D R A F T

MINUTES  U. S. 2 Safety Coalition Meeting

April 24, 2006

319 Main Street, Sultan, Washington 98294

 

Note:   A summary report of the meeting with Dave Earling follows the Minutes, as well as a copy of this meeting’s published agenda.

 

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by John Seehuus, Chairman Pro-Tem.

 

Attendees:

 

 

Self-Introductions

 

Changes to Agenda:  Deletion of Item 3(a); moved to June meeting.

 

OLD BUSINESS

 

 

Update on U. S. 2’s RDP – Rene Zimmerman, WSDOT’s RDP Manager

 

Rene stated she had seven major subjects to report on:

 

 

Rene stated a new “newsletter”/portfolio would be issued as the project progresses.

 

 

 

Rene mentioned that the additional $700,000 in funding secured through the legislature in order to achieve a solid and strong Route Development Plan.  She then opened it up to questions.

 

Dean Pratt made a statement that he would prefer to see that $700,000 used for something else.  He said what is needed is improvements, not more studies.  Part of his suggestion/statement follows:  “Isolate the road; install long exit lanes for people who want to turn off to that town, right-turn only; eliminate all those turn lanes and put barriers down both sides and the middle if you want to.  It would be millions of dollars cheaper.  You’re never going to get enough money to do what it’s going to require to fix this and you’re not going to eliminate the accidents.  Because instead of crossing two lanes, the locals are going to try and cross four lanes.  You have a bunch of lights.  You’re going to eventually have to put some overpasses in. Why not put them in first and isolate the highway? Let these people go through.”  Mr. Pratt used to be a general contractor for 40 years, so he has some experience in the area.  His main point was to “isolate” the highway from the businesses, etc.

 

 

Lt. Jeff Brand asked Rene to summarize comments and questions received at the April 18th meeting.  Rene responded that most folks expressed the same frustrations:  When the Monroe bypass would be finished and what WSDOT is going to do about the high accident situation. These issues are also reflected in her private emails and in the comments received through the RDP webpage comment form.  She said it’s a situation of too many projects chasing too few dollars.  Mr. Pratt weighed in, stating his solution would require significantly less funding.  Zimmerman responded that improvements for the corridor needs to be addressed in a “holistic” manner, as a whole, not spot-fixes for each city.  Mr. Pratt suggested WSDOT “sit down and have a brain[storming] session and [find] better options on how to fix this” [U. S. 2.]  But I know what the State is talking about is not right.”  Made other comments re SR 522.  Jill McKinnie stated that one of the main purposes of the RDP study is to take input, ideas and concepts -- such as from Mr. Pratt and others -- and consider the feasibility of such suggestions.

 

Jeff Beeler (Sultan resident) then asked if the state already has a current “fixed” 20-year state plan for U. S. 2?  Zimmerman replied that the “Highway System Plan” is updated every two-to-four years. “And in it – and it’s [uncertain what “it” refers to] been in this plan for 30 years.  It’s a wish list. And we’re changing the approach of let’s be more realistic. We can’t put a wish list in this document that’s being updated right now. But I’ll tell you what was on here about U. S. 2, things like four-lane-ing from Snohomish all the way to the Pass. Realistically, is that going to happen?  I’m going to say no.  You have a lot of environmental constraints. And that’s something that I don’t think realistically will happen.  You’ve got the railroad and you’ve got the Skykomish River and a lot of environmental regulations and rules – state and federal – that you have to follow. The other thing is the Monroe bypass. That’s been in the plan for I don’t know how long.  I think it’s close to 20, 30 years. I think it’s been a really long time and it’s something that – “  (Rene gets interrupted by Mr. Pratt.)

 

Mick Burch (Sultan county resident) asked if anyone is considering the growth that’s being planned.  He mentioned Lake Chelan’s population going back and forth constantly on U. S. 2, and the increase from Stevens Pass users, too.  He just can’t see (unintelligible) fixes on Highway 2 solving the problems.  He said a bypass is the real answer, and if the state cannot afford four lanes to Wenatchee, then it seems sensible to him just to study them past Gold Bar right now.

 

Preston Hall (resident) stated he’s lived throughout the United States as a military man, and oftentimes it seems to take over 30 or more years to get a bypass. The bottom line is politics, and the driving push behind that has been (unintelligible; something about people going around towns rather than through it).

