Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
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There has been much speculation about why there is a 2-mile section in the middle of the Hawk Creek Road that remains unpaved. I will attempt to clarify. Last year, Lincoln County paved a 5.6 mile stretch of the upper portion of the hill on the Hawk Creek Road. The funding for this project was made available from the American Rescue Plan Act dollars that the county received from the federal government to offset the effects of Covid. Those were one-time dollars and could only...
Several years ago, the Washington Secretary of States provided to counties, at no cost, a device called an Albert Sensor. Albert is an intrusion detection device that was provided to counties with the narrative that it will help secure our elections. The installation of these devices required that counties enter into a contract with a third-party, non-governmental organization (NGO) called Center for Internet Security (CIS) located in New York. The premise was that CIS would...
For 2024, Lincoln County will be paying over $1,500,000 in risk insurance premiums. This represents a drastic increase of over 83% from just two years ago and 53% over 2023. And… these rates are expected to escalate next year as well, with no end in sight. Next to wages and benefits, risk insurance represents the 2nd largest expense for the county. One might wonder why such dramatic increases are happening. There are multiple factors at play, such as the state legislature p...
Intentionally, the Washington State Legislature, Governor Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson, are completely destroying our state. The Democrat controlled legislature has singlehandedly absolved you from having any say over the health of your children as it pertains to gender identity. If your child runs away from home and seeks shelter at a state facility, while seeking gender-transitioning treatment, including puberty blocking drugs that can render a child sterile for...
Lincoln County has always been a huge proponent of transparency. We believe, as elected officials, that we should not get to decide what the public should or should not know about how their tax money is spent. In fact, in 2016 the Board of County Commissioners passed a Transparency Resolution stating that all future union contract negotiations will be conducted in a manner that is open to the public. Not for public involvement or input but so citizens and employees alike can...
Where does all the money for our county roads come from? You may be surprised to know that, in Lincoln County, only about 15% is generated from property tax revenue that is received from parcels of land in the unincorporated areas of the county. Parcels of land in our towns do not pay property taxes for county roads. About 21% comes from the federal government. Most of this money is for competitive projects that the county has applied for as well as safety money for guardrails...
When is enough, enough? In the United States, a law is presumed to be constitutional until proven otherwise in court. This process can take years, and a lot of money, to wade through the legal system and end up at the Supreme Court. As the challenge proceeds, we are still obligated to obey the law. We are a nation of laws. When a politician doesn't like something, they seek to make a law prohibiting you from possessing or doing whatever it is that they don't like. Even if it...
You may have heard rumors that local funding for these programs could be in jeopardy. That was true on several fronts, but those issues were resolved before the holidays. The County has had an Interagency Agreement with WSU for many years whereby the County provides both direct funding support through tax dollars and in-kind support from the use of a County building, in exchange for Extension and 4-H programming and services. Last fall, WSU notified the County that they were...
Interesting fact: In the last Legislative Session, a bill was passed creating the “Washington State Office of Equity Task Force.” This task force was given the responsibility to create a vision to establish and fund a permanent “Office of Equity.” The legislature specifically designated who would sit on this task force. It included 4 legislators and a representative of a myriad of groups including the LGBTQ community, the Governor’s Office and the Commission on African A...
Since Gov. Jay Inslee issued his "Stay Home, Stay Healthy" proclamation last month, Lincoln County has been scrambling to determine how to best balance paramount duties to provide for public safety, public health and county road functions. While we all want to stay safe, we want to do so in a manner that is the "least restrictive" to our constitutionally protected rights. While the governor's proclamation is aimed at protecting the public, I believe it does so in a way that...
On Sunday, April 2, 2017, a massive landslide occurred, sending a large portion of the Porcupine Bay Road into Lake Roosevelt. This unfortunate event was the inception of the Porcupine Bay Road Landslide Repair Project; the largest unplanned project that Lincoln County has undertaken since Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980. The landslide left many of our citizens without public access to their property. It also resulted in the closure of a major National Park Service...
The year 2018 was a good one for Lincoln County! We saw a spike in various sources of revenue that resulted in a higher than expected cash balance at the end of the year. Most of the increases were from sales tax, investment interest and jail revenue. While we saw increases from several sources, revenue from divorce filings, previously the third largest source of revenue for the county, continued its steady decline. We have gone from processing 4,542 divorces in 2008 to just o...
Unfortunately, a new slide on the Porcupine Bay project occurred on October 3 and work has been halted on the east (downhill side) soldier-pile retaining wall. This work stoppage is due to slope stability and worker safety issues. Since we now have "differing site conditions," there is an ongoing engineering investigation to determine if additional work may be needed to stabilize the existing slope and/or east soldier-pile retaining wall. Work on the west (uphill side)...
