FD #5 PARTICIPANTS:

She said that Snohomish County's population is expected to increase 50% over the next 20 years and that King and Snohomish counties currently use 22.5 million tons per year. The rate of economic development and new construction will only increase the need for the products, and she indicated that 150 tons of aggregate are needed for each new resident, and already-existing residents use an average of 14 tons per year. [Note: Although we're not disputing the need for S&G products, Ms. Hansen was unable to give me the source for any of those statistics when I questioned her after the meeting.]

She then moved into the specifics of the Longview Fiber Project in Gold Bar (refer to their hand-out material given separately on this website), which is meant to replace the now-dwindling products extracted from their Sky River operations in Monroe, and other small operations.

She anticipates that permitting for their project will take between two to three years due to the need for an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement), a zoning change, NPDES and other permits not yet identified.

Following the presentation, the ESCCC members and Cadman discussed the obvious necessity of increasing the volume capacity of U. S. Highway Route 2. Cadman states that they wish to "cooperatively work towards Highway solutions," and that they "are committed to exploring other alternatives, including rail." Cadman VP and General Manager Barry Meade said that, on a positive note, the benefits derived from their research and studies on the cost-effectiveness of using rail transport for S&G products would "provide a baseline for all future rail uses."

ESCCC's organizer and Gold Bar councilmember Steve Higgins pointed out that the 1.5 million tons per year anticipated for extraction by the Longview project, when combined with the same estimated product from a future DNR Powerhouse project, screamed out for concurrency on traffic issues. He asked Ms. Hansen why Cadman had not agreed to pull their request for permitting of this project, as requested by the ESCCC, until the county's mineral comprehensive plan was completed and the traffic issue addressed. But Ms. Hansen said that she "just doesn't see" the county being able to adequately resolve Route 2's problems, and concurred with Higgins' assessment that the county EIS should have use a trip-limitation mechanism for addressing those problems here, and elsewhere, in the county.

Sultan Councilmember Mark Raney raised the issue of Cadman's lobbying for funds to fix Route 2, and asked what Cadman will offer in that regard. Raney said, "Cadman and others need to lead the charge in Olympia" on this effort. Mr. Meade's head nodding in agreement, he stated, "That's exactly the opportunity we hope we can bring to the table. We have lobbyists in both Olympia and Washington (D.C.) and they have already met on the issue to find out how Cadman can be a player."

Responding to probing by Higgins about the level of commitment that would be given to lobbying activities, Mr. Meade said "Everything's on the table right now, but we haven't committed a dollar figure yet."

Sultan Police Chief Fred Walser and Chairman of the Highway 2 Safety Coalition, urged that lobbying efforts should probably be focused on the federal level because of the states' funding problems -- "We need to concentrate on D.C." -- to which Meade responded: "Maybe the next thing will be to identify and focus on how to get that done."

As a side note, I "cornered" Mr. Meade, Ms. Hansen and Liz Loomis outside the meeting to try and clarify the statistics used in their presentation. I also requested a copy of the PowerPoint presentation. I identified myself, and Liz Loomis recognized my name immediately. Both Ms. Hansen and Loomis seemed willing and even eager to forward their presentation to me electronically so I could post it on my website. But I received an email the next morning indicating that Cadman did not wish to have the presentation on my website.

I have heard "through the grapevine" that Cadman's official answer as to why they don't want this on my website is due to "competitive" reasons. But the presentation was quite vanilla in it's nature, and, hey, gravel is not precisely high tech folks. What, precisely, could a competitor "steal" from it? I saw it. There was no such competitive information contained within it.

To me, Cadman's position begs the question: If Cadman was so eager to present "the real story" to taxpayer representatives in a public meeting -- a presentation which was mostly a PR piece for them, to be honest -- then why wouldn't they want that story to get out to others? This would have offered them an excellent opportunity to give residents of Gold Bar, Sultan and Monroe a different view of gravel operations rather than what we normally see as we stare at the back-end of a gravel truck along Route 2.

And, now, instead of my offer of simply sharing that information with everyone without making any comments pro or con, they have gone and made themselves look rather silly.

Not a smart move, guys….

One of the 3-29-02 ESCCC's agenda items was how to deal with the problem presented by the county on its support to switch all communication systems over to 800 MHZ. As facts about this issue slowly surfaced resulting from careful research and consideration, It appears we may have our own little Enron right here in the county.

Of primary concern is the huge initial cost, which amounts to many hundreds of thousands of dollars (i.e., Monroe, over $500K, for Sultan, $300K). But it doesn't stop there. And, once purchased, the equipment would not even be owned by the cities. They would simply be "renting capacity" on the system, not the system itself. And the ongoing annual M&O (Maintenance and Operations) costs are also prohibitive. And according to FD #5 Chief Merlin Halverson, "It's old technology and it's expensive to keep up because it's a proprietary system."

