Pierce County Council hits the road to Roy

Pierce County Council District No. 3 was the focus on the Nov. 12 in-district evening meeting of the Pierce County Council at the Lacamas Community Center in Roy.

As required by the county charter, each member of the Pierce County Council hosts at least one in-district meeting per year Councilmember Jim McCune, represents District 3, encompassing Ashford, Eatonville, Elbe, Elk Plain, Frederickson, Roy and Spanaway.

In addition to McCune, councilmembers Marty Campbell, Dave Morell and Douglas Richardson were present, meaning there were four members of the seven-member council needed to conduct business.

Following a brief presentation by Larry Leveen, project and community coordinator of ForeverGreen Trails, the council unanimously passed Proposal R2019-151, indicating support for the Yelm Prairie Line Trail, a planned 5-mile shared-use path on a former railroad right-of-way Yelm purchased in 1998 from Burlington Northern. The trail would connect Roy to Yelm.  ForeverGreen Trails is a nonprofit organization working to develop a countywide trail system throughout Pierce County.

Holly Wood, manager of the Lacamas Fair and secretary of the Lacamas Community Center, provided a brief history lesson of the “biggest little fair around.”

The fair has been a Lacamas tradition since 1929, with only a few years passing without the event being held over the years. The two-day event is typically held in the latter part of August at the Lacamas Community Center, 32113 Eighth Ave. E. in Roy.

Denise Dunn with Lacamas Valley Safe Streets touted success on local efforts related to Safe Streets, a grass roots campaign promoting community as a means of combatting crime.

“My opinion is crime has a hard time flourishing when neighbors get to know each other and stand together to shine a light on the problem and the perpetrators,” she told the council.

Pierce County Fair Manager Shelly Bennett likewise touted the success of the Graham-based summer staple earlier this year, in spite of the increased costs of doing business, including a hike in the minimum wage, and a shortage of parking spaces.

Bennett reported that attendance was up this year to 20,340 from 19,460 in 2018, noting the number of people coming to the fair has been increasing since 2015. Revenue is also up, she said, with the fair bringing in $180,000 this year, up from $139,000 last year and $127,000 the year before.

Voters’ passage last week of Initiative 976, which would return $30 car tabs to Washington state drivers, was addressed by Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier as a cause for concern in that it highlighted the differences between King County, where voters rejected I-976 by a nearly 60 percent vote, and Pierce County, which approved the initiative by almost 66 percent. Dammeier expressed trepidation that policies out of Seattle are being imposed disproportionately on areas outside of that metropolitan area.

“I would highlight one of those right now that is concerning is the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency has just proposed a new rule that I call the regional carbon tax – they call it a low-carbon fuel standard – that could potentially – and by their own economic analysis – increase the cost of gasoline from 20 to 50 cents a gallon with no investments in our transportation infrastructure,” he said.