Voters should have a say in San Juan County spending
September 9, 2008 · Updated 12:15 PM
An open letter to the San Juan County Council:
Three million dollars for an Orcas dock complex? Give us a break! That works out to about 600 years of rent for the same property.
I guess it all started for me when the county purchased the Lafarge gravel pit property for $1.3 million. In that case, the decision was brought before the general citizenry and they said (by 70 percent margin) “NO! We don’t want to do this.” Well, we all know what happened: the county government bought it. Then, having learned not to ask the public (you might get the wrong answer), they purchased land for a proposed garbage dump.
Now we are purchasing a dock and land on Orcas Island and taking it off the tax rolls as well, and assuming the cost of upgrades to safety and environmental systems.
We have not done anything with the gravel pit or the proposed dump sites (except take them off the tax rolls and pay the costs of servicing bonds), committing the county to more expense during a time of limited budgets.
The decision to spent $3 million at any time should be brought up to the total county population since it is they that will assume the costs. Let’s all work together and use our collective heads before anymore open-ended purchases take much needed revenue out of the county coffers.
Dave Dysart
San Juan Island
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