the Green River. Another ~90 residents in the lower portion of the river, at a lower risk than the aforementioned residents, also were identified, along with potentially affected businesses. All have been contacted and provided safety information in the event of a major flood event.

Click here for the King County web site for all Green River valley flood information.

Washington State Legislature Update

Legislative District #5 Representatives Glenn Anderson and Jay Rodne provided an update of key issues facing the state during the upcoming legislative session with a particular focus on the budget.

Representative Rodne (R-North Bend) serves on the House Transportation Committee. He described the SR-169 (Maple Valley Highway) Route Development Plan completed in 2007. It identified ~$300M of potential improvements between Renton and Enumclaw. Unfortunately, Representative Rodne explained that with the main source of funding for highway projects (gas tax receipts) way down, major projects such as the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the SR-520 Floating Bridge are taking all available monies until at least 2016.

Area Council members asked about potential transportation impacts of two massive developments proposed by Yarrow Bay in and around Black Diamond. Representative Rodne stated, if those proposals go through, Yarrow Bay should be required to mitigate the impacts to comply with Transportation Concurrency requirements. More information regarding the Yarrow Bay proposals can be found here under “Documents.”

Representative Anderson (R-Fall City) described the Operating Budget. In the upcoming session legislators will be dealing with a projected $2.5B deficit caused primarily by the ongoing recession which has resulted in greatly reduced tax receipts and has increased need for public services. The Governor is required to submit a balanced budget in early December as a starting point for the appropriate Legislative committees. Representative Anderson is concerned draconian cuts will be required that could cause the legislature to consider a tax package. Both representatives felt this was not a good time to pass such a package, but that the massive cuts required will hurt many people.  Representative Anderson stated there are no easy ways to solve the budget problems.

Area Council members asked a variety of questions about proposed fee increases related to reseller permits, car tabs, and wprkers’ compensation insurance premiums. Both representatives agreed each of these concerned them as well.

Further information on the upcoming legislative session can be found on the Washington State Legislature’s web site .

Area Council Elections and Citizens’ Advisory Survey

In odd-numbered years the Area Council conducts elections to fill its 16 seats. Members serve 4-year terms which are staggered so that half are contested every 2 years. In addition, the Area Council conducts an Advisory Survey to gage citizens’ opinions on a variety of important matters.

This year’s election has just been completed and results, including those from our Advisory Survey, will be published in an upcoming issue of the Voice, as well as be posted on the Area Council web site (past results already are posted). In addition, Advisory Survey results will be provided to and reviewed with King County officials.

The Area Council thanks all rural unincorporated area registered voters for taking the time and  showing their interest by participating in this year’s election and survey.

Council Business

Area Council Ravensdale member, Gordon Moorman, provided details of a proposed large fill operation east of Ravensdale. Erickson Logging, owners of the Ravensdale Ridge property (just south of the Post Office between the Silica Sandworks and Black Diamond), has filed applications with King County DDES to use some of the old open coal mine trenches on their Ravensdale Ridge property (where they have been logging the last couple of years) to deposit fill dirt.

It appears the proposal would involve trucking in ~450,000 cubic yards of dirt, and depositing it in eight different trenches over an area covering approximately 16 acres. The first phase of this project (the proposal is for two phases) would involve ~30 tandem truck-trailer trips/day, 6 days/wk from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM (9:00 AM - 7:00 PM on Saturdays) for a two-year period. The second phase of the project is estimated to be over three times as large as the first phase!

The Area Council voiced a variety of concerns with this proposal including the aforementioned transportation issues. These included: quality of the fill dirt to be transported and deposited and potential detrimental changes in drainage patterns and impacts on local waters caused by the fill operation. Pending further research by Gordon, the Area Council decided to prepare a comment letter to DDES due by close of business Thursday, December 17. For more information please see: http://your.kingcounty.gov/ddes/notice/noa/L08CG060%20REISSUED%20SEPA%20NOTICE.htm.