VASHON-MAURY ISLAND COMMUNITY COUNCIL (VMICC) ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO DATE IN 2004-2005
The VMICC participated in two King County Executive Office-sponsored Unincorporated Area Council (UAC) meetings during this period, along with two Executive Office-sponsored Operation’s Summits. The VMICC is one of six UAC’s in King County. These UAC gatherings provided a forum for presenting matters of Island-wide interest or concern directly to the King County Executive, his immediate staff and Department heads (and staffs) for their attention/action.The VMICC Transportation Committee conducted 3 surveys in 2004 in response to route and/or fare proposals by the Washington State Ferries. They are: The Business/Ferry survey, the Island-Wide Survey (by saturation mailing paid for largely by donations from the business community) and the Passenger Only survey. The Vashon business community generously contributed part of the money to accomplish these surveys. The committee is also working closely at present with King County Metro and King County Roads to come up with better on-off island transportation options for Vashon residents. They worked with Dow Constantine’s office to stop King County Roads from adding the northend parking lot to the Surplus Property list which would have resulted in WSF buying it to install fee meters for daily commuters.
The VMICC Public Safety Committee published a Hunting Safely flyer, and worked closely with the Sheriff’s office and other County agencies on a variety of “public safety” matters of importance to island residents.
The VMICC Heavy Metals Remediation Committee (HMRC) put on 3 outstanding symposiums, drawing large numbers of people from both on and off island, to learn how to better remediate contaminated (arsenic, lead and/or cadmium) soil, and how children especially and adult gardeners in particular can safely play-work in such soil.
The HMRC also published a guide for on and off island medical practitioners that was approved by the King County Medical Society and is being used extensively to educate practitioners and patients on the dangers of contaminated soils and how best to protect against harm from exposure to them.
A VMICC board member arranged a forum in the fall of 2004 involving a wide range of community members to get their collective input on what they would like to see the VMICC focus on in 2005. As a consequence, a VMICC-sponsored Bicycle Task Force is now working on getting more bike racks and making Island roads safer for cyclists; and a VMICC Public Restroom task force is on the verge of finally getting a public rest room facility in the Village Green park in downtown Vashon. This has been a desire of the downtown Vashon business community for many years.
VMICC relations with the business community have further improved this past year thanks in large part to VMICC outreach to and pro-active partnering with the Vashon Chamber of Commerce. An example of the value of such partnering are the recently installed improved traffic signage and crosswalks in downtown Vashon. The improvements will accommodate customer movement to and from local businesses.
The VMICC Sustainable Practices committee annually produces a highly informative “State of the Island” slide show of its accomplishments and on-going efforts and is currently working on a guide for development of forested land for distribution to local contractors and real estate agencies. They are also co-sponsors of the first-ever on-Island Cascadia Bio-Regional conference to be held this summer in conjunction with Island Earthfair.
The VMICC is also an active participant in the Vashon Disaster Preparedness Coalition (VDPC) and has helped mobilize well over 300 volunteers, both private and business representatives, to ready themselves and their families for a major disaster. Over 1000 disaster preparedness packets were recently sent home with public school students. In addition, an Island-wide disaster plan is in the works and a disaster mobilization-response group has been formed, in conjunctions with a designated and well outfitted Emergency Operations Center. The School District, Water District #19, Vashon Island Fire & Rescue and the Vashon Park district have formed a legal partnership with VDPC and VMICC to help Vashon “best” cope with a natural or other disaster. Additionally, a Vashon-specific disaster preparedness website, www.VashonBePrepared.org is now up and fully functioning.
The VMICC board has worked hard to improve communication to fellow islanders by updating the VMICC website, writing regular articles for The Beachcomber and encouraging reporters, as well as islanders, to attend the monthly Board and General Membership meetings. The Board is a hard working group of volunteers who constantly encourages islanders to join VMICC committees and actively seeks to recruit more volunteers for VMICC initiatives.
The VMICC Septic Solutions committee looked at the long standing problems with failing septic systems on Vashon and Maury Islands and presented a resolution recently that supported exploring the creation of a Public Utility District that could more effectively and economically assess the merits and the drawbacks of possible solutions to this growing Island problem.
The VMICC Land Use and Natural Resources Committee has consistently kept residents informed of Island land use issues. This committee insisted upon and got the County to inform Islanders where it has spent the considerable Rural Drainage Fees (RDF) is has collected the past few years and to afford Islanders the opportunity to help prioritize RDF spending in the future. An Island “Green Print” map is also in the works thanks in large part to the commitment by and efforts of Land Use Committee members.
The VMICC Governance and Policy committee has worked hard in 2005 to improve and streamline VMICC policies and procedures and will present its proposed by-law changes to further improve same in the fall.
The VMICC Communications ad hoc committee got the ball rolling for the upcoming Vashon Channel on Comcast Cable. The effort has been taken over by the Voice of Vashon (VoV) and the channel should start broadcasting next month.
The VMICC also facilitated having the Vashon Library develop an index of past VMICC-related articles from the Beachcomber and other island newspapers so they can be more easily accessed by Island residents. Note: The library was the repository for VMICC records prior to the development of the VMICC website.
The community heartily endorsed the The Vashon Watershed Plan---a year and a half effort that incorporated extensive community input.
This is an impressive list and is by no means all that the community can be proud of.