But monetary costs aside, there are significant questions being raised about the systems' adequacy as well, both from a cutting edge technology standpoint and its adequacies relative to the inherent line-of-sight communication functionality in rural areas, especially during an emergency situation.

Bottom line: Why pay a fortune for a system that will soon be outdated and may not work when we need it the most? "Duh." I might even say, "double-duh."

Police Chief Fred Walser gave a brief summary background on pertinent points:

• He formed SNOPAC several years ago to consolidated four separate Snohomish County dispatch centers.
• 800 MHz technology systems came into the county either years ago and offered to the voters under a $36 million bond issue. The voters said "Thanks, but no thanks."
• Snohoco made the decision to purchase this system from Motorola -- which was presented as the "this solution fits all" remedy for emergency communication, made many promises, but few goals have been accomplished. Snohoco offered this system to the south county cities, among them, Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, etc.
• Since then, any of those South Snohomish County cities choosing to use the 800 MHZ system formed SERS (Snohomish Emergency Response System).
• Motorola essentially "dumped" their already-antiquated 800-MHZ system on the county.

It appears that the county is now coming to smaller rural cities, essentially trying to "extort" funding by coercing them to switch to the new system at a scandalous cost. Most rural cities have simply gone along without understanding the ramifications, and believing that Snohoco's authority was paramount in this issue.

Chief Walser continued by stating, "I am absolutely, adamantly opposed to the 800 MHz System," and that one of his primary concerns is that, "If the system goes down -- due to earthquake, terrorist strike, whatever -- 800 MHz won't work. But the 700 MHz system will continue to operate."

Chief Walser said that Police Commander J. C. Becker had reviewed the information on the pros and cons of available technology, and Comdr. Becker noted, "That the county has no technology plan in place," and recommended that all east county cities, "step back and build an infrastructure that will work."

The bond on 800 MHz system was rejected originally in large part due to opposition by county fire departments and districts that stated it was a bad technology. Sultan's Fire Dist. #5 Chief Merlin Halverson began his presentation with, "When I found out [about this], I was shocked," He then made a presentation based on a review of the legal documents from the county.

Halverson said that cities will not own the system. They will buy the "right" to rent the system's CAPACITY, NOT THE EQUIPMENT. And, if the capacity is not available during a certain time, you simply don't get it.

The ONLY "promise" made is that they will not make any promises.

Another problem is that the cities essentially will have no decision-making rights because of the way the contract is configured. A clause related to voting structure of the plan stipulates that any member can call for a majority vote if they disagree with something. For example, if all the cities agree on an issue with the exception of Everett, Everett can call for a vote super-majority vote. And since Everett will represents a majority of the votes, virtually anything they want they will get, but everyone else will be buying and supporting it.

In other words, Everett and Snohomish County will decide on the number of dispatch centers. They will decide on how much the annual M&O fees will be. It will be a de facto City of Everett system, regardless of the needs of the remainder of the county.

As of the 3/29/02 meeting, Halverson said that other fire districts have taken the position that "we don't have a choice," based on the form and content of Snohomish county's approach on this issue.

Questions have also been raised regarding the "vinyl salesmen" approach used by Snohomish County, a sort of "now-or-never" situation where pressure has been applied to cities without giving the entire story.

Sultan Mayor C. H. Rowe stated that a mayor of one of the larger Snohomish County cities told him that Motorola gave the county a 30% discount on purchase of the system, but is only passing along a 10% discount to the cities.

FD #5 Mike Ingalls was deeply troubled that taxpayers were not being well served by the system, stating, "We have a responsibility to history to assure taxpayers we will not be doing another Enron. We are not about to subject taxpayers to double taxation." He also raised the question of the county's power in this regard. "What gives the county the authority to do this? We have been advised that these are not legal contracts." Ingalls also noted that Snohoco's assertion that the FCC will "pull" current frequencies being used is "false."

And even if the contractual and monetary arrangements were satisfactory, there still remains the question of functionality -- especially -- in an emergency. My ears popped wide open as I heard Index Mayor Kem Hunter say that this system had been used in Seattle when he was in the fire department. Hunter stated, "We had huge, huge problems. Holes and system crashes during emergency situations." To say the least, not an ideal solution for those times when communication is needed the most.

The cities have until the end of April to take action, having secured an additional 30 days past the original March 31^st county-set deadline.

The meeting ended as ESCCC members discussed possible strategies on how to proceed, to be further discussed at their next meeting scheduled for Friday, April 19^th, at 2:00 p.m. in the Monroe Council Chambers.