Councilmember Nehring's May Newsletter

Spring is bringing new activities and opportunities to many of our neighborhoods as youth sports and spring cleaning keep many of us busy outdoors. In this month’s newsletter, I will highlight opening night at Cedar Field in Marysville, updates on our broadband expansion work, the Worker’s Memorial Ceremony, an update to the chronic nuisance properties ordinance, and efforts to bring more mobility to residents in Darrington. 

Before getting into the updates, I would like to extend a huge thank you to our Snohomish County Solid Waste personnel. Throughout the pandemic, these dedicated employees have continued to serve our residents across the county. Even when restrictions limited their engagement with customers and limited staffing levels, they have been diligent in providing excellent customer service at our County facilities. I thank them for their work and encourage you to do the same next time you see them. 

Cedar Field Opening Night 

On April 1st, I joined Opening Night in Marysville at the newly renovated Cedar Field. Last year, the City of Marysville upgraded the facility with new all-weather turf and LED lighting. Snohomish County contributed $50,000 toward the renovations with additional support from the State of Washington and Marysville Little League. It was great to join the players, parents, and other community members for Opening Night and I look forward to many more events and memories being made at this great facility. 

Broadband Presentations 

Following Broadband Access Week, we are continuing our work to expand broadband access across Snohomish County. The Port of Everett and Economic Alliance Snohomish County have been great partners in many of our efforts, including broadband expansion. 

On April 12th, I spoke at the Port of Everett Board of Commissioners’ retreat about our broadband expansion efforts. I highlighted the need for expansion, our Broadband Action Team (BAT) in Snohomish County, and our efforts to obtain funding for expansion projects. I appreciate the Port Commissioners for the opportunity to present and the Port of Everett for their support of this effort.  

Additionally, on April 27th, I joined representatives from the State Broadband Office and Sno-Isle Libraries for a Coffee Chat discussion on broadband hosted by Economic Alliance Snohomish County. I shared an update from the BAT and our role in expanding broadband access in Snohomish County. 

I appreciate both of these groups for having me and I look forward to continuing to spread our message of the importance of more broadband access across the County.  

Worker’s Memorial Day and Ceremony 

Each year, we observe one day as Worker’s Memorial Day in Snohomish County. Worker’s Memorial Day honors the worker lives lost due to workplace violence, accidents, and illnesses. The County Council and County Executive adopted Joint Resolution 21-014 recognizing April 28th, 2021 as Worker’s Memorial Day in Snohomish County. I am thankful to the Snohomish County Labor Council for participating in this effort. 

We also held a Worker’s Memorial Ceremony at 5:00 PM on April 28th. The event honored the victims of workplace injuries and diseases and urged employers to pursue constant improvements for workplace safety. Thank you to the event organizers for honoring this important cause. 

Update to Chronic Nuisance Ordinance 

In 2018, the Snohomish County Council adopted my ordinance creating a chronic nuisance properties code for the county. This ordinance created a process to identify, designate, and mitigate nuisance properties which cause health and safety concerns in neighborhoods. This ordinance was the product of a number of ride-alongs and discussions with our law enforcement and code enforcement officials. 

After a number of years of utilizing the nuisance code, we updated the code to include new “nuisance activities”. The update will add warrant arrests and vehicle wrecking to the list of nuisance activities. This is based on feedback from the team and will help them to continue identifying properties and gaining compliance in these cases.   

I appreciate the team for their great work and look forward to working with them in the future to improve the safety of our communities.  

Darrington Mobility Study 

Access to services in rural parts of the County continues to be a challenge many residents face. This is especially true in Darrington and the surrounding area which has seen the impact of being isolated from service providers.  

On April 13th, I attended a meeting hosted by the Snohomish County Transportation Coalition and North Counties’ Community Collaborative to talk about services and mobility issues. The discussion focused around a mobility study to find new and better ways to bring access to critical healthcare and social services. A report will be published in June and I look forward to working with SnoTrac and the NCCC to help support their goal of expanding access to services to residents of rural North Snohomish County.  

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 425-512-4810 or Nate.Nehring@snoco.org. 

Sincerely, 

Nate Nehring 
Councilman, District 1