Councilman Nehring's July Newsletter

Dear North County Neighbors,

Thank you for reading my monthly update for July. In this edition of my newsletter, I will share some events which occurred in North County, the decommissioning of the veteran’s memorial at the County Courthouse, a courthouse renovation update, and ongoing budget meetings leading up to the 2019 budget.

I hope you all had a safe and happy Independence Day! This year, I attended the Arlington 4th of July Parade. It was great to see many of you at the parade as we celebrated our independence and the freedoms that we enjoy every day. I always look forward to this special day and the community events that come with it.

Last month, the Arlington Fly-In celebrated its 50th anniversary. I had the opportunity to attend this three-day event with thousands of other residents from North Snohomish County. Over 1,000 aircrafts participated in this annual event which is one of the most popular aviation events in the region.

As I have discussed in previous newsletters, we are underway with a $72 million renovation to the Snohomish County Courthouse in Everett. The building has significant safety, accessibility, and structural issues which need to be addressed. As you might recall, I fought against the overspending planned with a brand new courthouse last year and supported the effort to remodel the existing one instead. Recently, the County Council was informed that the initial bids for the project came in almost four and a half million dollars over budget. In an effort to find cost savings in the courthouse project, I introduced an ordinance (Ordinance 18-047) to remove the requirement for 1% of construction costs to go toward the County Arts Program. Because the County Council adopted my ordinance on Monday, we will be able to find almost half a million dollars in savings on this project. I will continue to look for cost-savings in the courthouse project to ensure that we are spending your hard earned tax dollars wisely.

In other news related to the courthouse, we decommissioned the Veteran’s Memorial last Friday, July 27th. The Veteran’s Memorial in front of the courthouse is host to an eternal flame in recognition of those who served. In order to make room for the addition to the courthouse, we are moving the memorial to the east side of the courthouse. The decommissioning event was a great tribute to our veterans and I appreciate everyone who helped to make it such a special event.

Lastly, I have been attending regular meetings with County Executive Dave Somers and Council Chair Stephanie Wright to discuss budget priorities and strategy moving forward with the County budget. We all agree that we need to be responsible with the taxpayers’ dollars and these meetings are a great opportunity to share ideas and plan for the 2019 budget. I appreciate the willingness of Executive Somers and Chair Wright to come together and plan for our future in a bipartisan manner. We have also began department presentations for the 2019 budget. We are starting to hear from departments and other elected officials regarding next year’s budget and how they plan on finding cost savings to live within our means. I am hopeful going into this budget process that we will continue to provide the levels of service that residents expect without increasing their tax burden. 

I sendi out newsletters on a monthly basis to keep you informed about what I am working on and how I am representing the residents of North Snohomish County on the County Council. Please feel free to reach out to me at 425-388-3494 or Nate.Nehring@snoco.org.

Sincerely,

Nate Nehring
Councilman, District 1

Snohomish County Council 3000 Rockefeller Ave., M/S 609 Everett, Washington 98201   8th floor, Robert J. Drewel Building  Phone: 425-388-3494 E-Mail: Nate.Nehring@snoco.org   Russell Wiita, Legislative Aide