Good morning. I call this
session's scheduled County
commissions to
order JULY 7th
,
2026, a little
after 8:30 in
the morning, please join me in
the Sutar flag
. I
pledge
allegiance to the
flag of the
United
States
of America and to
the republic
for which
it
stands, one
nation
under GOD
,
indivisible with liberty
and
justice
. We expect Commissioner
Burns in a few minutes
, so we
will get started. We
are
here
with the
um Public
Works
and
the what do you
call this
, the
tag
, the
Quimus
Island
Ferry
Replacement
Project
Technical
Advisory Group
. Um
go ahead
.
Good morning
, commissioners
Is
it on
? Yeah. Oh, ok
Sorry
.
Marie Lambert, Assistant
Public
Works director. We're here
today for
a
presentation from
Sandy McKeon
, the chair of the
Temporary Technical
Advisory
Group
, formed
last fall
to
evaluate
the
gleamous
ferry
replacement options
. The 9
members
9
member
group
meant
monthly from
NOVEMBER
2025
through
JUNE
2026
. Captain
Rachel Rowe
, myself
,
facilitator Hilary
Wilkin
Wilkinson and her
assistant
Claire
Morder
also
attended
.
The
tag
was tasked
with
providing recommendations for
replacing
the
current Guimus
Island
ferry
, a written report
will be
submitted to the
board
by the
end
of
AUGUST. I
will
turn
this over
to Rachel
Rowe
for
a
brief description
of
the
history of
the
ferry
replacement project
. Good
morning
, commissioners, and
good morning
teg
members
. Um
,
you're gonna hear from
Sandy
McKeon, the chair of
the tag
,
uh, but before that, I just
wanted to give
a
brief project
update
. Um, kind of
talk about
how we
got here
. The discussion
of
replacing Skagit County's
ferry really began back
in 2013
We hired
Elliott
a
Design Group
to
do
uh a
replacement study.
They
determined that out of
3
options
, uh immediate tenure
and
20-year
intervals
for
replacement
that
an
immediate
replacement
was
preferred. Uh
,
it
was
the
most
economically
viable choice for the county at
the time
. It
wasn't
until
2017
that
we hired Gloucton
and
previous to that, we had heard
a
lot
of
ideas about all
electric
tech technology uh
brought to us
as an option for
our
replacement ferry
. Glasson
was hired with
the intent
of
designing an
all-electric
vessel to
replace the
current
diesel power ferry
that we have
They
worked on that design for
quite a
while
and
finally
in
2023, we went out for a
bid at
the end of the
year for the
new
vessel
. In JANUARY
of 2024
, the
commissioners rejected those
bids. They did come in higher
than
the engineer's estimate.
Uh
, the vessel
, uh,
construction bids came in at 23
to
$24 million
. At the
same
time, uh, some of our
funding
,
which
totaled
about
35
million
potentially
at
that point
was
in jeopardy, with
24
million
being from
the
cca and
the cca
going for
a
vote
in NOVEMBER
of
2024
to possibly
uh be repealed
meaning
we
would
potentially
lose $24
million in
funding and
the
cca is
the Washington
State
Climate Commitment Act
funding.
Yeah
, we
, we received that
through the Move
Ahead
Washington Act
and two
separate
installments
. Of
14
and then
10
million
, uh, which the 10
million was
subject to that
vote in NOVEMBER
of 2024
. The
um, the voters voted in
NOVEMBER
of 24. It
did not
get
repealed
. But we
did not go
back
out for
bid
, rather
, the
board decided that they
wanted
to
give
um the citizens of
voice in
the project at the
time
, there
were concerns about
the
all-electric replacement
,
uh, technology specific to
the
charging arm
, its size
, its
cost
, it's complexity
. And so
,
uh, the board
elected
to form
the
temporary advisory
group to
give you
a recommendation
. Uh
,
they were
informed
of
uh
project
history
timeline. We
went over
the initial design
.
We went over all of the
different
propulsion options.
They
really spent a lot of
time
volunteering their time on this
group
, digging into the work
that's already
been done
and
thoughtfully creating
a
recommendation that you're
getting
here today
. Again
,
they're going to produce
our
final
advisory report at
the
end
of AUGUST
. You
did receive
today
an
executive summary
, as
well
as
um another document
containing
the
propulsion
options that
they
looked
more
thoroughly yet. And with
that,
unless you have
any questions
about
the project itself, I'll
turn
it over
to
Sandy McKeon to
give
his presentation of the
tag's
recommendation.
Commissioner Browning, do you
any questions
? Not yet
All
right, Sandy, you're up
. Rachel
So
, uh, there was
a
bioengineering on
the
Glasson
thing, that
report, when's it
coming
or
what's the story on
that one
? Yes
, we
, uh, did a
value
engineering workshop
in
APRIL
, we
are working
with
a
consultant now
to finalize
the
study
. We're working
on
updating
cost estimates
, and
we
should
have that
report by the
end of
AUGUST as
well. So
at
the same
time you get
the
tag
recommendation, you'll also
see
the
value
engineering
recommendations
. The
value
engineering is just on
an
all-electric
type of
ferry
,
correct? The
value engineering
looked
at
the all-electric
uh
design
as
a base
. Uh
, several
ideas and
proposals
were
generated surrounding
different
alternatives
and
options
for
your consideration
. Um
so yes
,
it focused on
all electric
as
the base design
. Thank
you
.
Thank you very much for the
committee being here
. We
really
appreciate
that and
all your
time and effort and
the
knowledge
that this group
brought together. It
was
really
important
to have was
quite fun
actually in a lot of ways
, uh,
we had
a good
group and
with
lots of
different perspectives
,
and I
think we're
pretty proud
of what we came
up with, and we
hope
it's useful to you
. Um
uh
before we start
, uh, uh, is
there anybody on Zoom I'm
just
interested
if
other
committee
members
. Uh-huh
, I can't see it
I think I
see Becca
Fong
, I
think
. Ok. Good, good morning
,
guys. I can join you for just a
little bit. Andy
, thanks for
being there in person, and
I
can't see who else is in the
room either
. Alan
and Ryan
are
here
. Thanks
, Ryan
, and thanks,
Ellen, for being there to
represent
. Ok
. Just real quick,
it
looks
like Jonah. Might
be
online because sometimes. Yeah,
I expected Jonah
. He's
iPhone.
Jonah, are you with us
? Oh
, I
see
it right here
. Jonah
is
a
tugboat captain, and he spends
a lot of time there
, so he
, he
was in our meetings
often
by
Zoom because he
was
anchored
someplace, which was sort of
appropriate for our
group
, uh,
but anyway, good morning
, uh
. I
think most people in this room
know me because
I've been
involved with the
ferry for a
decade or
so
or
more except
Joe
who's not
here yet
. Let's see,
I just have
to push these
buttons, right
? Ok
ok
, well
, we
were created as a
technical
advisory group
, uh, by
resolution, which
the numbers
there
. And asked to do
these
things
, uh, that to
in
fact,
let me just sort of
say one
thing. There's sort of a
a
feeling of some of the things
that were said just this
morning that we were looking at
a
complete
set
of
options for
a
new
ferry
. Actually, what we
focused on, because it
makes
sense when you work
through
it
was what, looking at
the
alternative propulsion options.
That's
really
what's
key in
terms
of
size
or capacity
,
things
like that
are
well done
and
probably
quite
useful from
the
Gloucestton design
from
years ago
, so
the
propulsion is
really
the key thing
. And so
we
were to
look
at these
things
according to you
guys in
your
resolution
, uh, and
so those
are the
, the options that we
looked at
. We
were defined to
be
a nine-member group
Good
morning, Joe. My
name is
Sandy
McKeon. Apologies for being
late. No problem
. Thank you
. Um
we
just started
. Um
and
5 of
the
members were to be
residents
of
Guaymas Island
,
and
4
representatives from
Skagitt County
, uh, not living
on the island, although some of
that's changed since
since
since, since the resolution
was
passed. Uh
, but
the four
representatives are really
to
be
focused
on
more expertise in
the
maritime industry
. Such
things as in fact we
did cover
these things um
. Operating a
vessel in these
local
waters
.
We
have
one
member
, Corey
, who
was the
marine
Delivery Service
We know
, we know
him as
what
we'll get
into that in a
moment
the
things you can read there
,
naval architecture, and
then we
had county membership
. We've
already said
that here
this
morning, and we
have
some
consultants
. Uh
and I
just make
it an aside, by the
way
, I
thought
the
consultants did a
terrific job. They
work with us
all the way through and
really
facilitated the
whole
thing. So
it's really
a compliment to
you
three because
here at
the time,
I guess
, but
uh because you
picked those
consultants, I
think you did
an
excellent job
.
See
My, my
way of thinking
,
these buttons work
. Backwards,
so I'll keep doing
that
, I'm
sure
. Um
, so here
are the
members of
the
tag
, uh, Paul
Becker, who's a
naval architect
uh Allan
Bush is here
with us
as one of the
GAMus members
,
Becca Fong
, who
you heard was
on
Zoom
. Corey Jost
, that was
,
that's the
uh San
Juan
Marine
Freight
. Whose
runs
a
barge on
the on
these waters
. And
he's
sort of a
, a savior to us
on
Glamis Island. You
probably
know that when the ferry
has
problems, he's
the guy
at
midnight, it doesn't matter
. He
gets us
off that
island
and
back
, so he's kind of a hero
to
us
. Um
myself
, my
background
was, is
, management
consulting
and
project management
which
is
kind
of
why I think I became
the chair
. I
didn't have the
expertise
the
rest
did
. Uh Ryan
Monahan
, who's here with us
,
who works
for PACar and
has
worked
specifically
on
doing
electrification of
power
trains
on
large vehicles, so
a
great
big truck and
a ferry are
not
so different from each other
.
Um
Adam Paul, who
is
in this
area and builds boats
. Jonah
Patrick
, who's baby with us
on
Zoom, as I said before, he's
a
tugboat captain, and Tom
Fouts,
who lives on the island
, who
has a lot
of experience in
the
maritime
and as
aeronomical
industries in
terms
of large
machinery and engines and
diesels and how all
that works
.
So this is a
very busy
slide
.
I'm not
, I'm not expecting
you
to read
this particularly,
although
I highlighted some of
the
more
important parts
, um,
these in the
next
slide
represent
the
6
propulsion
options that we looked
at
, ok
?
And
one of
the first things
that we
uh
um
so to
get this
right here
. One of the first
things we had to deal
with was
the
terminology. When
you say
diesel hybrid
Ron
, you might
think of
one thing, and
I might
think
of another
, and
Alan here
MAY
think of another
. It's, it
gets
confusing even to the
industry. If you
read
articles
or
hear
presentations
, um, you
,
you
find out
after 5
minutes of
discussion
, you're talking
apples
and
oranges
. And we
, we
struggled with that for a
couple
of meetings
, uh, and
finally decides, you know
, we
really needed to
find this
clearly
, and that's part of, I
think
, the value
of
these
, uh,
it's on two slides here
, but
you have it on one
page
in
your
packet, and the reason
I
included that in
your
packet
is
not for
this presentation so
much, but as you
think
through
this
or read
the report
in
AUGUST
, um, you'll have
this
to
refer to
. It's I
can't
stress
enough to keep
it
straight.
What you mean
by
plug-in hybrid
What
you
mean by
diesel hybrid
,
and
the industry has some of
the
same problem in
terms of
keeping these
terms straight
.
Uh, we kind
of settled on
these
a lot of it came out
of
Glaston's work. It's very
similar to
what
Glaston did and
also other
industry sources
. Uh
Now there's
cer
certain things
the
sort of common
to all
of
these
and they're the kind of
key characteristics of
of
them
that that maybe you can't
keep
in top
of
mind
. And one
is
,
it's really only
two
practical
energy sources
. So
you know,
the energy
has to come from
somewhere, right? It could be
compressed natural
gas. It
could
be
diesel
, but really the
only practical ones that
come
down to in terms
of here
in
Skagitt County would
be diesel
and electric
. There's
depressed
natural gas
. There's hydrogen
,
there's things like that
are
being used
, usually
not
very
commonly used in
the industry
,
but
we just one
of the
things
that
we
can't
concluded
was
those things are just
not
practical for
the
foreseeable
future. They're
just not
available
in this area
. If
you
see the
word
diesel in any of
these six
propulsion options
.
That
means
diesel
is the source
of
the energy
that
is
diesel
is
pre, not
, not
100% usually
but
or often
, but
that's what's
driving the boat. That's where
the energy's
coming from diesel
If you see
the
word
hybrid,
that means there's a battery
in
there someplace
So
, uh
, that
helps to distinguish between
these things
. Most
of
the
options, even
if
they're diesel
often have generators
on
board
and that's
for
backup
reasons
and
but certainly uh
one
of
the
options that's
um let's
say,
this is one of the
slides
that
we had two
different pieces,
sets of
software doing this and
they, they
didn't
quite
translate, so this
slide went
off the edge here
, but
, um, in
the diesel
hybrid
, for instance
um
, the diesel
is
providing the
energy
through a
generator and
the
electricity goes and drives
the
boat
through an
electric
motor
. So those
are the things
that
are highlighted, for
instance, a
plug-in
hybrid is
the power
is provided
. Through
an
electric motor, and there's
a lot of
electricity
being used
and often is
the primary energy
source
. Others here
say
diesel
mechanical, which is
the
definition
which is the way you
would describe
the
current
Weymouth ferry
, the
powers
provided mechanically to
the
propeller
. Solely by
diesel
engines, so
there's no
generator involved, although
there might be one
on board
.
This is
you know, too busy to
see
really here, but
in
the
report when
you get it at the
end of
AUGUST
, we included, and
most of this came from
Boston,
by the way, done
years ago
, uh,
a schematic of
each of
these
now
. Just
reading
this
, say
it's kind of hard to keep in
mind and it's easy to
get
confused
, but it
the
graphic
here really helps with that. So
I encourage
you when you look
at
the report to look
at these
,
uh, a lot of
this makes sense
when you look at the
the
schematic. You can
see where
the generators
are
, where they
feed into
In
this case, it's a
plug-in hybrid
. There's
electric motors
. So
in
your
resolution you asked us
to look
at
these
6
propulsion options
.
Using these criteria
. And we
dropped a couple of them and
you'll
see why and we added
a
couple
, but
there are
in
the
end
9
evaluation criteria
. So
if you're trying to decide, I
mean
, basically our
task
was
of
those
6
propulsion options,
which one will
we recommend to
you
? Or perhaps
a
couple of
them perhaps if that made sense
which I think as we went
along
we decided
that we really need
to get
to
one
because handing
you two
different options
, just
you know
, passes the buck
to
you. So that's
our job
, so we
really
worked hard to
get
a
single option
. These
, the
first
thing we did
when we got to
this
evaluation phase
was to
rank
these 6
. 9
criteria
. That
we would use
to evaluate the
6
propulsion options
. So these
are
in the
order that we came
to. We did a
little
exercise
where
we
all, uh
, through
a
process
prioritize these
9
options
, and this is the
the
,
the
, the
groups
this
decision
of the importance of each one
of those
, so
capital
cost
was
number one
. The
maintenance
cost
, the liability, and I
just
point out one of these
things
there. In fact, this came from
Ryan
, I think
, uh, really
struck
me
is reliability
. The
ferry service
is
a lifeline
,
not
a
luxury
, and that's the
name of
the game on
Glamis
Island. I'm sure you've heard
that from
many people
from Guay
misses
. It's
how we get to the
doctor. It's how we see our
family. It's
it's
, uh, it's,
it's
like a member of the
family
, that fairy
hunt
,
everybody who lives on the
island
, I
think, um
so
you
could
read
these
complexity
is
something
to
consider
.
Emissions
is
very
important
in
a sort of an
indirect way
. We
all would like to
help
with
emissions in the
world
, but
it
turns out, as I think
you well
know
, the
funders really
like
an
option that's cuts
back
emissions. I mean, just look
what's happening with
the
Washington State
ferry
systems
.
They're moving, trying
to
move
quickly to
electrify in
order
to reduce emissions
. Uh
, so
that becomes a
very important
thing as much for
the
environment or as much for
the
funding of
the
project as it is
for the environment
. The other
thing on
emissions are
the
newer engine, anything to
replace it
. The
standards are
dramatically different than
they were 40
years
ago
. The
engines today
have much
less
emissions
. But
from the, I
think the funding you've
had
already
, uh, and I what I
can
tell it's going to be that
way
for
at
least several
more
years
That's a, that's a hot
button
with the funders. They're still
going to want to see that. I
think one
of their
first
questions
would be, how do
you
help with admissions
with this
project
? So
we have
9
criteria
to
evaluate 6 options
. So how
do
we go
about doing that
? And
the
consultants really helped
us here in
many ways, but here
in particular. We were
kind
of
like, how do we put our
minds
around applying these
9
criteria
, these
6 options
. So
they came up with
a
scheme.
Again
, don't even begin to try
to read this
, but
the
point is,
we went through
a
process
where
vertically
there is
the
9
criteria
, and we had
a sheet
like this for
each one of
the
6
options
, and each one
of the
tag members
made
an evaluation
and
put a
number on each
. For
each of
the criteria, something
let's
say
maintenance costs or
life cycle costs
. How important
they thought that was
. And
then
we went through
a process where
we
crunch
these
numbers
together and
came
up
with a
and
again, don't try to read this
particularly, but the
point
is
that
the group at the bottom
there
where it
says
final total
that's how at
that we were kind
of
halfway through our
our
uh
process when we
got here.
That's how
we ranked
the
six
options
as
a group
and with
everyone's input and
it didn't
stay this way, by
the way
, but
they're not in order there, but
if
you look
at the
highest
number
is
diesel hybrid
. And
interestingly, I just point
this out
, you'll
see
why
the
lowest number is
plug-in hybrid
at
that stage
. And
I'll
just
jump ahead a
little there, but
the reason
that
happened
is
plug-in
hybrid was
very
desirable
, but Rachel
already
mentioned that
charging arm
was
just
a showstopper
. It
was
expensive
. It cost
a lot of
required a lot
of change to the
terminal area
. Uh
, it's
only
made
, as I
understand, still
,
Rachel, in one
country, Germany
I believe, is that right
? And
really there's
no technical
people here to
service
it
. So
all those things as we
discussed these really
brought
the numbers
down
for plug-in
hybrid
. But the
point
is we
went through
a
rigorous
objective process
to
try
to
evaluate the six
options using
the 9
criteria that you laid
out in
your resolution
. So
here
here, without
trying to read
all that
. Here's
the
, the
meaning of it. The
top
3
propulsions options, so we're
trying
to reduce the number of
things we're
looking at
was
mechanical diesel like we
have
now
. Diesel hybrid
and series
,
which is a
diesel
is the
, as
I
said before
, diesel means
that's the
energy source
, but
it
goes
through
generators
that
charge batteries
. The
word
hybrid means
there's
batteries
involved, that drives
electric
motors, but the energy is still
coming from diesel
and then
diesel electric
, which is a
little
bit different
. So
we
rejected
3
of them, 3 of
the of
the 6 and
and
these
the
remaining
three
were our
top
options. Ones we
rejected was
plug-in hybrid for the reasons
I just mentioned
. Uh
, the
diesel hybrid
parallel, that's
where you
have
both diesel
it,
it
has two
drive shafts. It's
,
it's used
in maritime industry
in certain
particular
applications
, but especially
the
maritime
people
uh on the
tag who
who
work in that
industry for a
living
, thought
that that would be just a
ridiculous
way to
do it for a
ferry like this, so that was an
easy one
. And
the last
one was
the lummy
Fay design
, as you
well know, Lummy
is going
forward with also doing a
new
ferry
like this, and
they're
using a
a
hybrid
design and
so
the idea of
including the
you
included it in
the resolution
of making it one of the options
is maybe we
could piggyback
with them and save
money and
effort and a lot
of things
by
somehow
um having a joint thing
or at least
working together,
but we, we
talked about that
quite a
bit because the
maritime
people on
the tag
could see how
much money could
be
saved by asking a boatyard
to build two boats
instead of
one
. And things like
that, but
we just felt that it was
too
complicated
. Their timetables
very different
than yours. Uh
,
and
we thought
the coordination
between the two counties would
be
almost impossible. You've
got your requirements
. They've
got theirs
. They're
fairy
writers
have
certain
priorities
that
they want
. We have
ones
and
trying to get
that
all
coordinated would just
be too
complex, we thought
. So
cause
I'm gonna head there a little
bit
. So
we sat
there with
those
3
and we
started discussing
pros
and cons, which of the
three would be our
top
recommendation
. And
at
the end
of our
MARCH meeting
just
before we close
for
the day
, um
Brian sitting here
App
, who
again works a pack car and
works
with electrification as
large vehicles. Made
a
comment
saying, you
know
, smaller
,
cheaper charging options
exist
today
. And when he
met by
today
was compared to
10
years ago
when
Gloucton did
its
preliminary
. Design
In
other
words, and that
, that we
all
walked out the door
. And
it
wasn't like, hey, I'm going to
announce this. It was
just
an
offhand comment he made
. But
some of us
started thinking
about that in
the
intervening
months before
the
APRIL
meeting
so
much of
, well
, basically,
all of
the rejection
of
the
tag
of
an all-electric
. Ferry was
because of that charging arm
.