 

Fundraising Report – C. H. Rowe

 

Board Member Rowe has received $1,000 commitment from the Sultan Bakery and another commitment (unspecified “good-sized” donation) from Rusty Drivstuen  (owner of the Mountainview Chevron at Rice Road/U. S. 2, and a founding member of the Coalition who had previously committed approx. $10,000), plus “Fred has gotten a check for $300,” for a grand total of $3,335 plus the Drivstuen commitment. 

 

 

NEW BUSINESS

 

Report on Dave Earling (see the Coalition’s notes on this meeting, attached)

 

Board Member Storm gave a summary of the meeting held with Fred and Donnetta Walser, C. H. Rowe, Mark and Josie Fallgatter and herself (see report, end of minutes).

 

SCCIT Meeting and Update on Contacts

 

Board member Storm gave a brief summary of some of the Coalition’s recent outreach efforts, many of which resulted with the Coaltion’s April 18th meeting.  S.C.C.I.T. (Snohomish County Coalition for Improved Transportation) is a Snohomish County organization focused primarily on transportation issues from an economic development perspective, with which Chairman Walser and Vice-Chairman Walser have recently become involved.

 

Storm also mentioned  contact with another valuable outreach/networking partner, the North Central Regional Planning organization, and read from the letter one of their representatives had hand-delivered to the April 18th public meeting.

 

 

April 18 Public Meeting – Feedback

 

Input was received from attendees on the interagency public meeting:

 

Lonn Turner stated he received input from co-workers saying they were very impressed with it.  He felt it went very well and felt the turnout by public officials was good. Thought press coverage was terrific.

Mr. Pratt requested a phone number of a board member he could call to receive information. He stated he wanted to attend the April 18th meeting but his daughter had a major operation that same day so he could not attend.  He stated that there was no way to reach any Coalition member.

Lonn Turner was disappointed that more time was not allowed for public comment; there were still people wishing to speak.  Suggesting and hour or an hour and a half set aside for public input would be more appropriate.  He suggested that the next public meeting be held at the Fairgrounds and to have it in Monroe.

Jeff Beeler stated most folks in his neighborhood (Eagle Ridge) did not know about it.  Feels more advance notice/communication is needed.

C. H. Rowe suggested reader boards along the highway would have been helpful.  He also suggested that a better, more improved PA system would have been helpful; people in the center of the Gym couldn’t hear.  He had received feedback from citizens:  “We know the problems on Highway 2. What you guys didn’t tell us is what we can do to help fix it.” (Another comment from a member of the group agreed, saying the Coalition should have left the citizens with a TASK to do.)

Board Member Fallgatter thought that was a great point.  And just because we had that information on a flyer, did not translate into people actually taking them home or reading them.  A specific statement within the meeting – at the end – of what we need people to do, should have been made.

Preston Hall stated that he would like to see more state patrols on U. S. 2.  Thinks it would save more lives.

 

Chairman Pro-tem  Seehuus asked for Board Members’ thoughts.

 

Secretary Storm stated:  “I’d just like to see the public officials cut back to a maximum of five minutes, if possible, because people just glaze over after a couple of minutes, unless these are really thrilling speakers, which they weren’t [chuckles]… and allow the public time to speak. And it’s not so much, maybe that we need to hear – because we’ve probably heard an awful lot of this feedback already – it’s important for them to voice their opinion, to make them feel like they’re being heard. And you never know when a great idea will come out of the blue, something that you never had thought of before.  So that, to me is just so important.  I’m a public comments person.”

Chairman Pro-tem Seehuus:  I agree. 

 

