Locals drowning in bureaucracy
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September 9, 2010
To The Eagle:
The rainy season has barely begun, and we are already drowning -- in bureaucracy. All floods, real or allegorical, start with trickles. A friend of ours desires to develop waterfront property in Cathlamet and is told by Fish and Wildlife that he can't let workers make footprints in the sand or in any other way dislodge any sediment. No permit forthcoming until he can find workers who can walk on water. Another acquaintance on Puget Island took a 30 percent loss on the sale of his house while the local tax bureaucrats are actually raising his assessed values, and can't sell his other vacant property because the septic mavens aren't happy with the existing permits.
Back in town, officials are arguing about spending nearly a million bucks they don't have to either solve a parking problem that doesn't exist or build an amphitheater next to the indoor theatre we were unable to fill, on the site where restrictive zoning prevented development of an art center. The Ecology wizards are agitating for more restrictive water usage rules despite the fact that we are inundated with billions of gallons of pure potable rainwater every year, and town officials want to encourage sewer systems to dispose of septic tank waste despite the fact that a properly built septic system rarely if ever has to be pumped. Fallout from the federal part of the bureaucracy crisis includes new pavement on a Little Island road that didn't need repaving, and a shiny new ferry landing that looks like a missile launching site aimed at Wauna.
For a change, we seem to have more immediate control over the national problems than the local ones. In two short months, we can use the ballot box to start undoing the national damage, and there are a lot of good candidates with clear, constructive plans which mostly involve getting the feds out of areas they shouldn't have invaded. Locally we need to applaud our elected officials whenever they manage to fight off or avoid intrusive state and federal bureaucrats, and encourage them to do what they can do to reduce or eliminate taxation, regulation, zoning and economic development schemes. Then we can get down to really practical projects like building an international airport on Puget Island.
Howard Brawn
Puget Island.
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