And
we hadn't really thought, I
guess
, in
several years
. Is
that
technology still the
latest thing out there
? Well
so
we asked, actually, I
called
Ryan up
and asked him if he'd
give us a
quick presentation in
the
APRIL meeting of what
these
new options were
. He came
back
with a
terrific presentation
,
and it was
a
key moment
. In
the
tags operation
because because
it gave us a
whole
another
perspective
. This is what
today's
charging options could
look like
. You don't see a big
swinging arm
. These
are
charging stations
, not
so
undididididididididiet's say
hybrid car
. Uh
, they're
about
the size of
two refrigerators.
Would that be
about right
? Um
the difference is
uh, actually
,
I mentioned this a little later
but uh, ok, I'll say it
oh I
see, here we go
. So
, today's
technology
of smaller
charging
stations
eliminate
those
negatives of
the char, the
, the
all-electric option
being
too
expensive
the
big
infrastructure that's required,
I think it was
about
$10
million if I
remember
right
, of
the original thing was just
for
that
portion. Uh
I don't know
if we ever
solved that what do
we do with
handicapped parking
because of the changes to
the
terminal area that would
be
required
, things
like that
Uh
So
this kind of
demonstrates
how
far technology
because it
is a
fast moving
area, which
you
probably realize this
whole
electrification is not just in
ferry boats
or
cars or you know
it's
in so
many
things
today
,
battery technology
is
moving
quickly
, so it
shows you kind
of in
10 years
, about
10
years
,
how quickly
this can
change
from that big
swinging arm to
something
like this
. Uh
and
there's probably going to be,
and that's a key thought
that
we in
our conclusions
is
that
that change
to the
technology
isn't
isn't isn't slowing down
.
By some of the
members who are
working on
these things
, like
Paul Becker, for instance, who
works on trying
to electrify
boats here in
this
area that
it's hard for them to
even
decide to do something right
now because they know
in a year
or two it's going to change so
much
. Now you
can
futureproof
that
, but still
, he brought
that perspective to us
. So at
least
talking
about
today's
technology. What this
, if this
is what it looks like
. It
would
only
supply
the
the electricity
that would be
used on
, let's
say a month or a
year's worth
of operation
would
likely only
be 50
or 75% of
the
total
energy budget
. Uh
, if you try
to do what
Glaston did, which
works with a big swinging
arm
,
Glaston's criteria was
like
95%
of in
order to
reduce
emissions
as much
as
possible
of the
energy coming
from electric
. Uh
so
we
can't quite replace that
with these
two
refrigerators.
Uh
, but if we
brought
that
criteria
from
95%, so
this
isn't inconsistent with
Glaston
by the way
. Glawson did the
right thing
at that time
that
was when
the objective was
to
do 95%, but if
you lower that
objective
a bit, and then the
batteries get
smaller and so on
and so forth
. This
is what the
crew would
have
to do in
this
smaller charging
. Technology
and being the
commissioners,
you probably focus on a word
name cost
a lot
. You know, this
costs
like
10,000, not 10
million
. Uh
so
, and
you imagine
the boat
coming into
the
dock
after a
run
, is it
after it's
docked up, a
crew member would
just take this thing much like
he would do with
a
Prius and
plug it into the ferry, that'd
be it
. Uh
One thing
that
would
just be a, a, oh by
the way
,
these charging
stations would
need to be, if
you think about
it
located near the boat
.
Because
you've got a cord here
that's got to be plugged in
again like
a Prius
. So that
means
these charging stations
would have to be mounted on the
ramp or
something like that
So
that's just
a
technical design
thing that would have to be
worked out
. This is
weird
looking slide graphs, but this
is probably
the most important
slide of the whole presentation
This is how it would work
as
you're probably well aware
, the
well, I'll just say
it this way
the energy required
to propel
that boat depends a lot on the
sea state. So
if
it's calm, it
has certain
requirements. If
it's
bumpy
and stormy and windy
and
so
on
. It it
requires more
energy
, and
that's why there
are two graphs here. So
just
look at the top one there
. The
line that goes up is
when the
boat's at the dock being
charged. That red
line
is the
amount of
kilowatt hours
available in the
battery. So if
you look at
the top
, top
of
the
of the of
the
graph that's a
fully charged battery
, ok? So
as you run
the boat
the
down
lines are when the batteries
are
being
discharged to run the
boat across the channel
. When
it gets
back to
the Anacored
stock, it
gets plugged in and
it goes
back
up
. And of course
at
the noon break, if you look
there 11:15, there's a
big jump
up because there's
an hour
and
15
minutes there to
charge,
right
? So
that's
not so
different from from all
electric if you think about it
.
Not really
but
in
extreme
conditions and
other situations
if you look toward the end of
the day, the batteries
just
don't have enough. Right
? We go
below 0 there
. Well
this
which
is
called plug-in
, we're
calling it
our
definitions
,
plug-in hybrid. There are
generators on the boat
So
if
you're in that bottom, if it's
an
extreme weather situation or
some other situation
that
requires the
boat
to use
more
energy than typical
. When
you
start getting to whatever
you
decide to be, that's getting
too close now, which could
be
zero as you
see the end of that
bottom
graph showing
. You fire
up
the generators
and most of
the discussion in the
tag from
knowledgeable people
of
electrification in the marine
industry
. Recommend multiple
generators
. Small, each
one
being smaller
um, up to 4
even.
I don't know
if that makes
sense on the boat our size
, but
certainly 2
and there's a
couple of reasons for that
. One
is
generators
, as
most engines,
run most efficiently
at
a
certain rpm in
a
certain speed.
So if you're trying to vary
how
much your
output is depending
by varying the
speed
, you're
making that
generator
inefficient
. If you have, let's
say
3 generators
, it's much
better. You
can run
one
generator
at full speed. You
need more power. Run
the second
one
, maybe
do that
full
speed.
You see
what I'm saying
? So you
the generators
, you
vary
the
power
produced
by how
many
generators
are running
. Each
generator gets to run
near its
most efficient speed
. Also
this
provides a lot
of
redundancy,
certainly compared to the boat
we
have now
. If
I mean
, I don't
I should know this living on
the island for 15 years, but
uh
Rachel, if one of
the
engines
go out
. Is
the boat
out or can
you run on one engine
? Can't
run on one engine. No
. No
.
Physically you can, but Coast
Guard says you can't
. Isn't
that what it is? Yeah, I mean,
she
can get
back to shore
, but
right
? Yeah
, if you
lose one
engine
, you can
no
longer
operate to
carry
passengers
, um
you
can move
the vessel if
you
needed to
to a
repair facility.
On Coast
Guard gives you
that
approval, but yeah
, we're
out
of
service
. So
we
really we're
not dead on
the water is what
I'm getting at
. So it's
not.
Yeah, you
could move
it around
.
Yeah. But really
, the
ferry
service
that you're providing
for which we're very grateful
on the island, by
the
way. Uh
,
what would we do
without
it
?
Has no redundancy in it
, really
Uh
, you can't even lose one
engine. We certainly don't have
a
second boat. I mean, in this
situation, there would be
a
second boat either
, but
the
point
is if
the
, if you, if
there's no electricity for
some
reason
, the generators produce
the electricity
needed to run
the boat
. If
you got, if
a
generator goes down, you got
another generator
. So there's
there's a lot
of redundancy
here
that we don't have today,
and that's another big
advantage
. Another thing
is
the
industry is
definitely going
this direction
Um
There's
a
periodical for the industry
called Work Boat. I don't know
if
you're familiar with that
,
but uh it
, it
kind of is trends
in
the
industry. Here's just a
couple of quotes
again. This is
in the report
, so we
don't need
to
read them
, although
I've
underlined
. Kind
of
the reasons
you've got
fuel efficiency
,
minimize
emissions
, improved
performance
, um
that's
, that's
a lot of the
reasons
why the
industry
is going
in this
direction
. The second
quote is
kind of like
, hey
, everybody's
doing
this. The the
the
ferry
fleets built in the
70s and
the
80s are reaching the end
of
their service lives. That's
exactly the situation we're in
and people are
looking
at
electrification
and also
the
federal funds, as we
mentioned
before, often are looking for
lower emissions
. To
be awarded.
So
uh
if
Scatter County goes
this
direction, you're right in
keeping with where the
industry
is going
With
the proviso that
it's
changing quickly again
.
It's
and
I
read
several things
around
the
industry as we're
putting
this
together, where
people
are hesitant
to
move
now
because of the change that
might occur in 3 years from now
and yet they feel
the need
to
do it now, especially if
you've
got end of service
. Which is,
you know
, our
fair
is reaching
that too
. So
here's
the
recommendation
After
we
analyzed this idea
that Ryan
first mentioned of, hey
,
they're smaller. You don't need
to charge the arm
. You
can use
smaller batteries
. As long as
you
understand
this zigzag
thing
Um
and you
have
redundancy with
generators. So
after discussing that
, the
tag
changed if you
might remember,
we, we had
eliminated
the
options down
to 3
. Now
it
became
very clear again
,
interestingly
, that
plug-in
hybrid on
the
initial analysis
was
last
. Now it's
the first
.
It's all
about
that charging
her
. And cost
and
the
mechanical diesel is
the #2
option. So that's kind of where
we stood for
a while
. We had
quite a bit
of
debate
about
this
. And that's where we
thought, well, we, we
could
recommend to to
the
commissioners
. Here are
two
options
.. Between the two, but
that seemed like we
were
copping out to do that. So we
had a lot
of debate about
it
.
And then another
thought came
in
. Which is, if you think
about it, both
of these options
have a flaw
. The
plug-in hybrid
its flaw
is the
technology is
not really mature yet
It's
come
a long ways. You could
do
it
today, but according
to the
people like Paul
who work with
this all the
time
, and
Ryan
, uh
the next 5 years are
going
to
be
that's kind of gonna be
the
sweet spot
. We find
it'll
keep
improving, but we're past the
knee of the curve
then
something like 5 years from now
So the
technology just is
not
mature enough yet
. You could
do
it
but
you'd be better
off
waiting a while
. The
mechanical
diesel has
a problem
and that
is
once the existing
ferry
reaches its
end of life service
service life, what do you do
then
? If
you imagine the end of
service
our
ferry
is projected.
I mean
, there's no science to
this
, but to
be at the end of
its useful
service
in 2039
.
That's a
60-year life
. Most
boats we went
through this for
a while
, most boats in the
, in
the, in
the Puget Sound, which
is
a rough place to run a
boat.
Have a service life of about
4
years, but
it turns
out I
certainly didn't know this
, but
Rachel kind of gave us a
great
description of the history
of
this
, when the
boat was built
,
it
was built really
, really
well
. It's thicker
steel than
they'd
use today
, and
this
boat
we
all
felt comfortable
,
including
the
maritime people
on
the
tag that
this boat
really has
a 60-year service
life
. Better than most because
it was so well built to start
with
. But then you're going to
have to do something
, so in you
can't start the day of
the last
day of the
service life of the
boat
. So
let's
say in
2035
which
is
only what
7 or
8 years
from now
you're gonna have to
do something, you're
gonna
build another
uh
diesel-only
boat when
when the industry
says this
uh, 7 years from
now,
a lot
of these uh
maybe ifs
in
this quotes are going to be
gone. I think it's going to be
this is
the
way
. So
that's a
problem. Uh
, so either both
of
those options have
a flaw
. And
what
the
aha moment for us on
the
tag was what we ended up
calling
the
blended option
which is
if
you think about it
each of
those two options
solves the other's problem
So
if
the technology is not quite
mature enough now, you've got
to wait 5 years
. The
existing
boat gets you there
. If
we were
end of service right
now, what
would you do
? 7 or 8 years from
now when you're when you're
doing the
final pen, you know,
pen to
paper on this is what
we're going
to do
. I lost my
thought there for a second, but
the, the, the
point
is that
what
then
becomes where the
industry
is going
with a
plug-in hybrid
. So our
final
conclusion is
maintain the
existing ferry. It's in good
shape
All
the
surveys say that
it costs some money. You've
always taken some big steps
in
that direction with the
new
engines. Uh, I
guess
the
outdrives
are on
the docket,
right? Rachel
, that's
it's
not
approved, but it's
talked about
certainly, right
? I
should ask
you. I don't have an answer for
you on that
. Yeah. But that
would be a
major thing, but not
as big as the engines, right,
in terms of cost
. Up there
Yeah
you're
asking some pretty big
questions. Although, yeah, I, I
guess I kind of
, uh, I
remember
this discussion that
we
had
that it's not clear the out
drives
need replacement, right
?
It
, the
answer is, I think
it
depends on
when the end of the
service life of the ferry
is
going to be
. Ok
, so the
point
is
, certainly you're not out in
the woods
. You've
got decisions
to make, but
the
point is
to
maintain
that ferry
to properly
till it's
end
of service, which
is 60 years
. And
by
that time
the technology not
being mature
enough yet, the
problem will
go
away. So
uh we're
saying
maintain the
existing boat for
the next
few years
. Properly
and
then start the design
of a
new plug-in hybrid the way we
described it
with
smaller
charging stations and so on
.
Something like 5 years
, maybe 6
years from now
, something like
that, get that
process going
.
We figured it's probably, and I
think in
your experience, you
know, from when you say, hey
,
let's start thinking about it,
let's start doing something
about this
. It's probably 5
years before
the boat's on
the
water
. There
are
some other
considerations
and these are
things that
we thought weren't
um
directly
. In
the path of
coming up
with a
single
recommendation for you all. Oh,
by the way
, I should have
mentioned this for sure
. This
,
I underline that
word unanimous
The
tag unanimously supported
the splendid option
. Before
that, when we had
the two
,
which solve each
other's
problem
. We
had some
debate
about that and we weren't
unanimous
, but
this
splendid
option was something
we all
supported
unanimously
. So
funding
is
always an issue
, of
course
, but I
just put this
here. There are
these
other
considerations
. These are all
of this is
more thoroughly
uh
spelled out in
the report. The
report is basically written, by
the way
. It needs
some
more
editing and some additions
here
and there
, but it's
pretty much
done
. So
, uh
this is all
fleshed out in the report
. Uh
There's a lot of stuff
happening in terms
of
reliability of the technology,
but I've
kind
of implied that a
lot
that though
it's changing
this
. Um
the kind of
futureproofing things that you
have
to do are going to be a
lot easier five years from now
than they
are today
. We already
mentioned
Coast Guard, what
does
, what does the
Coast Guard
allow and what it doesn't,
that's
in flux
The industry
seems to feel
the
Coast Guard's
behind the times
. It's the
industry is ahead of
the
Coast
Guard in
this area, but
again
,
567 years from now, a
lot of
that will
be resolved
. And
then
there's a
very
key and
Alan
was
very uh uh
. Instrumental in
getting
us to
see this that
all
these things you're doing to
maintain the
existing boat,
let's say it has something to
do with the ramp or the
dolphins or something
like that
If
this is the direction you're
going to go
. What
you're
doing
today needs to be thought about
in terms of fitting with
where
you're going 5 or 6 years
from
now. So there's a
lot
of
futureproofing
basically every
project that you do on
the
existing boat
there
needs to be
a discussion as how does that
fit with our long range plan
?
And so you don't find out
, you
got to pull up
. Something and
rework
it because
nobody
thought of that. Bris
is a
good
example might be if you're
going to rebuild
the ramps
, and
I can't remember if that's on
the
schedule or not, is
it
Rachel rebuilding the ramps
?
The aprons, apron
. It's
on the,
it, it's
That's
what we
received the grant
funding for
,
and it's 5.8
million, is that
right, Tom? It's for
the
electrical
and
hydraulic
replacement on
the bridges
as
well as
the replacement of
the
aprons
. So
that's. That's a
terrific project, but we're
,
we're saying is
when
you do
that
project
, have the meeting
,
have the discussions
about how
does this fit with our
long-range plan
. Uh
so
bottom
line
we're
recommending to you
what we're calling the
blended
option, which is maintain the
existing ferry
well
, leading to
a
plug-in hybrid with this
more
modest
charging
thing
, and
we
encourage you to
adopt
that
,
and one reason I think we
would
all
we
who live on Guaymas
Island, you
as commissioners
.
Public works
, ferry crew
. I
think we'd all be
very happy to
say we know where we're going
.
This is
our plan, and we
are
recommending to you that this
be your plan
. So
I guess that's
it
. Now you got questions, I'm
sure
. Just thank you very much
for the presentation. I don't
know if Allan
and
, uh, Ryan, do
you wanna
, um
, add anything to
it at all
? I
mean, we
really do
appreciate all the time and
efforts put into it
. I
, I think
yeah, Sandy did
a great
job, um
I guess
some comments at the
,
uh, you really need to go to
the mic
get
him at home, be
able to hear it
. You might, you
might want to say more about
this. I think this
is the
key
operational
. Yeah um yeah
,
thank
you for
, uh, creating the
committee and I think we've had
some
really
great
discussions
and
um have all come to a
very
good
conclusion
here
Um
, as
Sandy said
, the
uh
the
information shared here
is uh
was
kind of
a
critical step for
a
lot
of
us to
realize that
an
all electric ferry would be a
challenge given the
infrastructure upgrades
, but
changes
to
charging
technology
using
the
current
infrastructure allowed
us to
,
uh, contribute
significantly to
emission reductions to put
things in perspective
, the
charger that
I put
as just
an
example is
about
1/6
the power
of
the
charging arm that
was
previously
considered
, so
that's
why it's
much
more
affordable and
reasonable and
feasible, I should
say
. Pugist
on Energy would like that more
too
because of the
load
. So
, um
and the tech
technology is well
established there
and continues
to evolve
and so yeah
, I think
uh several of us thought
that
you know
, in
5 years
, if we go
out to bid
for this
new
ferry
and planned
to have
, you know,
again, depending on how long
it
takes to get the bids
out and
build
a boat 8
to
10
years of
remaining life
for
the
current
ferry at would
be ideal
. The
technology will
advance
. We've
just repowered
the
current
ferry
, and so it
seems like
a
good timeline
, I think so
. And
I'm happy to answer any
questions about
the charging.
That was kind
of
my expertise
on the projects I've
worked on
recently, so happy
to answer
any questions there
.
Commissioner Browning, any
questions
on
that? No, actually
I really appreciate it. And,
you know, the difference
between your trucks and
the
ferry is you can pull over the
side of the road. We can't pull
over to
the side of the of the
ferry
, so, so
I really love the
the
, the
thinking behind this
.
It really is
nice and
, and I
did
not want to pull
away
from
electricity. I just
did not
want to go
fully
electric for
that
reason
. And so this has
really
helped
me
tremendously
listening to
all the options
you
have. I
really appreciate
the
expertise
we've brought
that was
brought together
, um
the
, um, technology with the
I
mean
yeah
, I love the, the
10
year
the
, the
10
years of kind
of grace while
we work towards
a
really good solution. It's
also
exactly what fits after
all the money we
just recently
put into it
going
to
run well
,
so everything you brought
today
is absolutely in line
with the,
how I've
been thinking
. I'm
not
smart enough to know all the
complexities
, but I still kind
of
heading the same direction
.
So I love it
. It's great. But
yeah
, thank
you. Thank
you for
all you bring to this because
that
really
is that that's
pretty much a game
changer when
you
realize
that
that arm
has
been really a problem
for
us
,
both financially
and
structurally
. At the time
when
Glaston did that, it made
sense
But that's the whole point here
The technology is
moving so
quickly
it probably
doesn't
make
sense anymore
. And
I think
even with the
changes in
technology, we need
the
redundancy that you brought
up
that is so important. We need
to have the
safety
valve
if if
one does not work
, if the to be
able to still get
to shore
, so
that
really is the big
difference in
all electric to
this, and
I'm real comfortable
with it
. Mr
. Burns
, any
questions on
? First, thank
you
all for the effort you put
in
.