Board Member Mark Fallgatter:  “Two of the items I ran into this week – in fact, in the work that I do, I have contact with a lot of people  And it was nice to have two people, contractors, come and talk to me about that meeting and about what it really costs them.  And the didn’t know what to do, either.  Back to that same question:  What do we (unintelligible)?  And I just told them, email the media or email the board. And that’s what we need to do is get that chain laid out for everybody so if this gentleman, if he wants to make a phone call, the information doesn’t go to just Renee, it goes to the Coalition, so we have a copy and everybody knows what’s going on.  But he did like the fact that – So it was cool we were there.  He said something to me right off the bat, ‘Hey, it’s great.  We recognize the need to do (unintelligible) or something.  It’s nice to know somebody’s doing something about it.’  And he wants to do something, he just didn’t know what to do. Oh, and the other one [comment] was after reading that letter from the consultant [North Central Regional Planning], it just basically says “freight mobility.”  And he didn’t like that, this contractor I was talking to.  He said, ‘What about the rest of us who aren’t moving freight?  You know, we’re talking our workers in, we’re sending our crews out to different places and what it cost. So we’d like to see maybe that ‘freight mobility’ focus changed to just commerce, just everybody’s commerce.’  The Pass, people going up there, what it does to his business [etc.]  And so – Lonn said it was a great turnout. That’s what I’ve heard from a lot of people.  It was a good turnout. And the press coverage really will help. And there are people that saw it, that maybe weren’t paying attention to this before, or knew that they had an approach, now they realize there is one, we just have to make it clear to them what that approach is, who that contact person is. So those are the things that I saw happening.  And you couldn’t get to Rene’s table.  I mean, we were busy all night. We couldn’t get to her table.  So it was nice to see the State Patrol and Rene’s table, and everybody who had something set up there, have a lot of activity.  So it’s nice.  These guys had started it a long time ago.  I mean, they have done a lot.  I mean, they’ve stayed faithful for eight years, but there seems to be this move now that people are on board.  I don’t know what the issue is.  Maybe it’s the deaths, maybe it’s the whole combination, but they want to do something and we have to make it so that they can get ahold of someone and be heard.  That’s the only issue that I’m finding that we’re not doing yet.”

 

Board Member Jeff Brand:  “A couple of things.  Good points as far as not having enough time for the public.  We only had, I think, about 45 minutes for the public to speak.  And I also saw email, etc., that we needed the night with people still in line waiting to talk. And that wasn’t fair to them. So either we have to extend the meeting, move the meeting earlier, put public (unintelligible) of all the speakers and give move them faster, or something.  Because the public is who we’re supposed to be listening to and helping.  I would like to see a little more interaction from the standpoint [that] people threw out ideas and suggestions, but there was no return.  In many cases they were saying (unintelligible) your idea a second later.  I don’t know that I agree with it, I’m not an engineer kind of guy. So maybe it would have been good to have someone there who could respond a little bit better, instead of making them walk away saying, ‘So what?’ again.  [John Seehuus:  “Well, you’re not going to debate it and solve it right there, so – “]  And you’re not. But at least if it’s an idea that’s been thrown out in the past, talked about in the past, we can – somewhat in the know – can say, ‘This is what we’ve done in the past. This is what we learned. And it’s not a good idea.’  Or, ‘That’s the way we’re going.’  Whatever.  That was probably the biggest downfall. And I mean, I had to look hard for a real negative in that meeting.  I was really, really happy and impressed.  I’ve come to these meetings with many of you. I’ve seen that we’ve had a handful. And to see as many people as we had show up there, especially for that time of evening, I was really happy.  Some very good things came out of this. And finally, what you – I believe – Loretta, I believe you said – we need to give them some [sounds like, “publisher”???].  We’ve got people all hyped-up and they want to go do something, but we didn’t give them something to do. And what people have to understand is the Coalition – long before I got here – started doing some wonderful things about getting the attention of our local politicians, our national politicians and starting getting some money in here to start working on the highway here. We need to keep our names out there, keep [getting][ in their face, if you will, toi get them to keep funding us.”

 

Secretary Storm:  “I’d like to jump on what Jeff said and what Mark said, too.  You know, we all need to be ambassadors. Every, single one of us that drives that U. S. 2 HAS to be pass along the information, the meeting times, the email address and the flyers. When I’m responding to people now when they write us, I am changing those flyers appropriately – you know, the time and information – and saying, “These are the flyers.  Print them out. Give them to friends, families. We need your help in setting up for the next legislative session. We need your help then, [but] you can start now by starting to write these letters and getting other people to write letters about their experiences and what’s needed. And I’d also like to commend Rene. She does such a great job, always. But when I recently sent them a letter from someone who was explaining some of the things that they thought should be done about U. S. 2, they [WSDOT} got on it immediately, you and your crew. And Dong Ho wrote a direct response to this person and just made everybody look really good and really responsive. And that’s the kind of action that’s needed. Thank you.”

