I write these words to encourage each of you to truly take time to think about the future of Black Diamond. As a former mayor, current member of the Black Diamond lodge, volunteer at the Museum (including chair for the Coal Miner’s Honor Garden), former councilman, town marshal, road grader and dog catcher, this city and these issues are very important to me.
Most of you know that Black Diamond was once a booming coal mining town. When Pacific Coast Coal shut down its operations, the buzz was that Black Diamond would become nothing but a ghost town. In fact, not too many years later, the large and prosperous hotel that once occupied the land where the Eagles building now resides was torn down. The movie theater, the barbershop, the grocery store and meat market, and many of the houses occupied by miners were also torn down. This left Black Diamond with no business and no source of income to support its needs to maintain roads, water systems, sewer and other necessities. We were then at the mercy of King County to maintain our roads, our water and other services. Of course, many people moved out of Black Diamond to other locations that could provide those services and jobs. This further compounded the money problems.
Then of all things, we lost our school district because the citizens that were left in the town could not afford to pay the tax levy. They voted yes to keep the school district, but voted no to pass the school levy. So we had to incorporate with Enumclaw. While Enumclaw School District has been good to us, there are concerns that we lost our own voice. We have to go through another city to have actions occur within our own schools.
The feeling was the same way about the town and the county. In the late 50’s the citizens became very concerned about the future of the town and took action to incorporate Black Diamond as a city with the belief that a local government could better manage and provide for the local needs.
Since I was elected to be one of the first council members I have first-hand knowledge of the hard work and decisions that took place at the time. Since we were now a city we could and did apply for grants and began to utilize resources available to the city that were beyond our own local monies (in other words we found money that didn’t come from out local taxpayers to make our improvements). One of the first things taken care of was to address the water issues. New mains, water lines and other support were put in place. Road were next. Most of the roads were all gravel and in need of grading and significant improvement. Much of this would not have happened without the availability of resources beyond the city’s tax revenues.
In 1974 when I became mayor, we took additional advantage of obtaining funds from outside resources and were able to begin work on the sewer systems; and that grant also including paving of many of our gravel roads. Without these outside resources, this work would not have been accomplished.
One of the greatest struggles we have always faced is that Black Diamond lacks funds because it lacks businesses and homes as tax resources. To that end the city took action to expand its boundaries. Even with the expansion of the boundaries, including Lake Sawyer, the city of Black Diamond simply does not have the revenue to support the basic needs of a city, including roads, sewer, water, police and fire protection and those things that are typical of an organized community, unless we want to take action to significantly increase our fees for water, sewer, sales tax and house taxes.
As I look back one of the pictures I see is how well the city has managed its growth in order to finds ways to create revenues yet balance land management, rate of growth, environmental needs, and our infrastructure, including upkeep with fire and police protection while keeping our service fees and tax increases as small as possible.
The previous mayors and I have always had the dream that we would someday develop the land around us into a city that we could be proud of; one with well-lit streets, underground wiring, safety systems, sidewalks, crosswalks, medical facilities for the elderly, hiking and biking trails, parks and recreation, schools for Black Diamond kids, and homes built with controlled and managed growth. Instead of following the path of some other communities that have allowed more uncontrolled growth, Black Diamond staunchly worked to control the development plans. This plan is not the picture or message that some people are inaccurately representing. Personally I have been involve with these plans since their inception and have done so because I do want to see our growth happen in the right way.
Thus, the master plan development (MPD) was created, presented to the community in multiple occasions and approved by the council. It has been updated many times to make adjustments based on needs identified by the citizens of Black Diamond. The MPD has also been challenged multiple times. Each appeal, which has cost the taxpayers in Black Diamond many thousands of dollars, has been heard by hearing examiners and judges and denied. In fact, an award from the Association of Builders (Washington D.C.) has been received based on how well the plan has been laid out. Also unique to our Master Plan is the requirement that developers pay for the cost of the related infrastructure items. This includes land and money for schools, fire department, parks, trails, lighting, crosswalks and much more. This is money that does not come from taxpayers; it is an outside resource.
The citizens of Black Diamond will make the choice about our city’s future not anyone else. As we make those decisions I encourage you to be very careful in your thoughts as the ramifications can be costly. As a person who has lived here all my life and have helped to build the city, I believe the right decision is to move forward with controlled growth. Without that we go back to what we used to be, a place with no businesses, no tax revenues, no monies to support our fire and police protections, no monies to maintain roads, no monies to maintain water and sewer systems, and no monies to make improvements for safety, medical needs and other items that are important to us.
There is probably nobody any prouder than I am of Black Diamond’s history, and our coal-mining heritage. However, while we honor that history, we must also recognize that we cannot continue to be a town that just goes on and doesn’t make improvements. We must move forward and provide for change that can make our city cleaner, brighter, safer and a better place for children to be raised, families to grow; a city to meet the needs of all our citizens, including the elderly. I don’t know about you but I want to be proud of where I live.
I encourage you to take time to become educated about the issues that face us today before you cast your vote. I would be glad to talk to any of you and share the knowledge I have and why I am so insistent that we not take backward steps that can result in bankrupting our city and leaving us without monies to meet our needs; in other words, going back to the pre 1960’s era. So let’s move forward, not backwards.
Please vote for the candidates who have knowledge and history of our city, who understand our needs, who support the master plan development because it is the path to a better future.
Gomer Evans
Black Diamond