Um, sounds like
a well-rounded
group you
brought
together and
uh I appreciate the information
that
you presented to us. I do
have a few
questions on, uh,
first, the
charger. This took
roughly equivalent to
the
automotive
uh tier 3
. Yeah
, it,
you know, a
lot of people think
of
Tesla chargers. The one I
use, this
is equivalent
to
the
highest powered
Tesla
superchargers. Ok
. Um
, so like
you wouldn't have this at most
,
even
retail outlets, because it
is pretty
high
powered, um, so
yeah, this has
a
360 kilowatt
rating
, the charging arm is
2
megawatt, you know
, at your
home, you're
getting 2
or
3
kilowatts, so
, um, it's
significant
, but
there's
many
manufacturers out there
, um,
there's
some discussion
of
going
up
to
800
kilowatts using
this
charging standard
. Um
, I
think the highest
powered
charger that you can buy
off
the shelf that I'm aware of
right
now
that uses
this
standard
as
450 kilowatts. What
if
we did like
a multi-battery
bank and then had a
charger on
each side or
two chargers
and
that speed
up
charging
and
absolutely
yeah overheat
. Uh,
you
can use
the
battery
management systems to manage
all
of
that
, but
I think the
reason I
just selected
one
charger
for
these
graphs is
the
constraints
from
pse
, um,
didn't get a
chance
to discuss
with
pse what is
actually
available. Ok
. Um
, thinking
about the Anchor Cove
Marina
being right next
door and the
fact that I think
probably
every
birth that marina has
a
30
amp or
50
amp outlet
.
There's
probably
a reasonable
amount of energy
available
, um,
but you'd need to
have
extended
discussions
with pse
about
what's
available
, um, but I
think
that also
goes to
the
future
proofing
that if
electrical
service
was improved
in the
future
, you
add another
one
of
these
360
kilowatt
chargers
. You
could
run
almost
100% electric a lot of
the
time
ok, what's
the maximum
cord
length on this? I'm thinking
about how
far away can
the boat
? Yeah, it's a good question
.
Um
, the
, uh, so
there's
,
there's
different standards
.
There's all in
one
chargers
where from the
charging
unit
that's like
that
refrigerator-sized unit to
the
outlet on
the boat
would be
2
to
3
m, so it's got
to be
pretty close, like at the end
of the
ramp. Ok
. There's
others
where you
can have
the majority
of
the
electrical equipment in
other cabinets and that's just
a
smaller dispenser at the end
of
the ferry
or the
ferry
dock
that could have a
longer cable
,
so there are
limits to that
. It
just
depends
on
which
charging
system
you use
. Has anyone set
it up where it's actually
on
the
, the
I
don't know
about
moving
ramps
. Um
, I saw one
example. I think
it was
in
Turkey
, where they
actually
had
20 of these
style
chargers
, all
on a
fixed
pier
so yeah
, the
moving pier makes it
a
challenge
, but
as I recall
, the
charger weighs somewhere
around
2000 pounds
, so
it's
not
extremely heavy
. Yeah
. Um
, what
is the max drawdown on
these
batteries because I see
that
they're showing going under
200
kilowatt hours. I
wasn't sure
what the max
draw down before
you're causing problems
with
the battery. Yeah, no, that,
that's a great
question
. I
didn't really use that in
the
analysis because it's such
a
basic analysis
right here
. Um
,
ideally, you know
, for some
people who might
drive
electric
cars. Um-hum
. You
try to
use
a
daily operational range of 80
to 20%
. So
you could
factor
that in and by sizing up
the
batteries a little bit. Um-hum.
To give you
more range
. Ok
. Um
I chose a
1
megawatt hour
battery or
1000 kilowatt
hour
battery, um, because I think
that had been discussed in one
of
the
earlier reports
, um
but
the
, uh, energy density in
batteries is improving
, so what
I
1000 kilowatt hour battery
MAY
have weighed 10 years ago
.
It's significantly reduced, so
you could size that
up
to
1200
kilowatt hours to give you a
little
more
flexibility
and
longevity
. Ok. Uh
, I can ask
more questions, but I'll stop
there and just thank you
for
the
review and
the analysis
of
this
. I
think that
the
recommendation put forward
makes a lot
of sense
. The
hybrid does give us lot
of
flexibility if there's ever
a
power problem, you know
, we
lose
power to
that station
.
It's very
easy to just kick on
the
diesel generators and run
it
, um, Commissioner Wheaton
was correct that
uh emission
standards have, have come a
long ways on these engines
,
although you can make them run
quite dirty. You
can also make
them very
clean
, uh, depending
on
the
emissions
outputs. You
you at Packard, I'm
sure you're
you're completely used to
dealing
with
those mission
systems as I
was where you
can
literally take the
exhaust
filters off and
wash them
. Um
,
and
, uh, helped capture quite a
bit of that carbon
that's
coming off
of it and
you really
just don't see
the same
type
of
mission
. So
, um, I'd
be
perfectly
comfortable with
,
with that type
of
propulsion
system being the backup
. And
making sure that we could keep
running it, especially
in
rough
seas where we're not
overloading the
boat
with
batteries to, you know
, weight
ratios and become an issue, I'm
sure at
some point
. So
, yeah
,
thank you
. Yeah. Yeah
, one
question I have on the
, the
batteries. I mean
, your
nice
graphs I I appreciate that, but
like
if you
had 3
or
4
generators and when it
starts
getting down
, you just
kick one
on
. If you
still need more
, you
kick
the second
one
and maybe
the
3rd
1, so you're
just still
using
the battery
, but
you're
adding
the generator to
get
the
electricity on it, that's right
? Yeah, that's
correct
. Yeah
,
yeah
Yeah, yeah yeah. Yeah, you
you, you know
, you'd
set
up
logic in
the
system
to say, ok
,
when we
get to
40% and we have
whatever
, 12
runs left in
the
day
. We're going to kick the
batteries on to make sure we
don't
drop
to 2%
, something
like
that, that can
all be
built into
the logic
and
on
the
redundancy, I understand, you
know, 2
or
3
generators
, 4
generators
there
, but
the
batteries
to redundancy
on that
they're complicated enough that
they
can figure out
what to do.
I mean, you
know more about
the
batteries
than I
do
, so yeah
,
I'm not
a battery
expert. I
I
have a little more
expertise on
the charging
side
, but there's
sale balance
balancing the
battery management system
.
Takes care of that in
the
software
, um, but
, uh, yeah
,
that's, it
is
quite
complex.
Yep, like you said
, the
technology keeps changing
, so
thank you very much for your
expertise to bring to the
committee. I
appreciate that
.
Thank you
. Allen, do you want
to comment
at
all or
Yes
,
thanks
for taking the
time
today to hear us
. Um
, I guess
the
main
thing would be
the
futureproofing
and
you
making
decisions regarding a new
ferry
if
we
are indeed
getting
a
new
bigger
homo cars
, more
people,
larger
. Um
we just
need to keep
in mind that it
is affecting
a
system
that
moves people to and
from Guimas and
that um if
we're gonna
. Discuss a parking
lot
that
accommodates, you know
50% of what we
have now
We need
to keep that in
mind so that
we're not
designing things
on
the system that
won't
accommodate
a desire
or
a
plan
going forward. So
if we're
looking
at aprons
, um, doc
dolphins, all that type of
thing. We need to
make
sure
that with
our
current
proposal
here
or idea
that
we're
accommodating an
old
ferry
that's 40
years
old and
that it
uh, anything we do to
the
system
is
uh open
to
change and
that
new ferry coming on
It
accommodates both at the same
time, so we're
not
obsoleting
our, our idea in
the
future or
um
taking anything away from
the current system, so if
sizes
and
shapes
and
and throughput
if we're
talking about a
schedule change
, reducing
uh
ferry service
, uh, that
kind of
goes against
a bigger
, larger
,
more
efficient
ferry
. I mean we
can
get into
fairs
even
if
we're experiencing
a
loss in
that growth of why we need a
bigger ferry or a
more
efficient ferry
, um, and we
don't have the
ridership
to
support it
. It
becomes
difficult to go out and
get
funding that
we're needing to
,
uh, you know
, funders and
saying
, hey, we
need
a
new
ferry
, and yet
we don't have
the
use
or
um we're doing
other
things within
the
system to
, uh
I
guess my marketing
.
Background
we've
got to sell
it
and so
uh we've got to keep all
those elements in mind on
the
system and make
sure
that we're
planning for the future
if this
is
the way
we're going to do it
because this is
an
expensive
endeavor, so
. Ok
, any questions
for Alan
? I forgot to mention
one thing that I found useful
looking at this
graph again
. If
you
think about technology, you
have
some
good questions along
these lines
, you know, what
happens when the
battery
is
getting low and so on and
so
forth
. If you look at this
,
let's just look at this
top
graph
. Let's
say
batteries
have
50%
more
capacity 4 years from
now
. Then what we'd be looking
at today
. If
you just take that
red line, well, I
guess it's
better to look at the
bottom
one and move
it up
. Let's
say
it's
got another
. 300
or
400
kilowatt
The effect on
these
lines is that it
just moves
them up. In other words, toward
the end of the day
, if the
capacity of the
batteries
improved
enough in the next 3
or 4 years
, it
would run out at
the end of the day
. So that's
one way to
look
at technology
for electrification with these
graphs
, that is, if
there is
more capacity in batteries
,
that red line just
goes up
.
Another
thing is if the
amount
of amps that you could push
down the
line to, to
charge,
that just means these
red lines
or
these
little jags that go
up
are
steeper. So you can kind
of
visualize
the effect of some of
these
technology changes by
just moving this graph up and
down or changing the slope of
some of the lines
. I
found that
helpful to
think about
the
impact of technology
. And
one
last comment I want to make is
I just want
to say
in all
of
our
meetings, I guess we had 8
,
I think, um
you
know, your
people, we're there
. County
was
there. Rachel
was always there.
Marie
was there many
times
, and
other people helping us. I
just
want to
0.1 thing out
cause
it's uh I think it's
very
important
. You're
getting
an
independent
citizen-based
recommendation here, and I
really compliment
especially
Rachel, that
no
, at no time
were redirected in
some
direction or
corrected
or
encouraged to take
a
particular
point of view. They were there
to help us
, to
give us
background, to
give
us
information, and I thought that
was very
I
took some discipline
I think
, because I, I'm sure
they all have their
own
ideas
,
but the
, the 9
of us on
the
tag
This
is
our
thoughts without
having been influenced by
the
county
, and I
think
that's
important to point out
. Thank
you
. Anything else
? Commission
Burns, any other thoughts on
this
? Um
, just wanted to
ask
Rachel, if
we
could
contact pse
and just ask
them what
power is
available right now
in that
area
. I'd
appreciate
that
information
. Otherwise, uh,
that's all the questions I have
Thank you, Mr
. Browning,
anything
? Well
, I've
never
wanted to be
the
person with
the
first electric boat out
there and
be
vulnerable
to
whatever could potentially go
wrong
. So this is
really
encouraging for me because I
don't want to be the head of
the
parade. I
think Scout
needs
to
be very smart
and sit back
and see
what's
working and
join
the people who
are
successful
rather than
be vulnerable
with
something. So
this is
very
comforting for me, so
thank you
And
you're lucky to have
this
well-built boat. It gets us
from here to
there
. You're
right. All right, once again, I
want to thank all the
committee
members and all the time and
effort put into this. I really
do appreciate that. I think it
goes to show
, um, you get
the
expertise and the knowledge
that
people want to put in time
you come up with the good
results, and so
I
really
appreciate what you guys were
able to come up with
here and
I
do
thank you for
all the time
and effort
bringing and
also
the support staff
had on
the
process
. I understand
it
definitely takes time
, but
I
think
the results here
are
very
um very
good. So
thank you for
all
the time and effort
. Rachel
anything else
? Uh
, no
, we have
until
10
o'clock if there was
more discussion
, but
uh if
not
,
Marie
, did you have anything
else? I don't. I just want
to
thank you guys
for
coming
in
and
working
well
together and
coming up
with
this
recommendation
. It was a feat
.
But you
got there
I think
it
also goes to show that the
tag
group for a
specific
projects
that can work on a system to
have the good
people
volunteer
to do some come up with
some
good answers looking at
some
things outside
the
box
or
different options and so
forth.
So I
really
think
the members
and all
the different
people
put time in
it's really
important
. Any other questions
Well, with that, we
are going
to
adjourn until
11
o'clock
today we have
Public works back
in here. With that we're
adjourned. Thank you
, um, and
it's
, it's antiquated
, it's
ancient
barely keeps up in
the
springtime. Well, this spring
was the first time we
violated
our permit. Didn't
violate it
by much, but
enough to
to
uh uh
exceed
those
thresholds this
spring. So
, uh, every spring
this belt press can't keep
up
with it, just
a a
a little
bit
of very
labor intensive and
frequent maintenance
with
this
thing
. Um
it
has very
poor
performance
. It
, it
produces about
or
reduces
uh uh
liquid stream by 8 to 12%
Sketch County commissions to
order
. It
is
JULY 7
, 2026, a
little after 11 o'clock
in the
morning and we are here
with
Public
Works
and consider
testimony regarding
the sale
of
surplus property
, so
. I'm
gonna
let Tom
It's a
county engineer.
Good. Good morning,
commissioners
. Again
, this is
for
, um, surplus vehicles and
other
equipment and
, uh, we
scheduled this meeting, uh
for
a
public
hearing because
we've
got many
items here that
are
valued greater
than
$2500 and
then we've also
got some uh
Newark County policy
with
regards to
when
we
um send
vehicles to
auction
when we
put
them
on
um maintenance and um
m&o operation and so
, uh,
without further ado
, I
will
kick
things over
to
Jason to go
through the
details of what
we're proposing to auction this
fall
. All right. Good afternoon
commissioners
. I'm
Jason
Bleddgood
. I'm representing
the
equipment division of Skagia
County
Public
Works
. This is
the public
hearing to
allow
Sedget County
to surplus
the
items that you
see listed in
your packet as
well as
on
the
screen. All
the
vehicles
and
equipment on this
list that
you
have today reached the end of
their
useful
lives and
have
been replaced or are
no
longer
needed
. Some
of
the
items
have
reached the end of
even
two
lives
. Each year
during the
budget process
, we
request to
replace vehicles
and equipment
based on
a combination of
the
following factors
, um, you'll
see
some are
, uh, 6 years
for a
share
of vehicles
, 10 years for
our passenger cars
and 20 years
for
our
heavy equipment
. When
we get
close to that
original
assigned replacement
year
, we
evaluate each
vehicle
, um, the
last couple of years we've
really taken
a good look
at
mileage and seeing if we
can
push some of
those
, even 10
years
for
passenger
cars
to 12
or
so
and
8 on
sheriff vehicles
After evaluating each unit, we
determine if it makes
the
most
sense to replace it
or keep
for
additional years of service. In
some cases
we keep
the unit
for
several more years
. If
we do
replace it and no
longer have a
need for it
, we will go through
the surplus
process
also
, um,
after the
public hearing,
you'll
see
a resolution be
routed
, our
surplus will
be
sold at
the James
g
. Murphy
auction
in Marysville
. Um
, it
starts at 10
o'clock OCTOBER
1st and ends
at 10:00
A.M.
OCTOBER 8th
. The
Murphy Company
will
have a hold
, a preview
in
person starting at 8
to
4
OCTOBER
6th
and
7th, and you
can also
, and all
the
auction
items will be
done online
. Um
,
you'll see it in members of the
public are
welcome to call me
and ask
questions
, um, about
any of the equipment
. I'll
make
a note
, you'll see
we do
have a
couple of
vehicles
under
100,000 miles um two of
those
are snowplow vehicles
that are,
uh
, pretty
, pretty rough shape
from
the salt and all
the
chemicals
, and
then you'll see
,
um, 2010
and
2065
, uh, those
are
actually turned in
as
departments
do their budget.
They need to reduce
their fleet
and then
they decided they no
longer needed those
. Um, but
that
you guys have
any
questions
? MR. Burns
, any
questions
? No
, overall, this
makes sense to me. Look at the
mileage. I mean
, the
interceptors have tons of
idle
hours on them. I'm going to
guess
the f550s
are
probably
somewhere in the same boat plus
just time
of
sitting. Yeah
,
really, yeah
, pretty
in the
sand and salt and
the chemicals
is
what kills
them
mostly
. Ok.
Uh
, we've done
a pretty
good
job
last year or
2 years ago
,
we started
a new
, uh, process
after a snow
season
of cleaning
and
, and that seems
to really
be
helping
our chassis
and
undercarriage. Ok. Well
, good,
good
. I'm
, uh, I'm
glad that's
going to help uh, extend the
life of
the vehicles, but now
these all make sense to me
.
Thank you
. Mr
. Browning, any
questions
? No
, but I appreciate
your, your
looking
at
the
appropriate use and
not just
just years and miles
, but kind
of
a combination and
I'm trying
to
visualize
a
2011
550 Ford
,
but
it's
those
snowplow trucks.
Yeah
. Yeah, yeah, the
the yeah,
they're
, they're
, they've
been
pretty, pretty
rough shape
,
yeah
, yeah. Hate to have one of
their wheels fall
off
. Yeah,
but
Any
other
questions? No
. Um
thank you
very much for
bringing me through and going
through and
evaluating and just
like you
did mention all
of
these have already been
replaced or chosen
not
to
replace
them, correct
? And the
way our
enr
works is
the
department that uses them
when
replacement
vehicle
comes in,
then you start
, we
start
taking
money out of
their
department
yearly operation to buy
a
new
vehicle when this
one wears
out
is this
, but then there are
some we just go on the
maintenance and operation
which
are
generally for
local
use
for
different departments. Yep, yep
and as budget times are coming
with
a lot of
people are
realizing they
, well
, obviously
a
2010
with 55,000 miles on it
probably wasn't
needed, so
that's why we got rid
of
that
one
. Yeah
, but that's
the
departments making those
choices
. You're
just
running
the
rental
fleet because
you're
doing
, so
. Yeah
. That's all the
questions
I have. So
this is
a
public hearing on
the
disposition of these
. Um
vehicles for
um surplus. Is
there anybody from the
public
like to comment on those
?
Anybody from
the public like to
comment on the surplus of these
vehicles
. Do you
have anybody
online
Yes, but
I think they're
here for the
11:30
. Ok
. Any
other questions? Any other
comments
? We
must have a motion
here somewhere, don't we? I
like
to move that we close the
public hearing. I'll
second
that
. Let's move a second to
close the
public
hearing on
the
surplus
of
these vehicles
. Any
more discussion
? All those
in
favor say
aye
, aye
, o
pose
,
motion passes
. So the next step
is you will bring
something
through um for
the
consent to
sign and move them
forward, so
.
All right, thank you,
commissioners. Thank you, Jason
Anything else
So with that,
we're going to adjourn. We're
back
in session at
11:30 for
our
public comment with that we
adjourn. Thank you
that's
why all
the senior centers
, the
contracts had to be read
.
Redone because we changed them
.
It's a little
after
11:30
on
morning. I call
this
sessionsketch County
commissions to order
. It
lie
7th
, 2026
. I'll
read our
script
here for the
public comment.
Thank you for all
attending
the
commissioner's Public comic
meeting. We
discovered
these
televised sessions almost every
week as
our
schedule allows to
provide public
with
frequent
opportunities to share
feedback
and
concerns
about
any county
program
or
service
. Each
speaker has
3 minutes
to speak
and you will hear
a
time ring
at
2 minutes and a
1-minute
warning and then again at
3
minutes
when your time
has
expired, we
ask you to
direct
all comments to the board of
County commissioner and to keep
your
language appropriate
and
civil
. Please understand
that
this time is to take
feedback
from the public and
the
commissioners will not be
responding to comments at
this
time
, written comments
or
follow up inquiries
can
be
submitted to our
office
by
email
at
commissioners@co.Skche.Wa.S or
by mail
at
1800 Continental
Place, Mount Vernon
, Washington
98273
. We
generally appreciate
the time
you
all have
taken
to
attend
today's meeting
, and
we're looking forward to
hearing
your comments
. We will
first start
with attendees
um
online via Zoom and then moved
to attendees in
the room
. So
first
, if there's anybody
who
wants
not talk, let's do
the
northern state
Swift
Center
last
was anybody online that
would like
to
talk about
a
subject not
with Northern state
Tweety, I
see you there
I
am
here. Uh
, thank you
,
commissioners. Good morning
,
commissioners
. Larita Humboldt
,
aka Tweety
, Lake Kavanaugh
.
Regarding
North Shore, I
have
previously
reported that after
many trials
and tribulations
,
the
garbage cans
for North
Shore residents
are stationed
at adjoining Side
Street
locations at
each
end and
as
much
as
2 miles
from
customer
homes
. These locations
were
chosen by
waste
management
as
being in
an area
where there
is
room
for the
waste
management
truck to dump
the cans and
turn
around
. In addition to these
cans not near
the
residents'
homes it
affords
the constant
opportunity of being
filled
by
someone other than
those paying
for
the service. That
being
said
, a more
interesting story
is that
we've had
a
resident
bear
since February
that has
been
circulating
circling
the lake
looking
for
food. Now
that so
many
residents
have returned for
the
season
, those
garbage
cans are
filled
with lots
of
delicious
snacks for
Yogi
. Imagine the
surprise of one
single
senior
lady attempting to put
her
trash in
her can
at
the
staged
area
and surprised by
Yogi
overturning the cans
and
enjoying
his
lunch
once again
,
just
another
safety
concern
and
reason
for North
Shore to
be
restored so
that residents
can
keep
their
garbage
can at
their
own home
and in
the
garage
as
opposed
to providing
the
buffet
for
yogi. Can
you
all consider
the danger that
North
Shore
residents
are enduring
. Is
it
just ok because it's our lives
in
danger and it's
not in
your
backyard
, and yes
, dfw
is
called and there is a trap
, but
I have no
knowledge as to
whether Yogi the Bear
has
been
captured
yet
. Please
restore
North Shore so that we
are able
to
live
peaceful and
normal
lives. On
a
different note
, if
you have the
time
, I
cordially
invite you to
the
Lake Kavanagh
car
show this
Saturday
, the
11th
from 11 to
2 at
the
community center
. Thank you
for
your time
. Thank you
Is
there
anybody else online you'd
like
to comment, not
dealing
with
the Northern state property
.