 

Board Member C. H. Rowe:  “A couple things I’d like to say, too.  When we first started this, we had a lot of people, a lot of turnout and there was a lot of momentum behind it. Once we got a few improvements, nobody came.  It kind of seemed to die down. And there for awhile  -- “  [John Seehuus:  “It was almost a year, a little over a year with nothing.”]  And even one night – I think there was times I think you and Fred were the only two who turned out to the meeting and you’d talk to each other for awhile and go home.  But we got a few people here.  We need to keep the ball rolling.  Need to keep the momentum going. Anybody who can, come to the meeting and get them interested in doing whatever they can do to help. The other thing is, I think like Jeff was saying, we need to list everybody’s ideas. And not – sometimes the dumbest person in the world comes up with the greatest ideas.  I’ve got a little thing on the wall at my office that says that the Arc was built by amateurs, the Titanic was built by experts.  It makes sense.  Maybe somebody that may be (unintelligible) might be able to come up with an idea that (unintelligible).  You gotta listen to everybody, I think.”

 

Other Public Comments and Input:

 

Ideas to help publicize meetings, etc.:

 

 

Jeff Beeler suggested that the Coalition should communicate and “advertise” its past accomplishments.

 

Dean Pratt suggested that everyone write down their ideas/concepts and submit them.

 

Frank Linth (Gold Bar) suggested “targeting” by demographics, based on their experience in getting info out on a meth lab awareness workshop. “We studied the demographics and tried to figure out who are the people that are going to be the most interested and of those people, what do most of them have in common?”  It turned out they had children of school age.  So they contacted the school district and allowed them to send out flyers from the school with every kid.  {Storm noted that the School district had sent flyers on the April 18th public meeting with every child.]

 

Unidentified man (sorry!) commented that the truck traffic is really growing.

 

Board Member Josie Fallgatter:  “In the meeting with Dave Earling, that Loretta will be sending out an email on, one of the things that he said is, when you talk to someone and they say, ‘Oh, I support you guys,’ nail them down and find out from them, ‘What does your support mean?’  And I think he was thinking in terms of fundraising, but I guess he was [thinking also] of maybe beyond fundraising, but I think that’s something that we need to do in talking to people.  You know, if people say, ‘Gee, the Coalition, that’s a great thing.  I’m with you guys,’ then stop them and say, ‘Oh, then how would you like to hand out flyers?  How would you like to write a letter to our representatives?  How would you like to write our senator?’  And give them specific tasks to bring them in to be a part of what we’re doing.  And another thing that Dave Earling had said was, ‘When we do get people making donations, like businesses, put their names on all of our flyers, our mailings, whatever we send out.’ Jeff’s idea of doing the accomplishments, I think when we have flyers and things like that, listing those accomplishments is a great idea.  It’s a great way to encourage people that you’re not wasting your time; things will actually get done.”

 

Board Member Rowe:  “I agree with that. And that’s what I was saying awhile ago. The people that have donated to us, I overlooked the biggest donor or all and he’s sitting in the back room, was Stevens Pass has been our biggest donor so far. But I think you’re right.  I think the people need to know who is – who the – Love  makes the world go round but money greases the wheel.  And people need to know who’s (unintelligible) the grease to keep the wheels from squeaking.” Chairman Pro-tem Seehuus quipped, “I thought we wanted to be a squeaky wheel.”

 

Lonn Turner asked Rene if WSDOT had any influence over the Railroad?  (Rene:  “Absolutely not.”)  He mentioned there’s a train running in the Kent Valley and trains between Everett and Seattle; there’s room for depots in Skykomish, Gold Bar and maybe in Sultan, so that would be a terrific possibility.

 

Lorna Goebel reported that Skykomish has the only depot west of Stevens Pass in useable condition.  The Greenway has worked on this in the past. She stated there are 26 freight trains and two Amtrak trains per day on the line, which is almost saturated now. Board Member Rowe said about three years ago there was talk of an attempt to run a train from Skykomish; Goebel said it was not dead, just on CPR.  Rowe shared that it’s his understanding that the Railroads do not like Amtrak because the federal government forces them to run the passenger trains, which interfere with their freight traffic.  So to add a commuter train would probably be a tough battle.  Carole Nichols explained that the more trains, the more backed up traffic becomes. 

 

John Seehuus mentioned there’s been some discussion about adding a second track.

 

Meeting adjourned at 8:05 PM

 

ATTACHMENTS

 

NOTES & REPORT:  David O.  Earling’s Meeting with U. S. 2 Safety Coalition members

7 PM Tuesday, April 11, 2004 Meeting

City of Monroe Council Chambers

 

In attendance were Mr. Earling (see below for professional credentials), Senior Fellow at the Cascadia Center, Discovery Institute, as well as Coalition members Chief Fred Walser (Chairman), Monroe Mayor Donnetta Walser (Vice-chairman), Coalition Secretary Loretta Storm and Coalition board members C. H. Rowe, Josie Fallgatter and Mark Fallgatter.