In September of 2016, the Board of Lincoln County Commissioners adopted Resolution 16-21, setting a policy that union employee contract negotiations will be conducted in open public meetings. Only for the public to observe, not participate. This resolution has had huge, broad, local and state support. Every major newspaper editorial board in the state has advocated for this and there have been many articles published recently, praising what we have done here in Lincoln County...
In 2013, the federal government shut down for 16 days. What that meant for those of us wishing to access our very own Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area at that time, was nothing short of unbelievable. Operating under a contingency plan for a lapse in funding developed by the director of the National Park Service (a presidential appointee), in conjunction with the Secretary of the Interior (a presidential cabinet post), the Park Service spent untold taxpayer dollars to ph...
The more time I spend serving the people of Lincoln County, the more things I see that make me shake my head. When I first got elected, I knew that there would be plenty of hurdles standing in the way of progress. Overcoming some of these issue would be an inviting challenge. But in reality, there are not enough hours in a day, so you have to learn to pick your battles. So, I thought I would take some time to describe just a few of those battles that the public may not be...
The Board of Lincoln County Commissioners recently adopted Resolution 16-21, setting a policy that union employee contract negotiations will be conducted in open public meetings. This resolution has huge, broad, local and state support. Every major newspaper editorial board in the state has advocated for this, and many articles published recently have praised what we have done here in Lincoln County to bring better transparency to government. By opening our contract negotiatio...
There has been a lot of talk on the street lately about a proposed public safety sales tax in Lincoln County. I would like to take this opportunity to share with you some of our struggles, clear up a few misconceptions and then explain the concept to the public. First of all, as you know, the county had a very difficult time balancing the 2016 budget. This condition has been escalating for several years and will continue to compound itself into the future. I feel that it is...
Greetings from the courthouse! As I'm sure most of you have heard, we had a very difficult time balancing the 2016 budget. I feel that it is extremely important to share with you, the taxpayers, the struggles that your local governments are facing. I will speak to Lincoln County's situation (current expense, not public works) but these same issues affect your towns, fire districts, hospital districts, schools and any junior taxing district in the state of Washington. There...
Lincoln County Commissioner After seven months of waiting for an attorney general opinion, we finally have answers to our questions. All of the questions we asked revolve around RCW 46.09.360 which states that counties have the authority to open roads to “off-road vehicles.” Counties do have the authority to designate roads with a speed limit exceeding 35 mph for ORV use, but the statute specifically excludes “wheeled all-terrain vehicles.” So, the crazy part is that a four-...
Can we ride ATVs on county roads in Lincoln County? This seems to be one of the most common questions lately, but the answer is, it depends. In 2013, the Washington State Legislature passed HB 1632 that allows ATV use on county roads that are posted 35 miles per hour or less. Of course, the ATVs must be licensed and meet certain regulations in order to be legally driven on these roads. It has taken some time for the Department of Licensing to develop the required license...
Greetings from the Lincoln County Courthouse! Below is an open letter from the Lincoln County Commissioners as well as the Eastern Washington Council of Governments that will be sent to the Director of the National Park Service in Washington, D.C. I thought it might be of interest in light of the recent federal government shutdown in October and the economic impact that it had on our counties and communities.Have a safe and prosperous 2014! Director Jarvis, We are writing to...
Greetings from the Courthouse! I thought that I would bring everyone up to date on some of the accomplishments that Lincoln County achieved in 2012. One of the biggest projects was the county-wide Narrow Band Radio Project. The federal government issued a mandate that all two-way radio licensees convert from a wide-band signal to a narrow-band signal by January 1, 2013. This affected the Sheriff's Office, Public Works Department, all of the Fire/EMS agencies and LCOMM. A...
Greetings from the Courthouse! Well, it’s been one year and I’m still loving my new job! I just wanted to give a quick update on the things that have been going on around Lincoln County. I’ve now had the opportunity to experience one complete cycle of county government and the associated budgets. Speaking of which, Lincoln County is currently in pretty good financial shape. I have to give credit to the Board of Commissioners previous to my term who made the necessary adjus...
Now that I have six months under my belt, I thought I would give you an update about my new job and some of the things going on around Lincoln County. Right after the first of the year the Board made a decision for the county to self-insure for medical insurance. This decision was made based on several factors. The pool that the county was previously in was experiencing drastic premium increases due in large part to excessive claims by some of its members. The general thought...
