The 2023 regular session for the State Legislature ended Sunday, April 23, 2023. The Legislature acted on many bills and budgetary items during the session that will benefit Pierce County residents and all of Washington. Many of these actions support priorities in areas of housing affordability, infrastructure, and public safety that are aligned with priorities…
Category: State
Washington
Paving coming for parts of State Route 7
Fish passage work at two creeks, paving coming for State Route 7 in Pierce CountyProject consolidates work, cuts costs EATONVILLE – More than five miles of State Route 7 will see construction between Eatonville and Spanaway into fall 2023. The project will remove two barriers to fish passage and repair miles of the highway surface. Combining…
Parkland Community Assn. March 28
The 501(c)(3) status arrived in March 2023 and the Parkland Community Assn. (PCA) is now fully operational. The next meeting for the organization will be Tuesday, March 28, 6 p.m. at the Trinity Lutheran Church hall. The Parkland Community Assn. began last May with a group that formed to Save the Historic Parkland School (1908)…
Washington’s Democracy Dominoes Falling?
By Robert A. Matney Of great concern are recent and fast approaching upcoming events involving Washington’s “Sunshine Committee” (SC). The SC’s decisions could prove devastating for all citizen activists and the public in general. Around 1972, Washington voters approved what became the Public Records Act (PRA). That contained only 10 exemptions it ballooned to about…
Essential Public Facilities, dangerous words – Do you want to build a giant airport?
[Editor: this is a recap of the anti-airport meeting 1-13-23] It was a brief moment in the meeting about a major international airport being considered in South Pierce County. It was the moment when people asked, “How in the world did they approve ‘the dump?’” The answer, given by former Senator Rasmussen was 3 words,…
Slow down, it’s 35 now! No warning, Pacific Avenue speed limit signs changed
The troopers are out looking for anyone that isn’t noticing the change in the speed limit signs on Pacific Avenue. From Military Road (152nd) to the Roy-Y (190th), the speed limit has now dropped from 40 to 35 mph. There are no little orange flags on the signs to give you a heads up. So…
Farms to commercial airports? Graham meeting Jan. 13
The Coalition Against Graham and Eatonville-Roy Airports will be holding a meeting at Graham Kapowsin High School on Friday, January 13, 2023 for the public to come hear about and hopefully express their feeling about the two sites (of 3) that the Washington State Legislatures Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission (CACC) has selected as potential sites…
Orca protection Gov. Inslee? You need more state water protection laws and some enforcement teeth
Along with the arguments about Clover Creek’s demise, the creek people of Pierce County have been lamenting the lack of laws, enforcement, or possibly downright laziness in the State Department of Ecology. At present, Washington State really has no legs to stand on to protect those orcas. As small as their numbers are already, this…
Godzilla is on the horizon or is that Baby Huey?
For those of you who love your quiet, safe, inexpensive little enclave of Spanaway, or Frederickson, or Parkland, guess what? Godzilla has reared her head again. $200,000 of state money has once again been placed in the Washington State budget by Rep. Melanie Morgan of the 29th District, for the purpose of an incorporation study…
Dire warnings on our watershed – dialogue
Several members of the Chambers Clover Watershed Council have been exchanging some very concerning emails recently. Based on their experience, credentials, and length of service in the stewardship capacity, these are worth your interest. (Cindy Beckett, Don Russell and Kurt Reidinger) Starting with a reply to Ms. Beckett’s email in the previous article, “Destruction of…
Rep. Morgan plants $200k for incorporation study in State budget again
Rep. Melanie Morgan of the 29th Legislative district is trying again. She had a proposal to get $200,000 incorporation study money from the Washington State budget for the area Pierce County just rezoned called “Centers and Corridors.” The idea is to make it one big city. (Larger than Tacoma I might add.) You will not…
What the 2020 Census reveals about Pierce County
The 2020 Census was released late this decade, somewhat caused by squabbles about how it would be conducted and somewhat caused by working through the pandemic. Where the population numbers land impacts representation, number of Congressional Districts, and how the new lines are drawn to balance the population in legislative and county districts. The population…
Pierce Prairie Post 