While the results of the recent national and local elections may have surprised or disappointed some of us, now is the time to put politics aside and focus on the work at hand.

Without question, the county faces a tumultuous several months. We at the town stand ready to help where we can.

We remain committed to seeking areas of cooperation and efficiency between the town and the county. I continue to encourage our staffs to work to build bridges and open communication.

Our priority as elected officials is to do what we can to ensure our community is vital and strong. To that end, I remain committed to running for a second term as mayor and look forward with great expectation to many new projects and joint ventures. I encourage both councils to meet together regularly and actively seek opportunities for facilitating a resilient and productive relationship.

In my recently released Mayor’s 2013 Preliminary Budget Message I noted that as I enter the last year of my first term as mayor, I have an even greater appreciation of our community assets, both physical and human.

While revenues are not what they once were, we survived the economic downturn with minimal disruption to town services and no town-initiated tax increases. We continue to explore new partnerships with the county in an effort to find even more efficiencies in the operation of your government.

We have weathered many storms in this last year and there may well be more ahead. But it is my humble opinion that the future for Friday Harbor is indeed bright.

Mayor Carrie Lacher/Friday Harbor