Councilman Nehring's May Newsletter

Dear North County Neighbors,

I hope you all had a great Easter celebration and are enjoying the beautiful beginning of spring. In May’s District 1 newsletter I will highlight our joint Ag Board/County Council meeting, the State of the Station address, a Council/Executive budget retreat, work on rural broadband access, our waste reduction resolution, and an update on the Regional Apprenticeship Pathways (RAP) Program.

On April 9^th, the County Council joined the Snohomish County Agricultural Advisory Board for a joint meeting. The Ag Advisory Board is made up of farmers and ag producers in Snohomish County and advises the County Council and County Executive on issues related to or affecting agriculture. North County has many farms and I enjoyed the opportunity to sit down with some of our farmers to discuss the issues they face and how Snohomish County can help them remain viable in a changing world.

The State of the Station is an annual address given by the Commanding Officer of Naval Station Everett. On April 11^th, I joined other elected, community, and business leaders to attend Commanding Officer Mike Davis’ first State of the Station. This was a special event as we highlight 25 years of Naval Station Everett in Snohomish County. We are proud to host Naval Station Everett and the many dedicated military personnel and their families that call Snohomish County home. The Snohomish County Council honored NSE at our April 10^th meeting by passing a resolution recognizing their 25^th Anniversary.

As I mentioned in my last newsletter, we are beginning the planning process for the 2020 Snohomish County budget. In March we held a County Council retreat to discuss priorities for next year’s budget. On April 16^th, County Executive Dave Somers joined the Council for a joint budget retreat. This joint retreat is important as the Executive and his staff prepare the Executive’s proposed budget. In September of each year, the Executive proposes a budget for the County that the Council then considers, possibly makes changes, and ultimately takes final action on. At the retreat last month, we discussed the strong revenues as a result of a booming economy, efforts to streamline county government and find more efficiencies, and limiting tax increases. As you know, I have been a staunch supporter of living within our means and I will continue to fight against raising your property taxes in the 2020 budget.

Another issue I have been working on recently is access to high speed broadband internet in the rural areas of Snohomish County. This started as residents in North Snohomish county along SR 532 and near Granite Falls reached out to see what we could do to bring high speed internet to their areas. This has become a growing concern as more and more of our daily lives rely on this access. Whether it is working from home, running a business, or keeping up on the news of the day, an increasingly dynamic world requires reliable internet access. I penned an op-ed about this and my work on the issue in the Marysville Globe which you can read by clicking this link.

For the past couple of months I have been working with my colleagues on the Snohomish County Council to take better care of our natural environment. As part of that effort, I introduced a resolution committing Snohomish County to waste reduction. Our county government currently does a great job at recycling and diverting waste from landfills. Resolution 19-015, which was unanimously adopted on April 22^nd (Earth Day), expands our efforts to reduce waste produced by county operations. Specifically, it expands the zero-waste fair initiative to a year-round reduction effort at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds, increases education to employees about recycling best practices, expands our Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy, and encourages a “Refill Snohomish” campaign to reduce plastic bottle waste and increase conservation in drinking water.

Finally, I would like to share one of the most exciting pieces of news from April. When the State Legislature adopted their final negotiated 2019-2021 budget, they included $1.5 million for the Regional Apprenticeship Pathways (RAP) Program. For those who don’t know, the RAP Program is the result of a collaborative effort from education, labor, industry, and government leaders to train high school students in the building and construction trades. The program provides a pre-apprenticeship opportunity for students in North Snohomish County. We requested funding for the program and were thrilled to hear that it was included. We are now working with local school district and state officials to get the program launched this fall. This is an aggressive timeline but we are confident that we will be able to pull it off with the help of our many dedicated stakeholders. I would like to thank our many stakeholders and especially State Representative Mike Sells who helped to shepherd the request through the legislative process and ultimately into the final adopted budget.

I send 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

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