PORT TOWNSEND — The Board of Jefferson County Commissioners has passed a list of goals it hopes to meet in the coming year.
Commissioner Greg Brotherton, the board’s chair, called the resulting list a living document, which can and likely will change as time progresses.
In three consecutive meetings, culminating Tuesday, the commissioners discussed a broad range of topics which will require their attention.
Commissioners tried to strike a balance between what they aspire to address and what their capacity — and that of county staff members — actually is.
The list, more than 20 goals long, included involvement in affordable and workforce housing, climate action and resilience, economic development, county infrastructure and governance and improved communication with the public.
As a part of their process, the commissioners, along with County Administrator Josh Peters, ordered issues into time frames for when they should be addressed. Timeframes depended on which stage of the process the issues are in and other outside factors which impact their urgency.
In the first quarter, the board plans to set workshop discussions on their calendar for an artificial intelligence policy, governing county use, an economic development framework and the allocation of opioid settlement funds.
“We should make that decision in quarter one because otherwise those dollars are just sitting in the general fund,” commissioner Heather Dudley Nollette said.
In the second quarter, the board plans to set workshop discussions on its calendar for an update from the south county task force, an update on the county forestry program with guests from partnering forestry agencies, and discussions of next steps in county pool efforts with Jefferson Aquatic Coalition.
In the third quarter, the board plans to set workshop discussions on their calendar for a study of the Dosewallips corridor and related public access and recreation issues.
“The whole idea is to study recreation, future recreation, and what to do about the road in the upper watershed,” county assessor Jeff Chapman said.
Multiple federal and state land managers are part of the study, Chapman said.
The Dosewallips Road was washed out by a major storm in January 2002, when a section of the road collapsed into the river, and it has remained closed to vehicles ever since.
Brotherton has opened every BOCC meeting with music since his tenure as chair began at the new year. This week’s song complemented the commissioners’ goals discussion, far reaching and aspirational.
Brotherton sang a heartfelt cover of Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall,” which saw him reworking the lyrics of the verses to reflect the many needs, challenges and experiences of those in the county.
The song, which Brotherton played before opening public comment, was descriptive but also a call to do the hard work of addressing the needs that people in the county are facing.
“Work for the people, the fairboard, the neighbors,” Brotherton sang. “The staircase of housing needs to reach to the basement. But our public places have a mission as well. Let’s not cut off our noses to spite all our faces.
“Let’s build Seventh and Hendricks and Habitat spaces, housing for youth, working and elder, Bayside and Dove House, a capitalized shelter, lower the barriers, let’s permit pit privies … And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.”
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@peninsuladailynews.com.
