2016 Year in Review: Whatcom County Executive

By Jack Louws

The year 2016 was a busy and exciting time for Point Roberts, and your local county government was proud to be a part of that.

In Point Roberts the renovation of the Julius Fire Hall into new quarters for the library has nearly reached its financial goal with the active participation of local residents. Residents should be proud of the work they have done to provide so much of the funding for what will certainly be a community gem in spite of the failure of the levy in the General Election. I have been impressed by this grassroots effort and the hard work of the small group of citizens working to bring this project to fruition. I hope you will continue to support the Friends of the Point Roberts Library board who are working so hard to complete the project.

We also have an ongoing effort to contact property owners with requests to clean up their property that has been left in an unkempt fashion. Our code compliance staff report good success in achieving a better rate of compliance and this effort will continue.

Throughout the county this has been a year of some uncertainty with the EMS levy passing by a very slim margin. Now we are working on resolving the recent Supreme Court exempt well ruling that impacts many rural residents.

Additionally, we continue to focus on different aspects of the new jail proposal from providing enhanced diversion programs to keeping the current jail open until we can again ask for your support to replace it. And of course, the Whatcom County 2017–2018 biennial budget was passed on December 6.

I wish you all an inspiring and bright 2017. I encourage you to stay involved in county government issues as we work toward resolution of the challenges we face. We appreciate your voice and assistance. Please free to email me or give me a call with concerns or ideas.