Hearing none
. Is
there anybody
in room? I would like to
comment on something
besides
the Northern
state
property
. Go
ahead
. Good
morning. This is
Elka McCartney
, Anacortes. Uh,
this is
comment
number
26 to
stop
the installation
of
battery energy
storage
systems.
Uh, one of
the
most
horrendous
developments
in
this
country
since sometime in
the
90s
, is
the
complete lack
of
accountability
and liability
of
huge
mega companies
that
manufacture
harmful poisons
and
products
. These companies
dole
out
billions of
dollars
in
settlements to people who
suffer
ill effects and death
from
so-called medicines
that
injured and
killed people or
poisons like
glyphosate
, which
bear
Monsanto
had
recently
agreed to
shell
out
$11 billion
worth
of lawsuits
, but now
,
since
this
recent
Supreme Court
deemed
that
glyphosate can
be
used
with impunity
and
ruin
people's health
and lives
without
getting
sued
. All bets
are off
to
hold
companies
accountable for all kinds of
things that do
us harm
, for
instance
, the
so-called
green
companies that
install
these
horrific, full
of toxic
and
flammable
chemical chemicals
best units
. There
is
no
accountability for the damage
they
will
do
, not
even
after
severe damage
is done
. And let
me remind
you
that
corporate
sponsored
environmental impact
studies by companies such
as
Nextera or Jupiter
or
whatever
,
are
highly
skewed
and
manipulated. These
include
noise
studies if
there
are any
,
and
recall that
in one of
my
comments it
was determined
by
Nex era
that we
do not
have
any
birds
to
worry
about here in
the
Skcache County
. No
problem
installing
something that
can
burst
into
difficult
to
extinguish fires with to x
ic
smoke that will spread for
miles and damage
our
environment, kill birds
, salmon
other wildlife
that apparently
we shouldn't
care about
. It's
disgusting
. Greed
That's
the
word for all
of
this
non-accountability, and it is
what you need
to consider as
you consider
and
reconsider the
installation
of
lithium battery
energy storage
systems
and
data
centers in
our
beautiful county
We had an earthquake near my
home
the other night
. I felt it
while in my
easy chair reading,
and I
thought
to
myself
, holy
cow
! Best units
can go
into
geothermal runaway
fires
from
jostling or many
other
reasons
such
as overheating
. Please
take
this
into
consideration
,
especially
the
non-accountability of
these
companies
. There is
no
recourse
for
evacuation
plans in case
of
a fire
. There is
no recourse
for
extinguishing the fire
.
Entirely put on
our local and
brave
firefighters don't let
them get
away
with it
. Thank
you so
much. Thank you
. Anybody
else
with non, go ahead
.
Exactly
Good morning. My name
is
Kathleen Redman, and
I
am
speaking for
Ingrid Hinton
.
This morning as
she is from
Mount Vernon, and
I'm also from
Mount Vernon
. Dear
commissioners, and this
is
from
Zach
Small
on
Samish Island
. An
80
pound
residential lithium
ion battery caught
fire
in
Hayfort
, California last week
.
The incident resulted in
road
closures
a
shelter in
place
order
. Haxic fumes concerns
runoff monitoring
and
evacuation planning
. The
Samish
Island
Bess is
uh, is
substantially larger
and
is
located approximately
20
ft
from my property
. This incident
is
a reminder that
when
battery
failures occur
, the impacts can
extend well beyond
the battery
itself
. The
question isn't
just
whether
something
is likely
to
happen
. It's
whether
the
potential consequences
are
worth the risk
. And
these
are
Ingrid's questions
. Um
do we
have plans in
place to where
people are going
to
evacuate
to
and what's going to happen with
road
closures, etc
. How can
the
commissioners ok this
? Are
the
commissioners for people
of
Skagitt County
or
billionaire
companies. Thank
you
. Thank you
Anybody else
? Rebecca
? Good
morning, Rebecca
Peck
from Bow
.
Skagitt County law
enforcement
Training Center
, aka Cop City
,
is
being
proposed and claims
are being
made. It
will be good
for
our
county economy
by
bringing in
neighboring
counties
officers
for
training
,
notably
the Washington
State
Justice
Training Commission
opened its
newest
regional
law
enforcement training center
,
Northwest
Academy last year
in
Arlington
. I surfed
the web to
see how much our
local
police
departments spend on
training
travel. Nearest
I
could
figure
out
in
2024
and Cordei drove
Mount
Vernon and
and
the
sheriff spent a total
of
377,000 something
. I also
surfed the web
to see how
much
a value of
one acre
of
Portiscadget property is the
newest number I could find was
from
2014
. 50 acres
at
the 2014
value of
$65,898 per acre
equals
3
millions
some change
in
$2014 that property
would be
off
the tax base
, off the
port
would not be
able to
. Use it
like it's supposed to
be used.
If
there's actually a need for
more
places for police to train
let
anybody
else build
it. It
will
be
way cheaper to send our
law
, law enforcement to
someone
else's cop city
. The need for a
new 911
center
is real, and
that
can
happen without a
cop
city
. If
we
cannot afford to
fully fund the
public
defender's office, we
certainly
cannot
afford a
cop city
. The
constitutional right of due
process is
to provide equal
justice to all
, so that
an
impoverished person receives
quality legal representation
and full
due process
just as
good as the
legal work
a
millionaire can buy
. By not
fully funding
public defenders,
we do
not
have
equal justice
for all
. The
privilege in
this
room must
be noted
. My guess
is
that
if everyone here was
arrested for
a crime
, we
would
all
hire
private attorney. We
are the
lucky
ones who
have
some finances to use
to buy us
the
best
due process
we can get
Many of
our neighbors are not
so fortunate
. The 5th and 6th
Amendments are about due
process. 5th
and 6th
, right
up
thereafter our rights to free
speech, blah blah blah
. Help
our
community
, help
our
democracy, and fully fund the
public
defender's office
instead of building a cop city
and
schedule more time for
public comments so you don't
feel pressured. Thank you
.
Thank you
And the question
, go
ahead
. Good morning
. Heather
Fuller Leo
representing
Ask
Me
Local 176
. Our PRESIDENT Was
going to be here today
to speak
but
unfortunately she is
not
able to, so I'm going to read
her speech
to you
. Good
morning
commissioners. My
name
is
Wendy
Morgan, and I have
the
privilege
of
serving
serving as
PRESIDENT Of Ask Me
Local
176,
representing
the
hardworking
employees of
Skagitt County
Public Works
. Today
, I'm here
on
behalf of the
men
and women
who main
tain
our roads
,
operate
heavy
equipment,
respond to storms
and
emergencies, keep
our
infrastructures functioning
,
operate our
transfer
stations
and serve
the citizens of
this
county every
single day
. For
the past year and
a half
, we
have continued
showing up to
work
without a
new
contract. We
are continuing
to
do
our
jobs
professionally
, safely
, and
with pride
. We
responded to
snow storms
and
floods
,
maintained
and repaired
our
roads
, operated
and
serviced
heavy equipment, kept
our
transfer
stations
running
,
assisted thousands
of customers
and
answered every
call the
county
has asked
of
us. Day
after
day
we
have upheld our
commitment
to
Skagitt County
.
We
simply ask
that the
county
uphold the same
commitment
to
us
. What
has
increasingly has
become
increasingly frustrating
It's not just
the length
of
negotiations
, but
the feeling
that
our employees are
not
being
valued
equally
. The
ferry
employees reached
an
agreement
that included
a
4%
wage
increase
in 2025
. Our
bargaining
unit has
remained
at
3%
. While nearly every
other
proposal we have brought
forward has
been rejected
. The
only movement we've seen was on
a
boot allowance
, and
even
that
became
a reimbursement rather
than a
true benefit
. Our
members
are
asking a
simple
question. Why are we being
treated differently
? We
aren't
asking for
special treatment
.
We're asking for
fair treatment
Every month
that passes without
a
contract
affects morale
. We
begin to
wonder whether
our
dedication matters
. It
becomes
harder to
recruit
qualified
workers
, which
leads to
employee
burnout and even
harder to
retain
the
experienced employees who
keep
this
county running safely
and
efficiently. No one
wants
negotiations to
become
confrontational. We want
a
partnership
. We want
to reach
an
agreement
that respects
the
value of
public
works employees
bring
to Skaggett
County every
day
. Commissioners, we
are
asking
that
you help
move
this
process forward
. Show us that
our work
is
valued
, demonstrate
that fairness is
a
word that it
is a
print that is more than a
word that
it's
a principle
.
This
county
stands behind
. Our
members
have remained
. You're
Patient
for
18
months
. We're
not asking for
progress. Thank
you. Thank you very much
.
Anthony, you want to go or is
there anybody else
like to
go
that doesn't deal with
I
think
Anthony, go ahead
Anthony
Romano
, Anthony Romano, Anthony
Romano, Anthony Romano, 44681
of
Upper Skagget. Um
I've got
the
official documents right
here of uh
Ep
Schuler and the
and the
and
the
easement rights
right here and where uh
Tim
Bellfield
right
here
, files for
uh, development activities
. In
2003
and I'd like to read you
something
. Out
of the
court
papers
, disturbing
,
disturbingly, someone has
strung
barbed
wire across the
path from Schuler
Road
onto
a
state-owned property that led
to another neighbor's home
.
Which Anthony
frequently using
quad or motorbike
. Or
Anthony
frequently
using his quad
motorbike. If
Anthony
had
seen
,
not had not seen the barbed
wire
before
he drove down
the
path
full speed
. He would have
most likely have
been killed
or
maimed
. Anthony reported the
incident to the police
. But
there was
insufficient evidence
to show who had
strung the
barbed wire across the path,
and I found
the
barbed
wire in
the neighbor's yard
. Anthony
later discovered barbed wire
matching the barbed wire
and
strung across
the trail on the
Bellfields property
. More and
more, Anthony has begun to fear
for
his safety
. The Bellfields
have also
filed
multiple
anti-harassment petitions
against him
which
are
chock
full
of fabrications
. Each,
each of
these
are
filed
.
Anthony must
spend
a great
deal
of time and
money
to defend
himself
. Um
, the
Bellfields
have
engaged in
a
callous
campaign to
harm
Anthony's
reputation and paint him as
a
harassing
and dangerous person.
Which
is undeniable
. Anthony
does not
doubt that the
Bellfields have been trying to
drive
him out of the
neighborhood. The
neighbor to
the
southeast
of Anthony's
,
Deborah Abel
began to
assist
Bellfield's efforts
. MISS
Abel
was married to
an
heir
to
the
Johnson's estate, which used to
own most of the
Schuler
Road
lots before they sold them, but
but except mine. That's why
mine is accepted a lot
. Anyway
,
um, that's pretty much the gist
of
it
. And
, uh, uh, uh, here's
where, um
, Chicago Title has
made a typographical error and
will
not change it, and that is
on, uh, um
that is
right
where
Miss Winters ends up with
Aboriginal rights
and whatnot
.
Anyway, I'll, I'll
I'll I'll
just try to make this short
. Um
uh, and that's
where Janicky
comes in and, and
the
sheriff's
department
harassing me and
making
up stories
and
fabrications against
me, and
I'm a
very
nice person, you
know
, unless you pissed me off,
you know
, and that, you know,
that's
anybody has the right
to
be mad, but
I've
never touched
or
harmed anybody. I'm the only
one that's
been assaulted. I'm
the only one that's
had
property damage
. Thank
, thank
you very much, Anthony. Thank
you so
much
. Thank you
. Anybody
else on
anything besides the
Northern state property
? No
, go
ahead. Thank you
. All right
, so
you have a
list here? I do, and
I'm going
to call out
the name
and then I'm going to call the
person
after them so they're
ready to go
, so we don't spend
a lot of
time
in
transport
here
So first on
the
list
, Joelen
Kesty
After that
, Eric Mobs
.
Good
morning
, commissioners.
For the record, my name
is
Joelly Kesty and I serve as the
mayor of
Cedar
Woolley
. I'm
here today to ask you to
support a
proposed
interlocal
agreement with
the City
of
Cedar Woolly and
move forward
with the
visions
Gadget
County
established
decades
ago and
its
comprehensive plan
in the
Northern
State
Recreational
master
plan. For
more than
30
years
, Northern
state
recreational area has
been
identified as the
future home
for
athletics
. This is not
a
new
proposal
. Your
own
comprehensive
plan recognizes
that
there is a
great demand
for more
sports fields, and
it
recommends that the county
supports agencies that are
making efforts to create
new
fields
. It
specifically
identifies Northern
state
recreational area
as
the
location for youth
and
adult
ballfield complex. This
, this
city has
strong
support for
this effort from the si
Juli
School
District, the
Upper
Skagit tribe
, Cedarly
Little
League
, generous
private donors
and
many
cedar
Woolly residents
We finally
have
the one-time
funding and
private
donations
to make
this vision a real
ity
When
flooding at
Riverfront
Park became an
increasing
concern. The first thought was
to move the baseball
and
softball fields to Wendy Hauser
Park
. But
after
careful
planning
, it became clear
that
Winnhauser Park could not meet
the
long-term needs of
our
community
, keeping Winnie
Hauser
as
a
premier
soccer
complex
while
transitioning
riverfront
towards
additional
soccer use
is the
better
long-term solution
. Soccer
fields
can recover from
the
flooding far
more easily
while
baseball
and softball
require
permanent
infrastructure that
is costly
to repair after
flood
events. Northern
State
Recreational Area
provides the
room to
grow
and the
opportunity to build a
permanent home for our
youth
programs exactly as
the
county
envisioned more than
3
decades
ago. I was
appointed to
represent the people of Cedar
Woolley, and that is who I
am
here
to speak
for
. While I
respect the
others
have
opinions. My
concern is for
the
families in
our community
who
have
waited more
than 30 years
for
this commitment to become
a
reality
. Concerns that
this
project
will
impact wetlands
or
threaten
the
American veteran
.
Do
not
reflect this proposal
The recorded protected
critical
area document protects the
Hansen
Creek alluvial fan
and
wetlands and
specifically
allows baseball
fields
development inside the berm
.
The
American veteran is
not
an
endangered or
threatened
species
. This
protects
this
project follows
your
comprehensive plan. It follows
your
master plan
. It fulfills
a
vision
the county
has supported
for decades
. I respectfully
ask
you
to set
politics
aside
,
follow through with your
own
plans
, honor
the commitments
already made and give the
children and
families of
Cra
Woolley
, the permanent home
for
baseball
and softball. They
have
waited more
than 30 years
to receive. Thank you
. Erik
Moves, Jen and Jake
, Denmark
Hucker
. Good morning. Good
morning
. Eric Mobs. Um
I'm
on
the Little League board. I
don't have a speech. I
just
want to come up here and speak.
I got some notes I want to
go
over
. I'm not to
argue birds
.
I'm not going to argue the
fields. I'm just going to give
the
pros to
why we
need fields
.
So
me personally, this year is
my first year on the
board.
It's my 3rd
year doing Little
League with my girls
. I
put
in
countless hours
, volunteer
hours, cleaning up
. Flood
debris
helping
the city as
much
as I can. The city worked with
is awesome
. But
it was a lot of
work and I
had work parties
out
there 5 to
6 deep, and it
would
take us 2 to
3 weekends to get
it ready
to play ball again
.
That amount of effort
I
see
with moving these fields
somewhere not prone to it
. It's
going to make us
take
some
pressure off the city
because
we love maintaining
ball fields
Jake can contest
to this. I
love going out and maintaining
ball fields
. Cleaning
up a
flood mess every year
. It's
going to get a little old
The
central location for those
fields, I think is
a
huge
benefit to
Cedar Woolley. Right
now, people drive into
Riverfront. That's the
beginning of Cedar
Wooley. They
go to
Jannii
. That's not
Cedar
Woolley quite yet, right
? If
we
can get them to go through
Cro
Woolley
. That's
gonna bring
economic impact to that city
.
It's going to make them drive
down 20
. And see all the cool
shops and see
where they can
turn off
. And then they're
gonna end up on the
bottom
of
the
Cascade Mountains and
play
baseball
or softball
. That's
pretty awesome
So
I'm
really
excited about this proposal. I
hope
you guys really
consider
that, that
, that would, this
will be a great home
. And it
can expand. It can be other
things
. We've had questions on
our Facebook page. What
else is
going to happen there? All we
can say right now is
it's going
to be open to the
public
.
Everybody's gonna get
to use
this property
. We
have
no
intention of impacting any
wildlife
. If anything, we would
like to have that
area too
where we can go show kids
the
wildlife
. It'd be a
great
opportunity for them
So
with
that, I hold back
. I really
hope you guys consider this
Thanks
, Eric
. Jake
Denmark
, and
then
uh Carl Dion
. Good
morning
commissioners
My name's Jake
Denmark. Um
, I'm
a longtime
resident of
Cedar
Woolley and
the
vice PRESIDENT Of the
Little League
. I've been with
the Little League for the last
10
years on
the board
. So I've
seen all these floods and all
the
damage that comes
with
it
.
Um
moving
the
fields
up there
would
really
benefit our
community. In
the
last 10 years
our Little
League has more
than
doubled. We're the largest
league in
the
county by far. We
have
over
600 kids
. In the
Little League
. Um
when
I was a
kid
in
Woolley
, we
had fields
all over
. Um in the
last
1015
years, all we've done really
is
lose fields
. Um, for whatever
reason
, a roundabout
, um, park
,
we've lost
, lost fields
. We
want to
continue growing. We
want to provide a place for the
kids
to go play
. They need this
They
need to have a place to go
play
. Our kids shouldn't be
trying to go out
of town to
find
a field
to
practice on
. We
I mean, we
have
the space
The
plan is there
, the money's
there
. People are there
and
we
really ask you guys to take
this
into
serious consideration
and uh put the kids first
. So
on that
, thank you guys very
much
. Right. Carl
the Young
,
Brent Shaf Scheffelbein
. You
don't have to touch the mics
The preset because they're
special mics or something, you
put your
feet on the little
stamps on the floor there
, and
that's where you
stand
. See
this is
how
our
professional
work here
. So
go
ahead
, girl
.
Good morning, Commissioners
.
Carl
Jung
, City
of
Cedarilley
Council
. I
support
continuing
the county
city partnership
on
relocating
Cedar
Woolies
flood
prone
ball fields to the
northern
state
recreation area
.
Skagit
County
families
need
reliable
, safe
, local
youth
athletic fields
. Right now
,
Riverfront Park's Ball fields
sit in a
flood
prone location,
and every flood
field
, every
flood season puts
those
fields
public
money
and
volunteer work
at risk
. Currently, too many
cedar wooly kids
are traveling
out of town to practice
That's
hard on families. It's hard on
the coaches, and it's not a
long term solution
for
a
growing community
. Relocating
the ball fields
to
Northern
State
Recreation
Area is
the
next responsible step
. This is
not just a
city
recreation
issue. It is
a
regional
stewardship decision
. Northern
state includes
important
habitat and
human
and
open
space
, and it's
also
a
regional
recreational area
. Public land
can serve more
than
one
public
purpose when it
is
planned
carefully
. That
includes
kids
,
families
, coaches
, community
activity
, trails
, disc golfers
,
habitat
, and history
. The
county describes Northern State
as a
major
regional
recreational facility for Scout
County
and beyond
. So
this
proposal
fits
that purpose
. It
is
also consistent with
the
current Skagitt
County
Comprehensive Plan
. The
plan
recognizes parks
, trails
,
recreation
, capital
facilities,
public
health
, hazard
mitigation
, and
climate
resilience as
connected
responsibilities
. Moving
youth
athletic fields out of
repeatedly flooded location and
into a
more
durable
regional
setting
is practical
, long
range planning
. Environmental
stewardship and
youth
recreation
can
be
planned
together. The city's
public
works department has done
the
work needed to bring
forward
a
responsible proposal
. Properly
cited youth
ball fields do not
have
to
be incompatible
with
habitat protection
. The
proposal
is designed to
avoid
sensitive areas
, managed
drainage and
storm
water
preserve buffers
and
limit
lighting impacts
and protect
the
character
of northern state
So
our
community's request is
simple. Please
continue
the
partnership and
keep
uh working
with Cedar Woolley
on
responsible interlocal path
.
