Letter to the Editor: Vote Cook for Pierce County Council

Editor,

I support Yanah G. Cook as the next Pierce County Council representative from the Third District. It is time to move on from the legacy of the past eight years.

Yanah will fight for responsible development in the Third District. In some instances, we are overbuilding our natural environment.

She believes that we need to improve all forms of transportation including amending the proposed Centers & Corridors Plan to limit the proposed “zero set backs” on state Route 7 (Pacific Avenue/Mt. Highway),and extending public transit to at least 224th Street and across 224th to Graham and north on state Route 161 (Meridian). We lost that transit line 10 years ago. She strongly supports the 2004 state-approved Route Development Plan for safety projects along the SR-161 corridor through Eatonville, including new north/south passing lanes. For years our council has been negligent in not supporting this important project.

Yanah will be a fierce advocate to protect our sole source aquifer from any new municipal landfills. Last September, the council changed regulations permitting such landfills on rural farm lands in the Upper Nisqually Valley Community Plan area and non-community areas of central Pierce County. Unfortunately, our representative voted “yes” on the technical amendments ordinance. A colleague and I successfully convinced the council to rescind the ordinance but only after we filed an appeal with the state’s Growth Management Hearings Board.

Yanah will support improving our parks and trails programs, while our current representative on the council said we need no new parks.

Cook believes in the creation and retention of living wage jobs, particularly in the Frederickson Industrial Area, and keeping our taxes from increasing. She understands job creation and working with company executives to locate here. For her, the answer is not more warehouses in Frederickson.

Most importantly, Yanah is honest, a hard worker, a good listener, a problem solver. She understands the impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic is putting on the revenue stream and will work hard to limit the negative consequences. She will work across the political aisle to improve the lives of the citizens in our district. I would urge voters to support her.

James Halmo,

Graham