Snohomish County officials are still working on a plan to join a new program to give people discount cards for prescription drugs.
The National Association of Counties is starting a pilot program this fall for the discount cards, and County Councilman Dave Gossett hopes the county will join.
County residents would be eligible for the free discount cards, and the cards may mean discounts of 14 percent to 35 percent on drug purchases for people who participate.
“We’re still working it,” he said, adding that a contract with the association is currently under review. “I’m very hopeful that we will be able to approve something this fall.”
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Speaking of Gossett, the councilman got big laughs at this week’s council meeting when council members passed a resolution honoring athletes with county ties who participated in the 2004 Summer Olympics.
“As many of you know, I am not an athlete. That’s never been one of my skills,” Gossett said.
“I did compete once in wrestling in junior high school,” he recalled. “And succeeded in being pinned in my very first match.”
The resolution praised Mill Creek’s silver medal gymnast Brett McClure; Stanwood’s Sarah Jones, a rower; Jarred Rome, a discus thrower from Marysville; Camano Island rower Greg Ruckman; and Yung Chi Chen, an infielder for the Everett AquaSox who played on Taiwan’s baseball team.
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Payback time: The county crunched the numbers wrong in 2003 when it calculated how much elected officials should be reimbursed for using their own vehicles while traveling on county-related business.
Nine elected officials have been collecting a vehicle allowance of $501 a month since the start of the year, but the county recently learned that rate was too high. The monthly rate has been lowered to $446, and elected officials will have to pay the county $55 for each month that they collected the higher allowance.
The allowance rate is based on the average monthly cost of owning and operating a comparable county-owned vehicle. The car allowance for elected officials will be $461 a month in 2005.
Fly on by: A new taxiway opens today at Snohomish County Airport-Paine Field. Called Taxiway Whiskey, it’s the first taxiway built at the county airport in 17 years.
A grant from the Federal Aviation Administration helped pay for the 3,000-foot-long taxiway, which was built by Wilder Construction Co. of Everett. A ribbon cutting is planned for 7 p.m. today.
Claim of the week: An Everett man wants $800 from the county after his wife drove over newly painted lines on the road and got yellow paint speckles on her brand new SUV.
Coming up: The county plans a community meeting to present revised plans for the salmon habitat restoration project in the Snohomish River Confluence Reach Area, a 3.5-mile stretch of the Snohomish River west of Monroe.
How you can get involved: The meeting is 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 22, in the Snohomish Library, 311 Maple Ave., Snohomish.
Reporter Brian Kelly covers county government for the Herald. He can be reached at 425-339-3422 or kelly@heraldnet.com.
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