Help move
youth
sports out of
the
flood cycle and
into
long
term
regional
solution
for kids
families, and
the
broader
Skagitt County community. Thank
you for
your time
. Thank you.
Thanks, Carl
Brent Scheffelbein
and
then Sherry Cameron
. Oh, I
.
Good
morning
, commissioners.
I'm here to
, I
am here today to
voice my
full support
of
partnering with the city of
Sirivoy to construct
new
baseball fields
at Northern
State
Rec
Area. I've
been a
coach for
baseball, football,
and
basketball for the better
part of
a decade
. One
thing
that constantly comes up as
a
problem is
the need
for more
field space
. I
have coached
in
Little League and coached a Cal
Ripken team, and finding
a
field of practice and
host
games is one of
the
most
difficult things that we do
.
This year we pra we
have
practiced and
held all of our
siege wooly mammoth games
over
in
Burlington
because that's
where we
had
field
space
available, and even
then teams
would show
up
themselves
needing a place
to practice
,
whether it
is baseball
, soccer
,
or
football, the
need for
more
fields
, not less
, is
very
apparent
. I
believe that
the
children are
our
future, and
then we should put
them
first
.
Kids learn
valuable skills
through athletics. And
they
carry
that with them for the
rest of
their lives
. According
to your
own documents
, a
baseball field complex has been
your park
plan
for years
, and
you have just been
waiting for
a municipality to partner
with
to bring it
to fruition
. Well,
now is
that time. The city
of
Sirawoli is willing
to
do
so
and
make
your
park plan
come
into existence. Doing
so
will
enhance the lives
of thousands
of kids
over
the next
generations, and that should be
the
goal
. Raise
and enhance
the
lives of
our
next generation. I
ask you today
As
a
taxpayer, I
would like to see the kids
put
first. Thank
you for your time
.
Thanks
, Brent
. Sherry Cameron,
and then
Laura Larson
. Uh
,
Sherry Cameron
doesn't want to
speak
. So I'm
Laura Larson
.
Laura
Larson
, perfect
. Uh
, um,
my biggest concern
is safety
. I
go
and walk
my dog
every
day
at
Northern
State
and
I usually
park on
the
Helmick
Road
, and I
live upriver
. And it's like
every
day
it's
dangerous
to
turn left
off
of Helmick Road
.
Onto Highway 20
My
biggest
concerns for
the
ball fields
.
Is that
you possibly
could
be
putting
your families
in
danger
because
I've
seen
several
deadly accidents on
Highway 20
.
And
I
just
feel that
I'm not
against
the ball
fields
. I
think you really
need to
talk
about
the
traffic flow
. I, I
mean
, are
you gonna
put
a
stoplight out on
Helmick Road
.
Probably not right away
. I
worry about our
children too. I
raised
my family
in
Cedar
Woolley
. And
I
just
have this
awful
feeling because I
have
seen
several
MISS
Near misses
on
Highway 20
, where people
are
passing
, going fast
, and it's
it's
. Really
, really
an
awful
thing to have
to see
. An
accident and
I
also
worry about
the
chemicals
used to
make
the
fields
green
, they'll leach
into
the
water system
. And I
don't know how
how, you know,
people are
going to
, it's going
to
affect
people or or
the
animals
. And I
would just
, I
love going
out there
because
it's peaceful
, it's
quiet
, it's
my quiet time
, it's
green
space
I just
think you
need to
think
about
finding
an
area where
there's
a
better
traffic
flow
.
I'm
not against
Northern State.
I
think you should
put it on
the west side
. Of
Northern
State
um, because
of you have
a
better
traffic flow. You have
a
stoplight, you have
a
roundabout on 9
. And
thank you
Thank you, Laura
Megan Mobbs
and
Jill Cathcart
. Me and
mom's
went ahead and she left
with
the kiddos. Ok
. Jill Cathcart
with
Troy Hanson
on
deck. Yep
.
My baseball
Hi
, I'm
Jill
Cathcart
. I've
lived in
Cer
Woolley
for almost
4
years now
.
Um
, I
know there's a lot
of
people who
, who do
play
sports
and my kids don't
. They
play
sports
for the
for
the schools
,
um, not softball
, um, they do
like
indoor sports
. I
played
softball when I was a
kid and
I
wasn't lucky enough to have
like a
really cool
brand new
field. We were
the
ones
trying
to
find a
place to
play
, um, go
to
other towns
, traveling
to
find
somewhere
to
practice
. I
love
the
idea
of
having
a
complex
where multiple
teams
and leagues can use it
. Um
,
it's, it brings a lot of pride
as
someone
remembering how
being embarrassed at the field
that
other away teams had to
come play at
. I
was embarrassed
as
a kid
, and my city that I
grew up
in finally
20 years ago
got the
brand
new
sports
complex and
it's
attached
to
um
a veteran's
memorial. Also,
they
changed the
name
to
um
Veterans Freedom Park, and it's
got
a
big
Freedom
Memorial sign
where you
could donate
and
have
your veterans' names put on it,
my grandpa
, my uncle
, um, who
fought in World
War ii are
up
there, and my dad, who's
a
veteran
also
, and it's just,
it's a really
cool sense
of
pride. They would
do
memorial
services there, and I
think
that's
something that could
be
done here
, like
integrate
Memorial Day
at
this park. Um
.
Another thing, I
work at one of
the small shops
in
downtown
Cedro
Woolley
, and we're always
trying to figure out how to get
people to come in
and see
how
special our town is
. Everyone
always talks
about it's this
cute
little quaint town. I came
from like
a
big
populated area
,
so
I
love the
the hallmark
field that
Cedar
Woolley has
.
And this
is one
way that can
bring in
more
people
to help
support
the
small
businesses
,
um, more than just
the two or
three big
events that we have
a
year that
bring in a lot
of
people
. We just had
the
logger
rodeo
, and that was amazing
It
brought on a lot
of people. But
the business
is
downtown and
throughout the
whole
city
need
consistency. We
need
more,
something else
to bring
the
people
into our
town to
eat at
the
amazing restaurants
and
shop at
the small
shops that
we
have, and
I think it
would
just
bring
a big
sense
of
pride for
the
whole town
. And
the county
Oh
, thank you. Thank you
. Troy
Hansen with
Monica
Leibert on
deck
. Uh, ok
, I don't even
speak. I don't know
how
many
ended up on there so
ok. Thanks
Troy
. Monica
Liberg with
Tim
Mann
on deck
. My name's Monica
Liebert. I live
in
Mount Vernon
and I'd like to
speak against
the proposal. I
think that one
of
the concerns that I have is
that you're going
to have
a
major disruption to
the
environment
. With
for
something
that's basically a
seasonal
activity
, so
I think that there
needs
to
be
a
broader
distribution of
the plan
other
than
the 30
year
old
original
um plan that the
county had
,
which
is now
very
outdated
and
um consider
what
the impact is
going to be
on
the
environment
and
on
the restoration
of
Hanson Creek
, which
runs right
along
the Berm, um
so
, um, I
,
for those reasons
, I don't
support
this effort and I
think
it needs
to
be
uh thought more
carefully
. Thank you, Monica
.
Tim Mann and
with
Kathleen
Redman on deck
. I spoke
I
, I
spoke
ok. Oh
, you did all right
I'm sorry
, Kathleen. I
forgot
that it's good
. Uh
,
HeatherBuland Lea
. That was
ok
,
great, perfect
, it's simple
.
Darle
and Snipes will be out
on
deck. Thank you. Sorry
, Tim
. Uh
good morning
, commissioners. Uh
Tim Mann
, Mount
Vernon
, a
scheduled
Audubon's
conservation chair. I'm
speaking for our
group's
500
members. This is the
weekly
time
for
county
success stories
I
want to
highlight
the
success
of
Northern
State
Recreation
Area
. 24
years ago
as a
National
Park
Service
employee.
I
was part of
the
large group
working over
a long
weekend to
come
up with
the ideas
for
the
northern
state
master plan
. The
resulting
plan has everything
from
a visitor
center
and
equestrian facility
to
a
campground and
a big complex of
ball fields
. What we
didn't
envision was
a veterans
community park
, the Vern
Sims
picnic shelter, the
terrific
trails built by
Jim
Taylor's
volunteers
, the
elaborate disc
golf
course
. We also
didn't
foresee that so many people
would come to value
the
dike
trail
around
Helmick
Field as
a
place
to simply
take
a quiet
walk in
a
natural setting
. And
of course we
didn't foresee
that
the
field, together with
the
adjacent
wetland would
become the
best
habitat over
a
wide area for
the
reclusive
declining
and
spectacular
American veteran
. The county
lacked money for all
the
planned developments. So
what
happened instead was
an
organic
evolution whereby people with
many
different
interests
discovered and came to
love
the
park just
as
it is
with
those
few
carefully
considered
developments
. There are few
places in
Skagit County where
many people can
simply take
a
walk in a
natural setting close
to
home. For
those of
us who
care about birds and
other
wildlife
, their presence is
a
big
bonus
. We're proud to live
in a
county
that
values
wildlife habitat
and that
cares
about
the
healthful
effects
of
time
spent in nature
. There
are
many places in Cedral Wooley
Ball fields could
be built.
They would
improve
those long
vacant
industrial lots
. Had
Northern State
, Ball fields
would displace the enjoyment
of
people who
for the
last
quarter
century
have been
walking
around
Helmick Field
to simply
get a
taste
of
nature
. They
are
stakeholders
in their
county
park
, and
their
experience
deserves to
be
respected. Thank
you
. Thanks
, Jim
. Perfect
.
Darlene Snipes, and then
David
Bartholomeuss. I don't use
.
David? Yeah. Ok Great
. Darlene
Snipes
Nope
. Nope
. Ok. It
looks
like
we're winding it down
. Ron
Peterson
. You ok, Ron
Uh
, Keith
Wiggins
And
then
after
Keith on
deck
, Tonya Wills
. You don't
don't ok
Thank you
. I'm
Keith
Wieters Burlington
. And this
is
impromptu
I do
have
sympathy
and understand the concerns of
the people who want the
ball
field at
Northern
State and
it's really great for
kids and
he
teaches
them mostly
good
sportsmanship. Every once in a
while you hear about
the
parents fighting in the stands
,
but
that doesn't happen too
often, does it? Probably
doesn't ever
happen here, but I
do
have concern
, um, I do
agree
with the
, uh, it
probably will
impact
a bidders
, and that's
a
problem
. I know they're
not
endangered
, but everything,
almost
all birds
are
diminishing
. You
know,
everybody says, well, they can
go someplace else
, but usually
there
someplace
elses
are
disappearing
also. So like
having our
house burned
down
and
no insurance
and no
support
group, where
do you go
? They
just
don't make
it anymore
. But
besides that, I
have a
concern
about
um always
support
partnerships, county and the
cities
and everybody else
. I
always
worry
on
how
those
relationships go. I
don't
want
to see
more burden
being
shifted off to
the
county
probably MAY not
happen early
on
, but
later
on the
county has
to spend more and
more money on
it, more
and more time
, and
I
think
the parts department, the
county
park departments
are
already
pretty
well burdened,
and I think they
have
more
important places that
they want
to
spend time
Big Rock
, for
instance
, um, so I
wouldn't
have
, wouldn't
want
that
responsibility to
be
shifted
over
. I
don't
know
personally
where other
opportunities are,
but I've been told there are
some
other
opportunities, maybe
not all in
one place
, maybe
have to have
a belt
, um, ball
field
here in ball field there
.
Some
ways that
might
be better
.
There's one of
the
important
and Tim just brought
up
something
too that
I think
is
really important just like
nesting habitat for
birds that
if they're removed
, they're
gone
. They
are
not
many
quiet
places that people go out and
take
a walk
, and
that's
really
important and
as mentioned
,
lots of people who are out
there. I have a friend who used
to treat
, uh, um, track
or
uh
his schoolgirls, they go
there,
the, what you
call it
, frisbee
golf
, horse riding
, our
neighborhood, we just talked to
our neighbor about this
just
yesterday and she said
, that's
so nice. You out
there's no
crowds
. It's
quiet. There's
not
many
places
like that
, and
I
think
that's probably
my
biggest
argument is
you just
take
that away
. There is
no
other place just
like you, like
I say
, you did
take
a nesting
area away
There isn't another
place to
go, and
that's
disappearing rapidly. So
I'd
,
I'd really like
to
see
encourage trying
to find
an
alternative
to it
. It
just
would
change the
whole tenure
of
that area
. Thank you
. All
right. And finally
, before we
go back to Online
, uh, Keith
Wiggins
. He
you
, oh, I was
how
you, I thought you were Dale
.
Ron
. Ok. Then
, we are done with
this. We can move
back to
, uh,
Tessa Wheson in charge
. So
online, is there anybody I'd
like to
comment
on the
baseball
proposal
? Go ahead
Is
that me
?
Yep
All right, commissioners,
uh, thank you for
the
opportunity
to speak
today. Uh,
my name is
Nathan Salsina
. I've
worked for the city
of
Cedarulley for
the
past
25
years and
have served
as
parks
manager for the
past
13 years
.
I also served on the
county's
parks advisory board
from
2004
to
2008
. I've submitted my
formal comments
by email
for
inclusion in your
public record
but I'd
like
to
highlight just
a
few
important points
. Uh
, the
current Skagit County Parks
and
Recreation Comprehensive Plan
was adopted in APRIL
of 2022
.
And although only a few years
have passed, it remains
the
county's
guiding
policy
document for parks
and
recreation planning
.
Comprehensive plans
are
intended to guide the
decisions
we make as
public officials
.
And
I believe
it's important
that
our
actions
remain
consistent with the policies
that we've
already adopted
. I'd
like
to briefly reference
several pages from
the plan
. On
pages 3-11, the
plan states,
and
I quote
, in
2001
, a master
plan was
created
for long
range
goals
, including
trails
, ball
fields
, campgrounds
, and
equestrian center
,
Environmental
education
,
interpretive sites, and
a
restored alluvial fan
. On
page
5-9 under
athletic facility
goals
. The plan states that the
county should
pursue
partnerships with local
cities
,
school
districts
, special
service districts, and
qualified nonprofit
organizations
to provide
youth
and
athletic
, uh, youth and
adult
athletic facilities
. On
page 9-12, the
plan
recognizes
that reduced county
staff will
not allow
for the
maintenance
of additional ball fields
without a
third
party agreement
Uh
, this
is precisely
the type
of
partnership agreement
that
we're currently discussing
. On
page
10-9
under
park
Development, the
document
identifies
trail systems and
a
baseball
slash softball
complex
among
the
recommended
capital
facilities
for
northern state
wreck area
. On
page 10-17, the
Klan recommends
that
the
county
should
continue
to
support
agencies that are making
efforts to
create new
ball
fields
. And finally
, on
page
10-18, the
plan
specifically
identifies northern state
recreation area. Master
plan
is
including
land dedicated
for
youth
and
adult
sports fields
.
The plan
and
Vision
Park
envisions
parking
, restrooms
,
concessions
, maintenance
facilities
, picnic
areas
, 5
ball fields
, 4
youth
ball
fields
, 1
to
,, and
one adult
baseball
field
and the
supporting infrastructure
.
Commissioners, these are
not my
words. These are
the
county's
own
adopted policies and vision
for the future
. They
were
adopted just a
few years ago
and remained
the most
current
comprehensive plan governing
parks
and recreation policy in
Sedge
County. 6
of
the nine
parks and
recreation advisory
Board members that approved
this plan are
still
serving
,
including Board
number 10 man
.
I
respectfully ask
that
you
support
the
county's
own
adopted plan
. Honor
the
commitments it makes to
our
community and work
with
us to
make
this
long-standing vision
a reality
. Thank you
for your
time
Thank you
Is
there
anybody
else online, Paul
? Yes, thank
you. Um
, I'm
a
member
of
Cedar
Woolley
City Council, and when
this was
discussed at the
council
, I voted
against it
,
and
the
reason is
, is
that
there's a
better alternative
at
Winniehauser
Parkub the
city
public
works several
months
ago
after
the flooding
at
Riverfront
showed us
a
diagram
of 4
ball
fields
there
, and
I
asked during
the
meeting
why
that
proposal was
being
scrapped in
uh
and
, and use
and
the northern state
was
instead
,
I'm a
big proponent
of
you fall
fields. I
was literally
soccer
and
basketball coach and
Cedar
only
for over
12 years
, all
with
kids
in the
, in
town, and
I think
the kids would
be
better
served by
going
to a
ball field
at Winny
house where
they can
ride
their
bikes
.
There's some
kids that
don't
have transportation
. I
, when I
was
a basketball coach
, I used
to give
kids rides
cause
their
parents couldn't get them
places. And I
, I
know
our
coaches still
do that
, but
I
really think that
the
Winniehauser site is in town
.
It'll be
safer
. Our
public
works
department
has
already
proposed
for
ball
fields there
.
I don't
see the
point
of going
,
leaving
the city to
go up
into
the county off
a
highway 20
. It
just doesn't
seem
workable to
me
, and I'm
not
sure why
that
original
proposal
was rejected
.
Thank
you
very much
. Thank you
Is there anybody
else online
like to comment
? Anybody else
online
Anybody else in the room
that didn't get to comment
?
Yeah, go ahead
Jessica
Fitzpatrick
, uh, uh, I live in
Mount Vernon. Um
, I've
grown to
I've become
an
auto Audubon
member since I moved
to
Washington. Uh, I
moved
to
Washington
because
Washington
values the
environment, and
I
don't want
to
see
my children
grow and
my grandchildren
grow
into
a world
where they
can't
breathe. Um
I
also am
a
healthcare worker, and one of
the
things that I
consistently
recommend
my
patients do is to
get
outside
, uh, the
, the
data
for
people
being outside
and
doing
things
consistently
outside
has
shown cardiac
,
brain
, mental
health benefits
,
and being able
to provide
a
place
that
is
handicap
accessible
is
significant
. Um
,
Northern
State
offers that
, and
the peace
and
the quiet
, um,
the number
of
quiet places in
the
world is dras
t
ically
reducing. Um, you can listen
to
the Wild
podcast with
Chris
Morgan. He
outlines
this
perfectly once again
, a
conservationist out
of
Bellingham. All
of my
children
played sports. They
all
played
ball, and
I love
it
. I loved
that they
had
that experience
and it provided
them
with
critical
tools to help
them
all
throughout life
. But
I would
never have
encouraged them to
do that at
the cost
of
the
preservation of
something wild
and beautiful
. I
, uh, I
hope
that there is
another option.
Um, I
would love
to see
both
the wildlife gained from
this,
as well as
the children
. Thank
you
Anybody else in the room
to
comment
? It
Troy
Hansen
Cedroley
, um
, talking
about
wild and scenic, and I
, I
totally agree with it
. For 100
years that was
Northern
state's
cow fields
. And
it was
Northern
states Gardens, and
states
orchards. We ripped all
those
out to make
alluvial
fan
wetlands
I think
it's great
. We
were told I actually work for
the county when we
were that
project was going on
. I just
got out
of college
. We
were
told that that was
going
to
help with
flood
control and
salmon
production. Kind of
wondering where we are on that
.
Snooker down. We still
have
flooding
. Um
, I
ran cows up
there
, beef cows, when I was
in
8th
grade, we
hate
those
fields
So
, to say that
is a
natural
pristine wetland what
I've been
hearing in
the public
. It's not
true. It was finished
in
2008
.
4 earthmother tractors are out
there scraping for
2 years
straight to
make that
. That
doesn't take
away
what has
come
out there
, but
I
also
don't see
anything in
these plans where
it
says baseball fields are
going
into
critical areas
.
Louisville
fan wetland
. Um
, to
go
take
another step
, the
Winniehauser fields, I feel
aren't
big enough. Also
, you
have
a railroad
track right
there
on
Highway 20
. So
kids
riding
their bikes
to
Winnie
Hauser
, crossing
a railroad
track, Highway 20
, if they come
in from the other way
, roads,
road, they
have to
cross
Highway 9
at a roundabout
. Both
are heavy traffic areas
I'm
also a firefighter in
Cedar
Wooley
. I've
responded to
calls
on
Highway 20 and
from the
Northern state
Helme Road
,
they've been fewer and
far
between, but I can tell you
the
last
two accidents I've
been
out there
. Cars have
been
floating in
the wetland
People
ran off the road
and ran
into
the pond. We
fished one person
out last winter
. Um
and
then to
back another part, talking
about our children
. We hear
so
much complaints about
children's
time
on screens
and
children not getting out and
getting to
enjoy those
those
wild areas
. This
is why is
this
not a good investment
? My
father-in-law has been
involved
with having these fields for
the
last 35
years talking about
it
. No
one cared
back then
So
now all of a sudden we
care
over not taking away the
importance
of
the
bird
, but
also we
have
care facilities in
this town that are helping
with
overdoses and drugs and
everything else
. How
about
it
go up river and have
an inch
of
prevention for these
. I heard
with the
other facilities
, if
we save one life
, it's all
worth it
. Well
, if we
save
one
child from having to go
into
one of those beds
. Isn't
it
the
same, isn't
not worth it too
?
