Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Sorted by date Results 26 - 37 of 37
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...
