Sno Co considers long list of changes

The Snohomish County Council will hold two public hearings this Wed., July 8, at 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. concerning a plethora of county code changes.
Among the potential alterations is the elimination of the fully-contained community code, also referred to as mini-cities.
Another potential ordinance would amend the current fully-contained community code. It was created out of a series of stakeholder discussions earlier this year. Potential amendments ranged from increasing open space requirements to 65 percent, requiring a mini-city to be within 2.5 miles of a state highway and specifying traffic mitigation.
Although no applications for a mini-city were filled prior to the county's emergency freeze on mini-city applications almost a year ago, the McNaughton Group was considering the concept for its Lake Goodwin property, and developer Dave Barnett was considering it for his Lake Roesiger property.
Another ordinance would reduce the density permitted in rural cluster subdivisions.

The meetings will be held in the first floor meeting room of the Robert J. Drewel Building, at 3000 Rockefeller Ave., in Everett.
A full list of all the proposed changes and the ordinances are available at http://www1.co.snohomish.wa.us/Departments/Council/Information/Current_Projects/.

Unemployment continues to increase

Island County's May unemployment rate was 8.8 percent, according to the May 2009 Labor Summary. That means 2,990 Island County residents were out of work and actively looking for it in May, an increase of 80 percent from a year ago.
Snohomish County's May unemployment rate was 9.5 percent, with 36,660 county residents looking for work, according to the May 2009 Labor Summary. Of those, 22,010 were receiving unemployment benefits.
Workforce Explore Washington has labor summaries by county available monthly at www.workforceexplorer.com/article.asp?ARTICLEID=4758.

Camano Library turns 2

The Çamano Island Library pilot project will celebrate its second birthday Sat., June 27.
Along with the birthday celebration, the library is hosting its Friends of Camano Island Library book sale in the Windermere parking lot near the library from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Camano Island Library is located at 848 N. Sunrise Blvd. on Camano Island.

A glance at campaign funding

Do you wonder where County Council District 1 candidates are getting their dollars?
All campaign funding information is available through the Public Disclosure Commission (www.pdc.wa.gov/QuerySystem/candidates.aspx). The site includes reports of donations, in-kind contributions and expenditures.
As of Friday afternoon, incumbent John Koster had raised $56,242.26, and opponent Ellen Hiatt Watson had $10,424.50.
On the commission's Web site, each donation is entered as it is received. For simplicity, in the following list, donations from the same person, couple or company have been added together.
Here are supporters who gave $500 or more to Koster's or Watson's campaigns:

Koster, Republican, of Arlington:

• Dee and Charles Burnett III, retired Seattle residents, $3,200
• Connie and Brent McKinley, of Vine Street Group, an Arlington development company, $3,200
• Spadafora Construction and Development of Mukilteo, $2,900
• Dave and Kristine Barnett, Cowlitz Tribe and the Lake Roesiger development, $2,800
• Mary Ann and Ralph Monty, of Ramo Realty & Construction in Arlington, $1,720
  
• PRH, LLC of Everett, $1,600
  
• J.A. Sternola, owner of Permagas, a propane supplier in Lake Stevens, $1,600
  
• The McNaughton Group LLC/Lake Goodwin A Joint Venture, Lake Goodwin developer, $1,500
  
• Dwayne Lane's Chrysler Jeep/Lane Properties LLC, car dealership, $1,450
• Michael Echelbarger, of real estate company Echelnarger Properties in Lynnwood, $1,200
• Michael Appleby, of Stanwood and American Scandia and Chicago Title, $1,200
• C.W. Binford JR, of investing company Venture Pacific Partners, $1,050
• Steve Fulton, of State Farm Insurance in Arlington, $1,000
  
• Gordon Cole Investments LLC, of Snohomish, $950
• Butch and Polly Kvamme, of Everson, $900
• Affordable Housing Council, a Master Builders program, $800
• Forresters Incorporated, of Stanwood, $800
• Geoffery Gow, CEO and president of Polygon Northwest Co., a Bellevue developer, $800
• Gary Young, of Polygon Northwest Co., $800
• Harvey Airfield Inc., of Snohomish, $750
• Quadrant Homes, a Bellevue construction company, $750
• Camwest Development Inc, a Kirkland development company, $700
• Sundquist Homes, a Lynnwood development company, $700
• Michael Leibold, of Everett Powersports, $600
• Crown Distributing Co. LLC, of Arlington, $500
• Matthew Maynard, an Arlington dentist, $500
• Joe Pignataro, owner of Pignataro VW car dealership in Edmonds, $500
• Previs Equipment of Woodway, $500

Watson, Democrat, of Lake Howard

• Snohomish County Democrats, $2,000
• Martha Kongsgaard, a Seattle lawyer, $500
  

Sno-Isle answers questions

After holding a series of public meetings on the 2010 budget deficit, Sno-Isle Libraries has posted answers to common customer questions.
Too see the responses, go to www.sno-isle.org/cr/budget/?ID=answers.
The Sno-Isle Board of Trustees will vote on whether to put a levy lift on the November ballot or make cuts at its upcoming meeting 4:30 p.m., Mon., June 22 at the Sno-Isle Service Center, located at 7312 35th Avenue NE in Marysville.

Larsen withdraws

Krista Larsen, of Arlington, withdrew from the race for the Snohomish County Council District 1 position. That narrows the field down to Republican incumbent John Koster, of Arlington, and Democratic challenger Ellen Hiatt Watson, a Lake Howard resident.

Supreme Court hears fair school funding appeal

The Washington state Supreme Court heard a case filed against the state by Federal Way Public Schools last Thursday. The Federal Way school district claims the state's current system for determining school district funding is unfair.
King County Superior Court Judge Michael Heavey granted Federal Way Public School's suit Nov. 2, 2007. In his decision, he described it as temporary until the state Supreme Court ruled on the issue.
As Leavey explained it, school districts receive a certain amount of funding per pupil. The number of students determines the number of staff members allocated in the classified (paraeducators, food service employees, secretaries, bus drivers...), certificated (teachers, counselors) and administrator categories. The three categories each have three funding ranges, which is where the disparity comes from, and the reason why there are 258 different funding levels for the state's 295 school districts, according to the Nov. 2, 2007 opinion.
The ranges are based on the salaries the individual district paid staff during the 1976-77 school year, according to the Federal Way Public Schools Web site.
According to a calculator the Federal Way School District created, it was underpaid by around $6.5 million this school year and the Stanwood-Camano School District was underfunded by about $1.6 million.