So that's it. Thank you
Thank
you
Anybody else like to
comment today
? All right
, thank
you
very much, Mr
. Burns
. Do
you have anything
on what you
did last
week or any other
comments? I stayed
busy
last
week
. Excuse me
, I still don't
have
my voice
completely back
here
, but last Friday
I went
and
did a
site visit
on
Bacchus
Creek
with people
who had
, uh,
flooding issues
, um, from the
DECEMBER
flood
event and
the
creek
backing up
and in
part
being rerouted
by some
ditch
work that
had
been done
. It
was
interesting
to
see
what had
gone
up
there
, gone
on up there
and
actually getting eyes
on
it
and how it is
, uh, filled
in,
how it
was changed
, um, so
I'm
still conferring more with
our
staff about uh what's
going on
up there
. Log
Rodeo Parade
, um,
I volunteer with them
each year
and
, uh, that
actually went
quite well. We did
some
changes
and uh it
was wonderful to see
how
we streamline the
process
and got a whole lot
of people
through
, uh, a really
a
cherished, uh, Skagit
County
event
, um, and I
think it
flowed
quite smoothly
. So we
went
and all did
a tour of
the
baker
, uh, dam
fish passage
,
and it was quite
neat
to see
the amount of
fish coming
into
that passageway
. Um
, the tribe
was down
, uh, below
, uh, doing
their
fishing
and then seeing
how many fish are
making
it
upriver still
. Um
the volume at
which we're, that we're flowing
through
that
system and the way
that they get them through
as
quickly
as possible and then
up
to
Baker Dam
. It was
quite neat
to
see that
. Um
, also
to
see
their
hatchery
and how
they
have set up
their processes
up
there
. Um
, it was interesting
to me. I'd
never gone
through a
hatchery. I
, I've seen
fish
production
facilities for
trout
and
sturgeon before
, but it
had
never
actually
seen something
where they were trying
to put
fish back
into the
, the
natural
habitat as the priority
And
so
it was
, uh, quite interesting
to walk through that
. Also did
a site tour
of
Home
Trust's
gadget
, um, did
their, a tour
of
their
Summerland
neighborhood
, and
then their
,
their Park
Street facility
in
LaConnor
, um, two
different
models
, but
, um, still
quite
interesting to see
how they
could
take
grants and
create a
program
to help
people who
normally would not be able to
purchase
a home
, get
an
opportunity to make that
first
purchase and
, uh, to
get a leg
up
in
life
and
also how
they
worked
with
other
agencies to
create
rentals that were
affordable for people in
the
area. Um
, so I
, I
found
that
quite interesting. It was a
model I had
not looked
at
very
deeply um before now
, so thank
you very much
. Thank
you, Mr
.
Browning
had another meeting he
had to
get to
, uh, or public
comment went
longer
than
expected
, but uh thank you
very
much
everybody
being here
. Uh
,
offshore went to
the Sitaole
Laga
rodeo parade
. Really
enjoyed that
. Lots
of
um people
a
lot
of
public there
is
really
appreciate that
. Um
, the, you
know
, 250
years we've been a
country now
and it's
pretty
amazing what we've had,
especially if you have a chance
to travel around the world and
see what the other
countries
have
. We have a
lot to
be
grateful for what we have here.
Always
room
to improve
, but
we
do have a lot of
things to
be
grateful
for
and
moving
forward
Uh
, Commissioner
Burns
mentioned the
future
So Energy
,
damn tour that we did
up there
,
um, it was
really nice to
go
through
that
. I had a
chance to
go through it a
couple
times
before
, um, but
actually
see
the
um salmon
come through
and
they go
to
the fish elevator
and then they were sorting them
as they
come
out and
um it's
,
it's really interesting
how
they are
able to
use
the
genetics
and take
so many
,
depending on
the run
numbers
that
are coming in
, how many
they're
catching
and
um
bringing up to the dam
and how
many
they're
using
for
the
hatchery and how
much they're
just
letting
loose wild
in the
lake up there
. So they've
done
a amazing job
. I think
they
start
out
with 97
fish when
they started
. They're up
to 80
or 90,000
came back last
year,
so it was
a huge, huge
increase
So
, um, what's
really
uh
impressive what they're
doing
and one of the things we went
up and looked at it because
that's one of the
things
Seattle
City
like with their
system
of Ross and
so
forth on
the upper
Skagget
. That's what
some type of
system they're
trying
to get put
in on that
.
So
that's why we
went up to
look at
. If there's
anything
else with that, we
are
adjourned. We'll be back in
session at
what is it
, 1
o'clock
? One o'clock. So with
that, we're adjourn
. Thank you
Sessions County
County
commissioners back to order as
the
left
one o'clock
on
July
7th
, 2026
. We
are
here
for
a
presentation on Sedge
County
Fair kickoff
, and then we
have
Ken Hanson
, our, what
are
you
calling yourself
now
? Parks
recreation, fair
and
facilities
director. That's mouth for
.
Very good
. Thank you
, Ken. Well
good afternoon
, commissioners
.
Uh
, we're
kicking
off season
here for
our largest
event at
the
county
for
the
county fair
Uh, this
is really a
quick
introduction for myself, Ken
Hansen
, director of
Parks
Recreation and Fair
and
facilities
, um, but really the
show is all about
Eric
Gaither
here
. So
, uh, I've
been in
the
position a few months
now
, and
this
is
a huge
event, so
I'm
really
glad that
we
have staff
that have been working on it a
lot longer
than I have
, so I'm
just going to turn it over
to
Eric because
you get a
lot more
important and interesting stuff
Great. Uh, we
might add, um,
for those of you who are in 4h
,
uh, Ken is gonna be seen around
the dog
barn
because his
daughter is
in
the 4 on
4
,
right? Yeah, club, so he'll be
around the fair
and he's
no
stranger to the fair
, but
, uh,
a
lot
of details that go into
it. So
um
yeah, I
want to start
off, uh, commissioners, it's
great to be here
. Um
, you know,
this is
, I think these years
are starting to go together, so
I think this is
year
15
, so
it's great to have a new phase
,
Commissioner Burns up here
, uh,
you know, that kind of breaks
up the, the
, the ears aren't
all
running together, but I
think
, Commissioner Wheen, you
have
me outlasted. I think
every
year I have done this.
You've been
up here
. So
, um, it
goes
back
to 2011 when
our
former director
Bryan Adams
called me when I
was working
out
in Colorado in
the
mountains
, and he said
, How
would you
like to run
the fair?
So
here we are
, um 15 years
later, but it's it's an honor
and a privilege
, and
I enjoy
being here every year
to
present to you
guys
, so
, um, I
do wanna, uh, do
some shout
outs in the audience here. We
do have
, um, some of
our sketch
accounting forh members. We
have a couple of speakers who
are going to come up
later. Um
,
we have the Wind
Rider's
4h
Horse Club
represented as well
as the beaks
, noses
and Bill's
Club
, which
, um, which
encompasses, I believe
a
couple's
different
species
, um,
and they
, um, their
club
is a
bit
highlighted this
year
because of
the theme, which
we'll get to
. So
, um, also, we
have some
other members of
the
audience, I think we have
, um,
Henrietta
, Daisy
, and
um Sonic
down
there
in I think
the
better half
of
our mascot
as
well
, so big thanks
everyone
for coming
. So here
we are
, uh,
127 years later, the fair's
been gone
since
1898
. The
longest standing event
in
Skagget County
. Um
, the fair
runs off of
3
full-time staff.
Um, we also do get a lot of
other help. Obviously, we have
a
huge volunteer base, but
we
run out
3
full-time staff
, um,
as
well
as we
do
have park
staff
that comes in
near the
fair, but
it takes takes
a
village to
do it
. Um
, we also
have our advi
advisory
and
foundation board supporting us
,
so
both those boards
were not
really
active until about 2
years ago. Um
, the advisory
board, um
was on
hiatus and
then we had some people
stepped
up to make a fairgrounds
foundation. So yeah, as
you
guys know
, um, going into, you
know, at
times where things are
not getting easier, it's great
to
have
these pieces
supporting
us
. Of course, alongside our
great
4hffa
programs
, um, it's
just, it's a
real privilege to
have all these
things and we
have a
lot
of
good team spirit
.
So
, um, I'm gonna take one step
back from the
fair just cause
we get to do this
once a year.
Um
, and I
also, it's
also
good
information for some of the
people who
are around
fair and
um are focused
on fair
. It's
after all, you should be, it's
the Super Bowl
, but
what goes
on at the
fairgrounds year
round and I only
have the
pleasure of
doing this
once per
year
, so it's our
chance to
give you guys an idea of what
goes
on
year round
. So
, um,
people
always
, people often
wonder, you know, we
have up to
close to
50 events
, but
sometimes they
get confused.
Are you running it
? Are you
in
charge
of it
? Um
, so
the fair
staff actually
runs
, um, you'll
see actually it's
4 events, but
the
fair
staff runs 4
events
and the
rest are
, um, mostly
run by third parties, so
there's a lot of
interaction,
of course
, when those
events
happen, but we're
the
main
driver. Um, these
are our
three
trademarks, which is our spring
and fall garage
sale, and
of
course
, the fare
. Um
the spring
and fall garage sales are great
events, you know, every
year we
um, you know, there are a lot
of work, but
they, we do have
it on a bit
of
a template and
we'd have vendors that
come in
and they are the stars of
the
show, so there is
, there
is
some
, um, a
lot
of
familiarity
that
we can
, um, lean on
there
and
honestly, um, you
know, we
run on a
business model
here at
the fairgrounds. If we had a
, a
different climate
. Let's say
we
lived in the South, we
would
probably
do another
garage sale
in JANUARY
or FEBRUARY
, but
uh
we aren't blessed with the uh
the weather and the
durable
surfaces. So we make do with
what we got
. Um
, our
spring
garage sale happened in APRIL.
Um, it was
, it's
always a
success. It happened
during
the
um, of course during the
Tulip
festival
and some people ask,
is that an accident that you
have it in
APRIL and
I haven't
been here 30
years, but
, uh,
when
, when
the formation of
this event happened
, but I can
tell you it's
no accident that
it's during the Skagit Valley
Tulip
Festival
. So, um
, again
,
we had a great show this year
,
um, 200, close to 200 vendors
,
around 350 booths
um, and those
that don't come
that
money does
support
the fairgrounds in the
year round operations
, so
, um,
it all feeds
into
one another,
um
. We
do have another great
chance in the fall
. It's
the
sister event
, and
this
one gets
a
little
extra
pizzazz because
we have a car show
. So we have
up
to 200 cars
um, there
, it's
nice
. So, um
yeah
, make sure to
mark your calendar for that one
I will add to that we
have had
4h
clubs raising money at some
of those
garage sales
, so
I
know that in the
small barn
we
had
$1000
and then in the past
there's been up to
$2000 and
that
goes into um different
things for
their barn, and so
that's money that you know
those requests
could
be
getting
to the
fair
budget
as requested
but a lot of those are
being
captured at
, at just
they're
just taken
off our plate
and
they're captured by the 4h
clubs and I know
that the
horse
department especially
, um,
fundraises
a lot
for the
arena
because
the whole
surface of
the
arena
is pretty
much
up to
the
4h Horse
Clubs and
their
budget
, so we're
always trying
to
come up with ways to
give 4h
a
good
opportunity
to fundraise
but they are the ones who are
really making it
happen, so
, um
I know, I know
you guys are
very involved. I know APRIL is
very involved with
the Horse
Club fundraising. So
we
do
appreciate that and we do try
to open up our
events to, you
know, make
hey wherever
we can
while we're already having a
big event going on
So
the
fairgrounds has always been a
year-round gathering place, but
I can tell you
post covid that
that has
, uh, from a
, a
slogan that's true to
a
slogan
that's, that's
, it's something
we live and breathe every day
.
There's so much going on
. I
mean
, um we have
the Highland
Games going on at the
fairgrounds, and that
is
a
monstrous
event
. And
so
, and
we
if you
, if you look
at
our
calendar
, um, which I'll pull
up here in a
minute, it
, it
doesn't stop
. We
have
brief
periods
of quiet in
the winter
,
um, but
it's really
, it's
really great to see the
fairgrounds
utilized
and um
.
Yeah
, it's been
amazing post
covid, um
. So it's, it's a
great thing
. Um, some of the
other things here that people
MAY
not know
about as well as
people do see the
public
events
that go on, but
we have
a
racecar group that's in one of
our buildings for 5 months
in
the winter
. So anyone who's
looking
for a
winter hobby,
they do
carpet
racing
. Um
, we
do do
professional trainings
and things like that. We're
we
don't do a
ton
of
the
um
one-time private party events
.
They just don't tend
to be the
best for
our business model,
but a
lot
of
the business
we've
had some
state
school testing
in their
homeschool testing in
there. We
hope
that that stays
and doesn't
go online
next year
but
those are
great events and
those are the things
that
actually
we have a
little
more
bandwidth to take on
are
the
big
weekday business rentals.
So anyone out there who's a
business and you want to use
the fairgrounds, even
even
be
like a um
picnic in the summer
on a
Thursday for all day
you
want to rent the fairgrounds or
you want to do a
big
event on
a
special Tuesday
, Wednesdays
or
Thursdays
, um, we are
, we're
open
for business, so
um, and
then the 4h usage, so a
lot of
the barns get used for
practices. Again, the
arena
, um
is
the big
one that used
by 4h
4 months out of the year, but
we also
have other
things that
go
on. Um
, we
actually had, we
had
dog clubs out
there and
they actually did
a fundraiser
to benefit
the fairgrounds
, but
um
you know, the
, the
facility
we always try to work for
hn
sometimes there's a
little bit
of
deconflicting if there's a
huge
revenue
generating event
such as there's a
few Fridays
where they
, the
horse clubs
can't ride on
Fridays because
there's
a big renter in, but a
lot
of
times the people
are
running
the grounds for a
full
rental Wednesday
through Sunday
and
they oftentimes
we can
still
get horse
clubs in
Wednesday
, Thursday
, so
um it's
a
huge
balancing act
, but again
when we
have, when we
have
people chipping into the
facility like that
and putting
money in
sweat equity
, we
really try
to do
that
and
after
all, they're prac
tic ing for
the Super Bowl and we're in
charge of the Super Bowl, so
it's kind
of a
, a cycle that
works out
. Um, another thing
that I would like to
highlight
is
4 times a year
, we
have the
one
day offender
, um, program
with the
jail alternatives um
through the
sheriff's
office
and so
I know
that
most people
don't know about
this. We
do
have
, um, one
in typically the
spring, one in
the
fall
. We
have one
coming
up here
in
JULY
and
then
the
alternative staff
,
they
actually
engineered one to
have one
right after
the fair
for tear down, but I can tell
you
those JULY and
those
AUGUST
dates
, we
would be in a
world
of
hurt without
those, so
there's a lot of labor that
goes into that
, um, and I know
that program it
saves
incarceration time, so it's
, I
think a couple of days
in
jail.
People
work it off
, but if
that
program is paramount to
our
success
. And I
would just like
to call out
the staff over
there. They, they have been
super accommodating and I
know
the August
1, uh, that they
engineered for us. I
know
that
the
um department deputies
,
they
, it took a hit to
their
vacation and their planning and
they
, they
sacrifice for us to
do that because they know what
it
takes to
put
together, so
just some of
the things behind
the scenes
. Um
, I don't have,
we can't go through all this,
but
here's kind of a snapshot
of the
year-round calendar
, um,
a lot going on
, a lot
going on
.
So
, um, we
do have to block out
the ferret a little bit
around
the fair time
, but
, um, I know
I've said
this every year, but
I
, my
sanity and
the calendar
,
I said I don't know what else
we can put in
the
busy season
,
but
, um, you know
, both
for
motivation
and this
is what we
do, this is
what we need
to do
,
and there is
, yes
, there's,
there's
, there's
financial
pressures on
everybody right
now
. So
, um, you know, if
someone wants to rent
all
the
fairgrounds in
late JULY
it, I
can't do the
whole fairgrounds,
but you want to do
a
camp out
two weeks before the fair in
the
South parking lot
with the
RVs
Let's play ball. It's
kind
of what we do
. So
, um, I do
kind of
question sometimes when
we say yes
to things and find
them in
later and we're in the
moment and
doing
1000 things
,
but um, you
know, when
you get
done with
when you get done
with
the
hectic
season, it, you
kind of go
back and
I'm really
glad that we, we did
that
and
accommodated all that, so
, um,
I will say that
it is
um great.
I
know
commissioners
, you guys
sometimes come out to these
events
. You can look at this
calendar anytime. I know
Commissioner Burns was out
at
the
Washington
State
Grange
Convention. So that was a
state
convention that
we had
, um, I
know you guys
are probably at
different events, but
I know
Commissioner Wheon
Brown, you
guys are always good about
tending the
veterans event, but
if you guys
have
any questions
on
these events
or you want
to
attend them
, please, um
, reach
out to me and I know it's, it
means a lot to the people
that
that run these events
so
they're
they
span
, they span so
many
different things, right
? I
mean
, big game
, big things like
the Highland games
, um, the
causes like the
veterans
,
veterans event, we
have
the
um
autism awareness event, the
sheriff's office puts on. We
have
the clothing
swap that's
solid
waste does. Those are
kind
of county
, um, run things,
but even
down to
the
consignment sales, which yes,
they're, they're running
the
business
and they
, you know,
they have to make a
profit to
run it
, but it's
it's
low
budget
you
know
, things or
families
that MAY not be able
to afford more
. So
, um, it
, we
are just
kind of
a
uh a
landing
pad for
so many
different
things and so
, um, yeah
, we
encourage
everyone to support
all these events
. So I
will
say
that um this is another great
event and I
will, I
will make a
note
that
um our assistant
manager, um Francis
, she
, um,
is out on
maternity leave right
now
, um, through the fair
, so
,
uh, I have
my
hands full and so
typically she would
talk about
this
and you would
actually get
the better half
of our
public
speaking duo oh if
she
were here, but
, uh, I'm trying
to fill in
. So
, um, this is
, uh
something that got started
after we
hired Francis
in 2023,
but it was modeled
after
something
that
happened in
Watcombe Coun ty but it's
called this Gadget Farm
Circle
.
Um
, and so we
, we partner, we
,
Francis does the work on this
but partnered
with the
Western
Washington Agricultural
, um,
Association and so
we
bring 500
3rd graders through
the
fairgrounds. A lot
of it's
the
farmers are
there. We
have
tractors, so it's
very hands on
I know we have
conservation
district
. I'm going to
MISS A
bunch
of people
, but
it's
a
really
cool thing that
we do in
the
offseason
, um, and
I know
,
I
know that the
, that
the
farmers
and
the
other agencies
really
appreciate it. This is
one of those
things
that
and I
will point
out we
, we spent a
lot of time running a business
model. This thing
is no money
in, no
money out
for
us, but
it's
a
commitment to a lot of
the
people that
uphold the fair
and the roots of the fair is,
you know
, the agricultural
community and so I know
that a
lot
of people, and
you guys
know this, that if
you don't
feed
this information
, uh,
where it comes from
, it's
gonna
die, right
? And so
this is a
really cool thing that
happens
at
the at
the fairgrounds
. So
,
um
yeah
. Check
it
out
in
NOVEMBER, um
. I
guess check it
out. It's for 3rd grade
students. But if you
want to
be
involved or a commissioner to
show up, it's a really
cool
thing
. Ok, so
, um, more fun
facts about the
fairground
. So
we
, um, did
get a
high level
um
economic impact study
done
through one of
the
International Affairs
Association
and here are
some
of
the results
. So you
see all
those
different events that
come through
the
fairgrounds
and the economic
benefit that
the
fairgrounds provides
, um,
I'll
, I'll let
the numbers do
the
talking
here
. The
, the
one
thing that
we also
um are
always trying to
educate
on and
try and
draw attention to is
that
the fairgrounds, while we
do get support from the county
in many ways, and we
are, we
are so much better being a part
of the county than on
our own
as a
nonprofit that the
fairgrounds
. Has not
and dare I
say probably will not receive
general funds
for many years to
come
. So it's been like that
since 2009. So all
of
this
impact is
happening
without any
general funds
going to
operations and so
, um, and
that
includes all
of our
annual
operating costs and so
oftentimes when I'm
having
conversations they're going, oh
but
you know
are you
, but
you're paid by the
count the
staff, and it's like, oh, we
are
very supported by the
county and we appreciate that,
but no, we
are not
. So all
the
staffing and all that
is
paid
by revenues at
the fairgrounds,
and
so that's kind of the
story that we try and
keep
telling. And so I know we're
going into a difficult
budget
season too as well, and
there's
you, everyone's going to see
things and it's hard
. Programs
are going
to get cut
and things
like that
, but we're
the reason
why we're still standing
is
because we're able to do
that,
you know, with
the
revenues
that we
, that we make
and so
everyone's got a
cause right
now. I
know that
you guys are
,
you probably
getting flooded
with the, you know
, when
GoFundMe's and all that stuff
,
because a lot
of
nonprofits
they're looking for help and
it's just, it's
, it's a
tough
thing but
my pitch
to all you
guys out there and
business
owners is when you guys support
the fairgrounds
, the
fairgrounds are supporting
the
local economy, right
? So we
have
many ways to
to donate
and
get involved to
help continue
supporting this. So whether you
give to the 4h, which
is
self-sustaining itself, or if
you do a sponsorship with
the
fair
or
there's other options
too
you can give to the
new
fairgrounds
, um, nonprofit
foundation. So there's just a
lot of different
ways
, but
there's a lot of different ways
people can say that they have
the impact
, but
this is
we
create fun
, we create education
we create lasting memories, and
we
create huge economic impact.
