Suffering from calendar confusion? You and me both, my friend.
This is about the time I was going to write about the new state law that, in a little over a month from now, will forbid driving and using a hand-held cell phone at the same time.
I have recently read two articles in your paper that speak to the continual questioning of some of the Valley Medical Center Board of Commissioners’ ethics. I was dismayed in 2006 with the annexation fiasco and began following the news concerning Valley Medical Center.
Let me first say that I work full-time, live in a working-class neighborhood (no upscale residence for me, no favored consumer status), and my kids go to public school. And you don’t need to worry that you pay for my healthcare. I also pay a separate health insurance premium through my work, plus office deductibles, just like most people do. I also don’t mind paying taxes for schools and emergency services used as common resources by the community.
Thumbs up to the proposed merger of Fire Districts 44 and 17, if for no other reason than it just makes sense. And that might be the best reason of all.
It’s good that a squabble over meetings of the Hospital District 1 Commissioners is over. I have a feeling the public is more interested in the healthcare that the commissioners help monitor than their finger-pointing.
I don’t know how many of you look through all the inserts that are added to your monthly bills. Normally I give them a quick scan of the titles to see what someone wants from or to do to me. With last month’s Puget Sound Energy (PSE) bill I knew there would be an insert about the upcoming rate increases and how much it was going to affect me. I’m not against giving the company a little extra to buffer the increased cost of fuel, labor and storm damage to their system. I was thinking a 3 or 4 percent increase would be in line with my standard of living (fixed) and be fair to have power 24/7. I’ve been to other countries where even 2/7 was asking a lot.
Thumbs up to the city of Covington for its efforts to keep the city-owned swimming pool from becoming a quagmire.
The King County Charter is currently open for a review that occurs once every 10 years. The Charter Review Commission has been gathering information and deliberating and will soon forward amendments they endorse to the County Council. The council will consider those recommendations, then decide which amendments will be placed on the ballot this fall. The voters will have the final say.
Thanks for letting me have this opportunity to give a big shout-out to Maple Valley Family Dental Care (the one behind the Pink Elephant car wash at Four Corners, near Safeway). Let me tell you how they have “given big.”
One of our readers, after driving past an intersection near a group of newly built homes in Maple Valley, e-mailed that “there is a new banner that says Huge Price Increase. I don’t know if they meant to order a sign that said Huge Price Decrease or if they are truly announcing a huge increase in a time when the real estate market is flatter than a crepe. We burst out laughing when we drove by.”
Julia Patterson Patterson is head of the Metropolitan King County Council. Ron Sims is the County Executive. Both are astute politicians, the kind of people you want helping run our government.
Put aside for a moment the pros and cons of Dino Rossi’s just released transportation plan and consider this: It outlines what direction we should go in, why, how to get there, and how we’ll pay for it. Sound unusual? It should. No gubernatorial candidate or sitting governor has done that in nearly 30 years.
Thumbs up to Valley Medical Center on its latest enhancement – more operating rooms – to healthcare in its service area.
I am writing to extend my thanks to the city of Maple Valley and Clear Channel Outdoor for listening to community response and removing a controversial billboard that was, until recently, displayed near the 7-11 store on State Route 169 and Witte Road. I am also writing to ask the organization responsible to reconsider their message and their choice of venue, so that other communities might be prevented from being as offended as I was by the billboard.
Our readers say the nicest things.
The 2008 session of the Legislature ended on March 13. With the many challenges facing our state in transportation, education and healthcare, we were hopeful to make progress on these and other issues this year.
Thumbs up to the government and law enforcement leaders who have turned the tide on car thefts in King County.
If you or I wanted to own a barber shop, or a gas station, or a used car lot, would taxpayer money be used to build us a place of business? Of course not. Yet, professional sports teams take it for granted that taxpayers owe them state-of-the-art business facilities.
Diverging interests that might become more prominent soon in Maple Valleywere at play at a meeting at Covington City Hall last Wednesday.