 

Mr. Earling introduced himself and gave a thumbnail of his extensive professional background and experience.  He explained that part of his mission at the Cascadia Center was to further the interests and effectiveness of grass roots transportation advocates/organizations and coalitions across Washington State.  A specific example was his work with the U. S. 12 Coalition in Eastern Washington, which has achieved tremendous success in their fundraising activities for highway improvements.

 

Mr. Earling then asked Chairman Walser to provide a summary of the Coalition’s activities specifically related to our business contacts, legislative outreach and lobbying efforts (county, state and federal), the role that WSDOT plays in our activities, and the priorities that both the State and County governments have placed on needed improvements for U. S. 2.

 

Chairman Walser offered a detailed summary of the Coalition’s creation and early successes in obtaining funding for the installation of left-turn lane turn-outs and two-way left turn lanes, and its recent activities and energies in enlarging the board’s size coincident with its work with WSDOT, Snohomish County and the PSRC (Puget Sound Regional Council) in creating the RDP (Route Development Plan).  Chief Walser also summarized the Coalition’s ramped-up legislative efforts during the 2006 session with the help of key legislators (particularly 39th Dist. reps Kristiansen and Pearson).  These bipartisan energies resulted in $700,000 in funding required to cover the increase in scoping needed to complete U. S. 2’s RDP.  Additionally, an application has been filed by Congressman Rick Larsen’s office (with WSDOT’s assistance), for a $3.0 million federal DOT grant.

 

Mr. Earling described/summarized key activities in which the Coalition should be engaged, most of which we are already doing, but on too-small scale and scope than recommended or needed, primarily due to lack of funding and manpower.

 

Certain new concepts/ideas Mr. Earling shared, especially in the area of effective fundraising techniques, are described below.

 

Create a Strategic Fundraising Plan which should include:

 

 

Create a Legislative Strategy that includes:

 

 

***********************************************

 

Mr. Earling’s Credentials & Background:

 

In April 2004, Mr. Earling joined the Cascadia Center of the Discovery Institute as a Senior Fellow for Transportation and Regional Development, working with grass roots advocates for improvements in transportation.

 

Mr. Earling’s impressive background includes serving as a City of Edmonds Councilmember from 1992 through 2003, during which time he also served on then-Governor Gary Locke’s Blue Ribbon Panel for Transportation.  He also acted as Vice-Chair of the Puget Sound Regional Council (1999-2001) and as that agency’s Transportation Policy Board Chair in 2002.  In 2003 he ran against Reardon for Snohomish County Executive.  He then went to work for the Discover Institute on a two-year governance project.

 

Other:

Mr. Earling began his professional career as a professor of music and director of bands at Shoreline Community College, where he built the largest community college instrumental music program in the northwest from 1967-1978. He went into private business in 1978 where he owned and was broker of Edmonds Realty, Inc. for over 20 years. During this time, Dave became active in community affairs, which led him to serve as the president of the Edmonds Chamber of Commerce, president of the Cascade Symphony Board of Directors, and president of the Edmonds School District Public Education Foundation. From 1992-2003 Mr. Earling became active in politics with time spent on the Edmonds City Council, serving six times as president. In addition he provided service as the chairman for both the Community Transit Board of Directors and the Sound Transit Board of Directors and was also a member Governor Locke’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Statewide Transportation as well as chair of the Transportation Policy Board of the Puget Sound Regional Council. Dave was named Edmonds Citizen of the year in 1996. Phone: 206-292-0401 Ext. 14

 

____________________________________

 

 

AGENDA for this meeting:

1 - Introductions
2 - Approval of minutes
3 - Old Business
     a - Appointment/ election of a treasurer/ board member
     b - R.D.P. update - Renee Zimmerman, W.S.D.O.T.
     c - Fund-raising report - C.H. Rowe
4 - New Business
    a - Report and Discussion on meeting with Mr. Dave Earling, Cascadia Assoc. and his assistance offer to the Coalition.
    b -  S.C.C.I.T information update and the Coalition's membership.
    c - Discussion & critique of the April 18th Public Community meeting, and where do we want to go from here?
5 - Discussion/ Questions