So
um that's just kind
of
everyone out there
, so
, um
. Yep
So
capital projects
, um, we are
uh, always trying to move the
needle
forward on um
you know,
improving
the fair ground so
the
um, we've had
some
wsd
wsda
grants
, which have been really
good
for us
. Um
, so the
, we put
a new
restroom
facility in
, um,
last year
. Um, which we
got
$250,000 from wsda
. We
finished
our sewer line
in 2024
. Luckily
before
the 2024 fair, we
had
some, you know
, sewer line
issues
during
major
events are
uh, they're memorable and not
in the
right way
, so
I just
I
remember the call that we were
getting
close to fall at
the
2023 fair
, and I put in the
word to get
the
tractors, and I
need
every
single
portable
toilet forked in the middle of
the fairgrounds
. So
, yes, I
know the
horse
departments
where you're taking
our toilets
and all this, but we had to put
all of
them in
there and call
the va
truck from
Public Works,
and they were out
of service
up
at
Baker Lake
Road or
something
like that
, and so we
got that
one done a little I had
the
restroom. Um
, our staff
, you'll
see
the garden bed
by the
fairgrounds, but
our staff did
that
. It's
the
flowers are
popping right now. You guys
should check that out when
you're there, um, and last year
we did some led lighting
. And
lots of little things
, um, on
this next
coming
upcoming cycle
for
wsda grants, we
did, we are
doing some
paving up at the
north half of
the grounds
up
near the, that would be at the
fair, the
petting zoo
, the
dog
barn
, um
we are
doing a lot
of
electrical upgrades
, um, to
the
rv areas, some of
the horse
barns, again, some of that not
gonna happen probably until
this
next
offseason
. Um
, we do
have new
swine
pens in
and then
uh we're
working on some of
the
new
portable
ada
bleachers and
much to
the delight of all
the
Anbarn superintendents
, we
have
no
dogs allowed
in
barns for
the entire
, uh, barns
, so it's
,
it's kind of
an issue of
getting people at the gates to
do that
, um, so we
. We
we got
grants to do that
, so they'll
be outside all the animal barns
and and just for the public
knows too, um, of
course
service
animals are allowed,
but
all the
the
animals go
through that check and so it's
a
real safety issue. So animals
bring in for vet check and
then
you bring a bunch of animals
that
aren't
vet checked, and it
just creates
, um, you know
, an
environment where a lot of
people are
being
really
responsible and taken care of
and
they're going, this
is the
Super Bowl and they're, they've
done all the things and
then
you just
bring
it outside kind
of thing that
hasn't been
checked in
and so we just
try
to, there's
a lot of
safety
that
goes into that
, so
I know
sometimes when you explain that
to the public
, some people, it
MAY not matter, but some people
go, oh wow
, that's the light
bulb goes off like, oh, this is
why we do that
. So
, uh, we're
also working on some sound
system
upgrades for the
pavilion. I know
during
the
livestock sale
. Um, we
, people
bought portable systems
because
our main system needs an
upgrade
. So
, um, also
I just
for the funding
, I know
commissioners you guys
um like
to be kept
, you know
, um, up on
this
, but wsda does have
um,
two funds for us from the state
so we are
. By
and large not
publicly funded
, um, but we do
get some money
from
wsda. So if
we are commissioners, if
you
guys
are
ever
um with
local
legislators who MAY
have that
the
fair funding
obviously it's
going to be
, uh, it's going
to
be up for
discussion
and
absolutely will be on the
chopping
block
100% and
with
this, you know, the way
the
state
budget's going
, but
there's two
fair
funds
that
um come from the
state, so
there's more of an
operating
one
, it's called the
Fair Fund,
and
so that
, um
, by
and large,
we take a lot of that and put
it towards
the premiums
. So
that's
where the
um payouts go
for people when
they
exhibit.
Um, there's also a
capital fund
that
funds things
like this. So
um, the operational fund has
actually been the one hit
harder than the capital one
that seemed to
be more hole
.
We've
kind of
, of course
,
during these times you almost
want them
to
be reversed
sometimes
, but it's
, you guys
know that's not the way
it goes
so
, uh, we appreciate
, um, the
advocacy, but it is really good
We have
great partners
at
wsda, and
that's how
these
happen
. Ok
, let's
get
moving on
to the big
show
, which is the
fair, which is why you're all
here
. So
, um
let's wing it
That's
our theme this year
. So,
each
, uh, each fall
, uh, I
don't know what we do
. We get
done with the fare
. We are
on
to other
events
. We
get
in
OCTOBER we go to
our conference
get rejuvenated, and then
we
start
throwing ideas around for
the
next year's fair theme and
it is a little
bit overwhelming
because last year we had the
Cool Cats
theme and you're
sitting
there
going, this
, how
are we
going to
, how are we
going to even
get close to that
right
? And so there's, you feel
the pressure, right? And we
have the shades and all that
and like what in the
heck are
we
going
to do
? So
I
know
we um
we
did
have poultry as kind
of
the
last
major animal
group
that
didn't
uh maybe hadn't had
a theme in
the last 10 years
. I
remember back
to 2015
is when
we
started
instituting the
animal themes
and that
that
animal theme just
uh date you
all. I know Commissioner Wheen,
you probably don't remember
this, but you're the only one
around then, but it
was the
summer of 60 swine, the best
days of our lives
. Yeah, and I
do
believe
, uh, Louisa, I do
believe you probably sent
me an
email in the middle of last
year's fair
, and
I probably
filed it and I
probably didn't
fully tend on whatever, but it
did
come
back
and
poultry was
what we didn't go
with
and
uh I
uh, I
do appreciate
, I do
appreciate
honesty
and
authenticity and what we do a
lot
of the fair
is a
highly
organized, it's a
highly
organized machine that I'd be
lying
to tell
you if
if 10%
of
it isn't
winging it
every
year
.
So it's kind
of fun around
the
office as well because we have
to
wing it to get it
done
sometimes
, so
, um, a, a shout
out
to
um James Longini
, who's
doing
the
, who did
the artwork
for us and as you guys know
, he
is
, uh, well
, Brian
Young is
,
uh, retired from the
county now
but
he started filling his
shoes
last year
, so it's really
cool to
have that
support
internally
, um, and
have
someone
from within
the county
continue to do that
, so, and
the goal
of
Sketch
County Fair
is
to produce a
fair in which
there's pride and
involvement
by the people
of Skagitt County
Here's some
fun pictures
, um,
you know
, the
fair
is fair is
all about the memories, the
kids and livestock show, you
can see this is, we have the
stuff
for the
bus event
, um,
it's again, that's a
great
charitable thing
, um, we're
just got mowing down an ice
cream cone at
the fair
. I mean,
that's what it's
all about
. The
bands, we have
a
huge cultural
,
um, you know
, we have
a
great
cultural stage going on
with
the
Latin entertainment
stage which is out in the
carnival area
at the fair
, but
this
is what it's
all
about the
the pictures, the memo ries
Um
,
here's some numbers from the
2025 Fair
. Obviously, 4 days of
fun. What
else would they be
filled with
but fun
. Um
, around
30,000 attendees, um, we
had
3
stages with over
100
performances
We
had
11
nonprofits fundraising, which
we'll go over
that in a little
bit
. 20
nonprofits
participating
, um, over
7000
exhibitors over
over
5000
number of
total exhibits
, um, a
lot of
vendors and then
, um,
for, for people out there too,
a
lot of
the
departments that
you enter in, like 4h
and ffa
,
you kind of need to be a part
of that ahead of
, ahead of the
fair, but there
are open
class
divisions. So if you got our
website you
see
open
Class
, um,
you can
basically walk up
and
exhibit and
there's times
the
week of
the fair
, so
, um
we
have 59 departments
with
76766
divisions to participate
. So
there's a lot going on
. Um, if
you were to also ask me
if I
know all those off the top of
my head
, the answer is no, we
have amazing
, uh,
superintendents who in charge
of those divisions. Sometimes
we get phone
calls in and we,
you
know
, myself, I
gotta pull
up the quilt thing
and go, ok
,
let's
see what's going
on here
.
And then
, um, as
the experts
if
we don't
know the answer
. Um,
so the heart of the
fair, we
talked about the division. So
there's
4h, which
is
well
represented
, um, in this
, um,
in this room, and we're gonna
have some people talk about
the
impact whereas there's
an
ffa
program, which is
mostly
through
the schools, and I
know
we
have
some
uh some
ffa
members up up here,
commissioners
, which you
guys
usually talk
about at
the
conclusion. Um, and then
the
open
class
division is
sort
of
like the
general public
can
just participate, enter
your
quilts
, enter
your Legos
, um,
so there's just so many ways
to
get involved
. Uh
, we talked
about the fairs, so
the fair on
its own is a cause
. So
, um, you
know, we are
not
, we have
to
make
our revenue
, um, balanced
with expenses
, and that's goes
up
, goes from a lot
of um
. You
know, from
the
community,
however
, we received so
much
help that, you know
, there's a
certain amount that you have to
give out back to and partner
with people
. So
, um, one
thing
we
do is
we stop the
bus
and
it's
with
this is
how
many
years? I don't know how
many
years now. Yeah
, 56, something
like
that
, uh, with the
United
Way
of
Sketch County
. So
basically what we
do is
have
people come and if
they donate
,
if
they donate
diapers, they
get them
for
free
. Um
, the
United
Way buys
ticket packages
from us at reduced
rates
, so
they do the group ticket
package rate, they find
the
sponsors and so
, um, we
are
able
to work with them on
a
little
lower price point there
,
but they, they find
the
sponsors for that
and then
if
you
um donate
a package
of
unopened
diapers
, you will get
in for the fare for
free and so
it's it's been
a
huge a
really
cool thing
, um, and
so we
invite
everyone to stuff the
bus
and
that's Thursday
from 10
to 5
and
that's only
at the
Cleveland Parkgate
, um, which
is on the north end of
the
fairgrounds
where the
senior
centers
where the senior center
groups park
cars. Um, the
livestock sale
, um, is
an
amazing thing. A lot of the
money
goes
back to the kids.
Most of
the money goes back to
the kids on
that except
the
very
small percentage
, um, and
so we do have
a write up in
this year's
fair guide on it
,
but there's a
whole journey
from, um, you know, starting
the project
and through the end
of the sale
and
so I'm not
gonna try and get into
that. I
think the best
thing that a lot
of people can
do
is
, um, you
know, talk to the kids at the
fair
because they're really
interested in talking about
their projects and so there's a
lot
of
really cool
, um, stories
behind
it and
I know
there's
never
a
shortage of the
need
for buyers
to pack
, pack the
,
uh, the
stands Saturday
, AUGUST
8th
at
10:00 A.M. Um
, I
think
Francis had
a tip, but maybe
it's in
the guide
, but it's
, uh
be careful if you
' re
raising
your
hand to
scratch
your
nose
or your hair when you're done
because
you might
, you might
be
a couple
1000 deep into an
animal
if you do
that
. So
, um,
the, we also have
the canteen
at the fair
, so
we partner
, um,
with
a
nonprofit there
, um, and
so
, um, a portion of the
proceeds go to the
Kuwana
Scholarship Fund. Um, so that
is a really
, a
really cool
partnership we
have
there
, um,
and then
other things that
we
do
that, you know
, people
providing services that
basically they either keep the
money or we give them a
stipend
to perform
a service
, but it's
bas it's
a fundraiser
, Mount
Vernon High School Music
Booster Club. They run a
parking
lot
, Mount
Vernon
Senior Center, and then
I think
the four organizations you see
under there are kind of
under
the
senior
center
umbrella
, um,
but that we're really happy
to
support that, um
. As well
because I know the
seniors are
,
they're working really hard to
raise money. Um
, the
, and then
we have
help with the garbage.
We use the Mount for high
school wrestling team
, so that
all goes back into
their
coffers, and they do, they do
good work for us
. Um
, Ferry is
all about the community, so we
do have
, um, a lot of
community
focused days
, so
we have on
Thursday we have
a family
resource day so we have
like
20
organizations you can, it's
a
little small on
the screen
there, but um they
come
together
to have a theme day at
the
fair
, so we do
, um,
Thursday and Friday, the
fair
from 10 to 4
we have, we're
able to get a lot
of different
organizations in there. So a
lot of times when people are a
vendor at the
fair
, they are
required to be there all
days
,
10 A.M. To
10 P.M.
Um, we
have
to
operate that way, but we
have been able to do
a
couple
community-focused days where we
can get
, um, like
some public
service agencies in there
for 6
hours
, 1 day
, you know
, they,
they
do giveaways
, they
create
entertainment
value
and um
and
that way there's not a barrier
to participation because they
can
basically accomplish it all
in in one
workday in
and out
and we get a lot of
cool things
Um, so
we also have the
safety
preparedness day
. On
Friday
, um
of the fair. You guys see we
have a lot
of participation
from different
, um, county
agencies in here
, especially on
the
safety
preparedness Day
, um
so those are really
cool
things
and then I'm
jumping back
to
Thursday
, we kind
of call
it
uh
sort
of
our
family
fun opening
day, but we have
the
Family
Resource Day
and then
the
diaper drive which you talked
about
and then
we have
baby
racing
on
the stage
, um
which I
believe
, um, I don't know if
you've been informed,
Commissioner Browning, but I
think you're going to be there
to drop
the diaper
. I will
. The
the, uh, yeah. I'm pretty
excited about it
. Yeah
. Great
for Trump. I don't know exactly
what it's going to look like
,
but the
, um, Caps kbrc radio
puts
that
on
, um, and
so
there's
huge prizes. I
mean
, we
have
like
$1000 recliner for
first place
, 2nd place
is like
,
you know
, I don't know. I
think
the other ones are close
to
1000. It's
, it's like
huge
, um,
like
, so yeah
, 6
to 14 months
.
If you, if
you guys
know
anybody
who's a crawler
, they
can't walk, 6 to
14 months
, um,
get him out on the stage. It
doesn't cost to
enter
. Parents
got to pay it again, that's it.
So I mean, I
, I
, I've long
said
that prizes they get, like
we've had good
participation 20
or so, babies. I guess there's
only
so many
in
that
demographic, but I mean
, the
prizes alone and that
could
change somebody
, but it's
, it's
hilarious cause the
babies
don't always go in
linear
paths
So, it's
kind of a fun
thing.
So. What
of a
county employees
,
child
one, last year
, the year
before
. Oh, it just
totally
rocked it
. This kid was
a stud
.
It was
, it
was great. Well
, and
I think the good part of that
is, is, you know
Because if you
get your
baby training, you're
gonna be able to kick back
and
you're going to be able to kick
back in a
nice
recliner. For
months
. Tri your baby down
.
Yeah baby back
down. So
, yeah
.
Are they able to like throw a
little food in front of them
just
to
keep
moving or so the
fair has, the fair has a lot
of
programs outside of the fair as
well. I mean, the, it's the
whole ecosystem that feeds a
fair, but we have worked with
local
libraries, the Read to
Win
. So basically
they do a
certain amount of reading
. The
library has the
fare tickets
and then it's
the incentive
that
they get
a ribbon
and a
fare ticket
, um, to come
to the
fair
. I will
add as
well that
um we
, we are
open for more. We
would love
that
fare
tickets
are used more as
an incentive
in businesses around Skagit
County. So
we
have
group
tickets promoted, but
I've
long
wanted to
expand
that of
, hey
,
um, the auto
repair shop, um,
you know, you come to us
or
whatever, you're
going to get a
free
fare ticket
. So I
would
encourage
any
businesses
, um,
instead of
Yale given
you could
give a
$10 off
or
maybe
consider
buying a group
of fare
tickets which
are discounted
and kind of using that
as an
incentive
. So we are
always
looking
for
those partnerships
and stuff that
we
can, we
can
work on, especially
when we're
not in JUNE and JULY, we can
work on those in the offseason.
So if anybody has any
ideas
there, um, we
, we would love to
talk
. This
is
another really
cool thing, um
the
Blue
Ribbon
experience. So we've
gotten
sponsors to
sponsor
families
for basically a really fun day
at
the
fair. Um
, the
fair, the
fair
honestly
could be a very
cheap
, affordable experience
.
Um
, sometimes
I will
say that
it does
sometimes
take
self-control to do so
. If you
want to
do all
the things at
the fair and the
carnival and
it does
, it does
cost money
,
all the
, all
the
individual
businesses
need to
, um, you
know
, make the cut
, but we
have
put
together this
really cool
thing where
a family
can
get
nominated and they get g
ate
admission
, uh, parking for
carnival wristbands
, $100 in
fair food box, and
then 4
fair
t-shirts, so the
whole package,
so we have
local
businesses
sponsoring these. Um, I
will
put
another plugin for this
that I
, we were trying
to get
families
nominated by
JULY 1st
.
I will say
that we
, there's
been flat out too
busy and they
have not been able to
get
the
promotion out quite
as wide as
we have, so
this is open
for
business
. So if you
guys
know
anybody
, um, that we
have
nomination forms on
our website
and the
, the
radio station
Caps
kbrc is
kind of coordinated
,
but if you guys
know
of
anybody
who's been a he
ro or has gone
through
hard
times or
anything
you want
. There's
nomination
form, so
. And they get
surprised out
of the
blue with
a really like you know
, some
people can't
, they MAY be able
to afford to come
to the
fair
and eat
one snack, but this is
a really cool thing, so
. Um,
also, I will
, uh, point out the
Cascade Natural Gas is
sponsored
stuff through
Community action. So we often
act as the broker
or
facilitator
for charitable
experiences, so we would love
to
expand that
. Um
, I
know
we've so Cascade Natural Gas
covered the tickets and then we
gave them
out to
Community
action
because who are we
, who
are we to try and figure
out
the people who need it the most
We're just
the, we're just
the
facilitators, right? Give it
right to
the people who
know
how to
get it
to people in need
but there's
an
unlimited need
for that. If
we got
if we
got
1000 tickets, I
guarantee you
that we could find
a
1000
things and I
, um, I know we did
get a
state
grant
back during
covid. It was sort of a little
bit of
a chance thing, but I
did
somehow
get
3000 fare
tickets out
to
charitable
organizations, and
I still have
that spreadsheet and I can tell
you they were gone in
a
heartbeat
. So
, um
yeah
, there's
unlimited need for that
. Ok
.
The Fair
entertainment this
year. So some
of
the
um fun
things. So
we have
, of course,
lots of local bands
, um, you
know, we do
pull like our, our
magicians
, our jugglers, these
are people that do this
professional year
around. So
these are people often we find
at
our conventions
in OCTOBER
,
um, the sterling, the magician
,
he's like
, he performs on
cruise ships the rest of the
year
, and
Matt Henry, he's
a
professional juggler
. Um, I
will point out
a couple
new
things this
year we have
. There
is
a new
fun
zone stage
, um,
going in
, um, just, it'll be
just
, uh, west of
the arena
,
nope, east
of the arena
. But
don't worry, we're going to
have
the
backdrop nice and
lined up so the sound
is going
to be
going towards the
uh main
fairgrounds, but
we have a
stage that's gonna have 9
daily
shows
on
it
, um, so that's a
new thing
, so that's actually
gonna be like our
4th stage
,
but it's
the cutest show on
Earth, the kids'
pedal
tractor
going
, uh, pulling
the magic
egg
bean show
. So those are
,
that's
something really new fun
to watch
. And then
um we
have a
really cool
thing with
uh Wiiku
and
the
Children's
Museum, and
they're gonna have like
a huge
kid zone
, uh, and
also
incorporate like a money
journey that we
could put
together. So it's again
, like
it's fun, but like
they're
literally starting education on
financial
literacy at a young
age at the same
time
, so again
,
I can, we
are um so happy to
have all these partners and
it's another
testament
to the
amount
of
boxes
that, well, I
will push all of the
credit
outwards to the work that's
done by all
these
individual
people
, the
fair and
the
fairgrounds check so
many
boxes
on, you
know
, what's under
its
umbrella
, so we're
really
,
we're really uh
excited
for
that, and that's across from
the
, gonna be across from the
Vuelta La Luna Circus. So if
you're out
by the
sheep barn
just north of the
carnival,
we're
gonna have the circus,
which is there every year.
