The Greater Maple Valley Area Council serves as an advisory body to the King County Council. It represents all unincorporated area residents living in the Tahoma School District. On Monday, June 5, the Area Council, at its regular monthly meeting discussed the following topics: (1) Avian Flu Preparations and (2) Siting of a New Tahoma School District Transportation Facility.

Avian Flu Preparations

Ms. Caren Adams of the Seattle-King County Department of Public Health (DPH) discussed preparations for avian flu. Avian influenza type A viruses have been found in over 40 species of wild and domestic birds, and avian cases occur every year throughout the world. Avian influenza viruses are shed in the fecal droppings, saliva, and nasal discharges of some wild birds and infected domestic poultry. Contaminated water is a common source of infection for birds. Ms. Adams stated an influenza pandemic happens when a new subtype emerges that has not previously circulated in humans. For this reason, avian HSN1 is a strain with pandemic (i.e., worldwide) potential, since it might ultimately adapt into a strain that is contagious among humans.

Concerns were raised recently when human-to-human transmission occurred in an Indonesian family. Such transmission indicates this strain of avain flu influenza could grow into a pandemic similar to the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed over half a million people in the US alone. Ms. Adams indicated bird-to-human transmission is not as large a concern in the US because we do not suffer from two main pandemic symptoms present in Indonesia: lack of proper sanitation systems and less-than-effective health-care organizations. Ms. Adams also stressed we must be better prepared for emergencies, in general, including earthquakes. For current avian influenza information from the World Health Organization please click here. For avian influenza information from a public health perspective from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) please click here. Finally, for the DRAFT Response to an Avian Influenza Outbreak in Birds from the Seattle-King County DPH please click here.

Tahoma School District Transportation Facility Siting

Area Council chair, Dick Bonewits, invited TSD Superintendent, Mike Maryanski, to discuss recent decisions made on siting a new 20-acre transportation facility in the Rural Area. Mr. Maryanski provided some history on various TSD properties and plans for a new facility to house and maintain school buses. TSD properties considered for such a facility have included: a location on Petrovitsky Rd near Shadow Lake School in the unincorporated Rural Area and two locations within the City of Maple Valley: 231^st St SE near the Sheriff’s Precinct and near Four Corners behind the Goodwill store.

As we understand the sequence of events, TSD initially chose to pursue the Petrovitsky property, but found it not to be economically feasible. Later, TSD decided to pursue the 231^st property (now S&S trucking) and went through a long, but successful, eminent domain process. However, near the end of that process, TSD was approached by the City of Maple Valley and the Chamber of Commerce, told of long-term commercial plans for that property, and encouraged to no longer pursue it. TSD then again looked at the Petrovitsky property, enhanced by some incentives form the City of Maple Valley and the Chamber of Commerce.

The Area Council takes issue with this process for two reasons: (1) the Area Council was not consulted about a decision to site a large facility in the unincorporated Rural Area and (2) the apparent deal making by the City of Maple Valley on an issue of much wider concern than the city or its residents. It should be noted that a significant tax base would be lost to the city should urban sites be pursued by TSD, which, as a public school district, does not pay property or sales taxes.