My Priorities

Housing, Housing, Housing, Housing

We cannot continue to live by the “more money than brains” motto or the “open checkbook public financing” of the past.

We have 4 community commitments on housing: seasonal/workforce, seniors, affordable and attainable. 

Acting as your planning commissioner, I helped negotiate 208 affordable units without a single dollar of city funding. 

In the private sector, I developed River’s Edge Resort and Campground. Over 16 years I housed over 4,500 seasonal employees.  This was the largest seasonal housing campus in the state until the county built Slopeside.  Again this was accomplished without 1 cent of government subsidy or taxpayer funding.   We cannot continue to allow City Hall to build community housing at 10’s of millions of dollars per.    

My “proven” public and private leadership will allow us to build these projects without a dime of taxpayer money. It is not impossible.  I did it.

Traffic and Transportation

This past winter our traffic violated every definition of “Health, Safety and Welfare”.  We cannot build a house without a foundation, and we cannot grow a city without a new comprehensive transit and parking plan.  We must immediately address our collapsing traffic issues. The fact that China Bridge must be demolished in 5-10 years is a blessing as we must revision parking and circulation from inside of Old Town out to our two (224 and 248) corridors.  The satellite lots and bus rapid transit was championed over 12 years ago and I am hopeful will be here in the near future, but that will not save our southern half of our city.  We must create strategic shared community parking lots inside of the Iron Horse district and on a reimagined Swede Alley/Deer Valley Drive.  We cannot have a reimagined small area plan and arts and culture development that has 70-90 new parking lots.

Strategically placed city hall owned shared parking lots with valet services are the answer many cities have moved to.

Childcare Services

Supporting our essential workers with a childcare benefit that pays for itself while reducing the recruiting costs and higher employee retention.

Seniors

Seniors have every right to live out their lives where they called home throughout their lives.  The in town Senior Center should NOT be compromised as we move to build out a new facility that is sized for the booming growth within our senior community.

Arts and Culture

These cultural institutions are at the core of we are.  We should support them in ways that allow them to thrive. They should be used to enhance our historic mining town and our growing Olympic Legacy.

Natural Environment and Wildlife

Prioritizing the management of our open space and trailheads to reduce impact on residents, wildlife and our land.  Yes - on building an animal crossing on Hwy 224!