We're gonna
have the big
kids
zone
across from it and the
stage across
from that
. So
, um,
that'll be a new
area to
kind
of check
out this year
. Some
of
the favorites that are
back, of
course
, the hypnotist, the
circus, the
diaper derby we
talked about
, ieing
contests
,
um, anybody can sign up for the
pie contest to show up by the
stage, um, and then cheer
at
the Fair is always a good one
with the high school
cheerleading
teams
and we do
a
piing contest and a
spirit
award as well, so
that's always
a
really
fun thing
to have back
Um, I'm gonna go through pretty
quick
. We have a
bustling
main
stage
, um, entertainment
schedule
, um, we
do have
a
, um,
a very
large
international
artist
, uh Latin
entertainment
artist named
Larry Hernandez
coming on Saturday night.
That's always a
huge draw
. If
you guys are near the main
stage
on Saturday night, it's,
it's kind of a
, a really
cool
thing to watch about how many
people pack around the stage
.
Um
, again, you'll have to look
this up in the fair guide will
be
out later this month. And we
have a
community stage as well,
which is out in the ball field
.
It's a little more
of a
chill
environment
, um, in the
food
court
. Um
Monique Brigham, who
many of you guys know
, is the
one who usually puts this
together and
we
, um, back
to
the causes we do pay a small
stipend for
the organization if
you have that and that in
turn
,
um, has gone to
a
nonprofit
typically of
what Monique
has
chosen, and this
year it's
uh
the
swift Center
, um, and
so I
,
um, am not as
well
versed
on
exactly
. Um
on
the Swift Center
but I
know commissioners, you
guys are very involved with
that and
, and
so we were, we're
always really excited when
there's a new
cause that
comes
along to, to go
towards
supporting
so that
will have
mini acts daily and then of
course
our
Latin entertainment
stage, which is out in
the
carnival area
, um, it's just a
really cool thing
you
guys
just
to
, to go check
out
and
um
whether
you understand every
word or not, it's like it's a
beau, it's a really
, it's a
beautiful fact. It really is
.
So there's a lot of
time
and
energy
and talent
that goes
into that
. Uh putting all that
on
Uh, we try to keep
people
comfy. We'll have the
Thirstbuster back this year
. Um
and then
the
Kitty
Corral area
,
which we
, um have and it's
usually for 5 and
under parents
to go take
a
load
off
and
um
it's, it's a good thing
because
people don't leave the
fair
instead of leaving
the fair
,
they stay there, get comfy
, and
um, hang around
. Um
, um, again
,
this is
the sponsors of the
fair are a
huge thing. So
I
again I can't
give personal
shoutouts, but you guys can see
all of the
incredible sponsors
here
, um, um, so we just
, um,
invite people to take
a look at
this when you're in there and
just consider, you know, just
just look at it and
know who
supports the
fair. I
know some
of these people, this logo is
going to show
up 3
or
4
different places in
the fair
because we have
Barnes
fundraising and
, and
, and they
have their
own sponsors and we
have
the livestock sales or
some of these businesses you're
gonna see their logo 3 and
4
times
and um I just want to
give a huge
shout out to
them
and
um I will
, we will
send a
,
a request
in to
the
commissioners to consider if we
can uh do a
thank
you
as well
.
So we'll send that to
Amber to
send that week of
, but that's
really, that's really
cool.
They
hear from me
, but when
they
hear from
, um,
commissioners
and whatnot, it's
it
it's really appreciated
Um
,
so to kind of wrap up this
component
, the
keys are
success
year round
. We appreciate
the
support from the
county
leadership
, um, of
the fair
,
the
active
event calendar
throughout
the
year
, um, the
immense amount of
local
businesses and
partnerships
, I
highlighted the
jail
alternatives program. Um
, you
know
, community participation
,
there's a lot of things we
talk
about you can do on a
deeper
level
, but
not everyone
has
time
or
energy
or you're
part
of
20
causes and
20 boards, you
know
, but there
are little
things
you can do. There
we
have 4
hour shifts at
the fair
to volunteer for
Honestly
, if
you don't do anything else,
just show up to the fair, pay
your gate admission, walk
around for
two
hours, talk
to
two kids about
their
animals,
grab an ice cream cone, go home
That's sports fair, Easy
. Ok
.
Um
, entering the fair
, if
you're the kind that's home on
your
, you know, you just
want
to knit
, knit something while
you're watching your favorite
tv show
. Throw it in the fair.
It's not going to hurt if you
don't win a
ribbon, nothing
hurt
. Or
you could come home
with the blue
Um
, we're
always
actively seeking
new
opportunities for
community
involvement
, um, the support
from
the ad
advisory
and
foundation
boards, the
uh the
dedication of all the
staff
of
volunteers
, and I
would really
like to highlight
the lack
of
turnover
in staff
and
volunteers is
one of
the
biggest things
that we that we
have
going, so
, um, you guys
,
if you, if you
look
at
the
roster
from the last
many
, many
years, we do
not have a lot
of
turnover and
that has been a
huge key
to our success, so
we're
trying to
hold things
together, you know, at all
costs
, and
that goes down to
the
volunteers
, the
superintendents as well. We
have a
really
good
longevity
with superintendents
, um, and
with that too
, when we do
have
a
change
, especially within
4h
,
there's
a great
line of
succession
planning
because
next
thing you
know
, there's
someone
else ready to
step up
.
Um, and
then again
, what
flexibility
and
excellent
customer service. I mean,
that's what we show to
people
and
our customers, there's
really
, you
can't
, especially
when you're working with
discretionary funds
and
volunteers, you just there
, you
can't
really
draw
uh sometimes
black and white lines and you
just have to kind of work
with
people. You
need something
at
7
P.M. That's
when we got to do
it, right
? Or you
need to
adapt
you need
to switch your day
.
It's just what we got to
do
. So
um, those have been
our
keys.
So we're gonna
get on to
the
guest speakers here
. So from
the Beakows
and Bill's Club, I
want to call up
Iris
De Serrano
Hi, my name
is Ariiserrano, and
I am a
Skagitt
County Forage
member
. 4h
has
provided
me
mentorship from trusted adult
leaders
and
has
empowered
me to
take on
important leadership
roles
. Through these roles
, I
have
learned how
to
speak
publicly
, gain responsibility
,
and become
a greater influence
in my community
. Do
these
skills that I have
learned
, I
,
which I love
practicing at fair
I am now
beyond ready for
careers and life
. The greatest
challenge in my
forage career
so far
has been
my
latest
presidency
. Being
PRESIDENT Of
my
4h
club
helps me
understand
the steps that
are taken
in
order to make for
a
more
inclusive community for all
. It
has empowered me with the
skills to lead for
a lifetime
.
After having chickens
for
a
while, my mom
and I decided
to
try 4h
. Do
you trusted adult
leaders, I was able to
build
positive relationships with
other youth
and
create memories
at events such as the fair
. I
am glad that I
was one
of
the
6
million youth
that forage has
reached throughout our country
.
4h is important to
our
communities because of the
large
impact
they
edit
has
on
today's youth
. I've
seen
everyday
kids
grow
into
passionate individuals who are
hungry to
learn and
ready to
take on
the world
. 4h
empowers
kids to make the
best better,
pushing them to
always try
harder and to never
give up
.
Fortunes are also
3 times
more
likely to
participate
in
community involvement. That
could mean
picking
up trash
,
showing
up fare
, or
even having
a fundraiser for a
local club
.
Forage
helps
us
enjoy giving
back to
our communities
. Some
friendships
and connections
I've made in
4h
are
with other
members
, leaders
, or
breeders
of
my animal
. Most
of
these
connections were made
at
forge-related events. For
example
, when I was a member of
the Ad
Career
Ambassadors, I
was
able to go to
the
Watcombe
Career Fair and
the Country
Living
Expo
. At these
events
, I
explained to people
what
4h
was
and
the
positive outcomes
of
joining
. Although other events
are fun
, almost
all of
my
favorite forage
memories happen
at
the fair
. I love
the
thrill
of showing
my
animal
and being
able to
connect
with people
from numerous backgrounds
. The
the fair is a
truly
inspiring
experience, and it is
the
highlight of
my forage here
. 4h
is
our
nation's largest
youth
developmental organization
. It
has
supplied
my
family
with a
interactive environment for all
Through 4h, we
have
learned
how
to speak
publicly
and
act
confident
. Before we joined
, my
siblings used to be very shy,
but now they can carry
on
a
conversation conversation
with
just about anyone
, especially
at fair
. 4h has
made
a large
impact on my
family's life
. It
is
a
big
part of
our day to day
livelihood
Thank you
Hello
I'm
Louise
Deerrano. I'm
a
current
4h
leader and I
lead poultry
,
which makes me
very excited
about this year's
theme for
the
fair
. So my
experience with
4h
started 6
years
ago
as a
parent
of
a 4Her
and a
few years
later
a
uh an opening to be the
poultry
leader happened and
I
just gladly jumped into that
position
. It
has been a goal
of
mine
to
provide thorough
and
accurate information
for all of
the kids that I
lead
to succeed
at
the project
. One
of
the
joys
of
being a
leader has
been
watching kids who
are
extremely
shy to the point where they
don't even want to talk
to
anyone outside
of
their family
actually be able to not
only
gain confidence to speak to me
,
but to speak
to
the public
. I
love
watching
kids do
their
showmanship competitions where
they
can talk
and interact
with
the
judge and share all of
the
knowledge that they
have gained
Some
of
the
relationships
that
I've
, uh, developed with
these
members and their
families
are
lasting. And I look
forward to
many
years
to
come
of
fair-going memories
. At the
fair
, the youth
tend
to bond
very
closely and have
a feeling
of
belonging
and family
. The
thing
I love
about
4h
is
that
it
takes
kids
from
diverse
groups, whether it
be urban
or
rural, and they
can work
together on
the same
project
and learn
from each other
.
There's always
room
for growth
and leadership
in 4h
, and
kids
are
always encouraged to push a
little
bit
harder to learn
. I
stand behind what
the
4h
clover
represents
, heart
, loving
and
caring for each other
,
encouraging
each other
. Hands
working and helping
each
other
out
. He
thinking through
different scenarios and coming
up
with
solutions
and health
,
living
a
healthy
lifestyle
and
demonstrating what that looks
like
to others
. It makes
me so
proud watching
these
kids
really shine when
they're able
to talk to
the public
about
their
projects that
they've
worked throughout their whole
year
, and
they
will gladly
show
their
animal to
folks at
the
fair and
the
educational
posters that
they've
made just
to teach
people
who've maybe
never been
around animals
, what
it's like
. Uh
, I
would
gladly
support
continuing
this legacy
,
um, all the
positive
fairgoing
memories
and just
the
foundation that 4h
gives
kids
for
life
, for
the
current
4Hers
for
tomorrow's
4Hers
and
tomorrow's leaders
. So thank
you
Thank you
Thanks
, Louise.
Um
, so just
, uh, a few comments
I had
. Um
, I
won upfront
, I
did
MISS
Out on
, um, introducing
Ashley Sis
, who's our
new
4h
program coordinator
. So
she is
on board for her first
fare, so
it will
, uh, undoubtedly be a
very
immersive
experience
. It's
a jump
in for the
, the
fair
bath
. Um
, and then I
, I just
wanted
to highlight
a few
other
things
, um, you
know
, the
connectivity between the fair
and
4h and and
how
cohesive
they are. So
the, you know
, the
4h program is really paramount
to the
year around
, um, the
mentorship, the learning, so a
lot of that
stuff happens if
they
don't have
this 12-year,
12
month support
, they can't
show up to fair and
do
what
they do
. Also
, without
the fare
you don't
have what I
, I always
playfully referred to
as the
Super Bowl, right
? So
without
that fare
there
, the
bright
lights and all
the
infrastructure that comes with
the
fair and even
the fun
that
happens outside the fair, right
? The
kids they think, oh
, it's
8 P.M. I
got to go on
the
carnival rides
. That's what
the
memories are made
of
. So it's
,
we can't
, the fair
forage
really can't
shine without that
big
event there
and some of
the
infrastructure that the fair
provides, but we also
can't
have kids just showing up
the
fair
. And
trying to do things,
right
? So it's that
, it's that
they're
all connected, right
?
So
, um, the
other
comment I
have, and I
, I do want
to
include ffa and
that ffa
tends
to
be very involved
, but they
are
a school-based
program and
so that
absolutely they show up
at the
fair and in
full steam
,
but some of
them might take
a
little
time
off
, um, this, you
know
, this time
of year
, but I
,
um, have
received
enough
information, even though I
might be
slightly biased
, um,
that our
fair
exhibitors are
world class when
it comes
to
their
then we
, when we
have
fair commissioners
, their
um
engagement level with
the
public, how
tidy their
barns
are and the work they do. And
again, I, this is
not coming
from me because
I think
that,
but I
also
have
not
um
necessarily bend every
fare, be
a management and other fare
,
but
I consistently get
this
, um
I got this from Francis
, our
assistant manager who's worked
at 3 fairgrounds. We
get this
from
fair
commissioners
at the
exhibitors here
are world
class
so
there's obviously
a
testament to
the kids
who are
here
, but this
is something
I've
consistently
heard
over
decades
and so a
lot of
credit
goes to
the youth, but a
lot of
that too
is the leaders, the
ffa advisors
, the
former 4h
program coordinators and
leaders because they're the
ones that are holding that
together and keeping that going
So some of these people that
have been around for
30 years
and you've seen that
same
quality that's, that's
, it's
them
that
deserves
the
um shout
out
. So I just wanted
to give
a
few
of those
, um, thoughts
, um,
and then on that note too
, I
just, if you
guys are at the
fair, just
go talk
, talk to
some of
the
exhibitors
and
you'll
learn all sorts
of fun
facts
There's posters and
you'll learn things you never
thought you needed
to know
. Um
,
so I'm gonna leave this
slide
up, but this is just yours fair
This is how to get a hold
of us
um, our social
media
pages and
I'm gonna turn over to
commissioners
for final
comments
. Thank you very much,
Eric
. Really appreciate the
the
presentation and thank
you for
the
4h leaders
and the
members
that
came in
here today
, we do
always
appreciate that
, uh,
having
a chance to come in
front of the
county
commissioners
. Commissioner
Burns, do you have
any comments
or
any thoughts
? I think
what
you all have been doing
is
awesome, that it's
, uh, it's
self-funded, it's
even better
for
us
, um, but I
appreciate
the programs and
the
opportunities for kids
,
especially
, and
to learn
new
skills
, learn
about some
life
lessons
along
the way
, and I
think it also
helps you
with
finance
because you
, you have
to
think about
the feed for
the
animals and the
care and all
the things
that go into
it
. And
so
, uh, all around
, a lot
of
great
things going on at the
fairgrounds
, so
I appreciate
you and the staff that helped
make it work. We look forward
to having you out
for your
first fair. There's
some
judging responsibilities, so no
pressure. Sounds
good. I
saw
it's already on the
calendar.
Yep. Um
. Commissioner Browning
,
any
comments? Well, yeah
, I, I
was both
an ffa
and
a 4h kit.
If you had
to ask me which
I
like
better
, the
mothers were
better cooks of
baked goods
and
cookies in the 4h and
FFAs
. So
clearly always
, always
a forest
Yeah, I just
, it
was great
. Um
,
Irish
, nice
job talking
. That
was
great
. That
was
just great
.
And Louise
, thank
you for
being
in
charge
of that group
, and
it's
really great
. Ashley,
welcome
. It's so
nice to have
you here
, but
, uh, yeah, the
,
the
fairs are just
a riot
.
They're so much fun and I have
a
long
history of, of
going to
fairs and meeting new friends,
having a good time, and just
having one of the best parts of
the summer
. So
enjoy
yourself
in 2 weeks
, 3
, almost a month
.
Something like that, yeah
. I'll
be there. I can use all the
time we can get, so
, and I
do
get to judge
the
4h this year
.
So, if you see me
around, just
be really nice so
you can make
me
want to
make yours
the best
of display. Is that
right
All right. So
thank
you. Yeah
,
thank you very much
. Uh, I
was
in 4h
and ffa
years ago
and
really
uh definitely
enjoyed
the fair
was
thinking
on
the
first
animal I showed
, I think
it
was 1970. I was
a
Scotch
County Fair
, so it's
a
56 years
or something
. So, uh, it'
s
a
great event, a lot
of good
friends and everything are able
to
come together and
all the
good
volunteers and all the
parents
and um all the kids.
It's, it's
really a good event
.
i'm really
, uh, I appreciate
all
the time
and
effort. Um
, we
have
a dog
training
facility at
our
home
and
um definitely
the
4h Club comes and uses
it every
week
and so forth
, and we
definitely support the kids and
all the things they do. My wife
was really involved in forage
.
Down in California and so
uh we
definitely appreciate all what
4h has done over the
years and
,
um, it's a great program, so
hope you enjoy it and, and
, uh,
come back many, many years in
the future
. I
want to ask a
question on the
facilities. How
are they doing? Are they
, now
we have a
facility
manager in
charge of the
fair grounds. I
don't know if Ken's gone
through
, but do you have any?
Yeah, I
think you
, you
mentioned some projects you had
going on and parking lot
Yeah,
I mean, we've
we've, um, I mean
we've, I mean
we've
done a lot
to
try and, and, and
, you know
,
move away from deferred
maintenance. It definitely
had
had gone into a phase there,
but we are
making
big
strides
,
um, I see a new a
new
restroom
facility was a
huge thing
. I
think with the
, if
the wsda
grants were able to make some
ground, right, with
the
paving
project
, um, a
lot of
that is
those are pretty high
value
projects so I
mean we
, we're
keeping up with it. I
think the
other thing is
that you know
in
2023 we were able to put
the
funding together for
a
year-round
maintenance person
um at
the fairgrounds
, so we
have
that
. We've been able to
do a lot of things behind the
scenes
on
that as well. So
, um,
I
, yeah, we have a lot of
things
in this grant. I
honestly for our
next grant
cycle
, I
don't
have anything
that's
, uh, that's glaring
right now
at me for
, for doing
that, but we
will definitely
take advantage of it if there's
state
funds available, but I
think
we
are
, um, looking good
.
I know though that
there's
always room
for more
, and some
of that goes out to the clubs
too. I
know that
the 4h
group
is
, um, fundraising for
a
tractor
right now to help
with
the arena. So there, there's
always more needs
, um, but we
are, we're pretty
proud of
, of
,
of where we're at right now
. Um
but we, we do try
and take
everything on
what's
, what's
the biggest bang for our
buck
for
the public
value is always
what we're looking at
, but you
guys will
notice we're doing
the paving
project in
OCTOBER
and that was one is
pretty
visible right when you drive on
the north gate
. So we're we're
looking forward to that
. Yeah,
thank you
very much for that.
We had
a study done
3
or 4
years ago. One of the things we
looked at affordable housing in
the county, where is
that
available to do it and look at
County
owned properties, and
one of them was
the
fairgrounds
and
the
senior center just
north of the fairgrounds and
basically, yes
, it's
a
potential
for
housing
, but to
replace
the fairgrounds, it
wasn't
economical to
replace
the
fairgrounds
with
housing
because there isn't
enough
margin there for
a builder
to
buy
the fairgrounds and
build a
new
fairground someplace to
make that happen. So I
just
want everybody to be
aware that
yes, we looked at it
, but
it's
not
going anywhere
from
my
perspective
, so you're and
the
staff and
the staff
is looking
at
it from, you
know
, we are
looking at, we're, I mean
, I,
it
is hard to
look 50 years
down the road
with funding. We,
we are looking 5
, 1015 years,
and that's our goal. It's some
,
some days
you're looking 5
years down
the road. Some days
it's 10, sometimes
it's 15. The
next day it's back
to
2, but
we
are
, we are looking at those
things and so we
are looking at
with longevity in the
current
site
and investing
in it
a lot
and so
, um, we
again, when
you
guys invest in that even
with
our foundation or the projects
we help the
horse
department
.
Please know that
your
committing towards
a
sustainable
thing and again
we've talked about the funding
level
of self-funded, so
there
is, we
are going to
work
to
work very
very
hard and we have
to work harder every year
to
sustain it, but it
does have
some stable
footing if we can
continue to
get community
support, so we just want to
know that you're giving to
something sustainable, and we
also at the same
time do very
much need
everyone's help
. Very
good. Thank you
very much. Any
other
questions, comments
? So
with that, we're going to
adjourn for a couple of minutes
and then we have our
budget
meeting with all
our
different