Perhaps the only thing left is interpretive dance. Or a puppet show.
Moving beyond e-mails, letters, phone calls and in-person pleadings, supporters of the Master Gardeners program have turned to song.
Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon’s proposed $548.9 million budget for 2005 is expected to cut about $120,000 in funding for the group.
But Wednesday in south Everett at a County Council public hearing on the budget, supporters of the popular program serenaded the Snohomish County Council in the hope that council members won’t take their money.
Borrowing the tune of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad,” a group of Master Gardeners belted out their ballad.
“We’ve been working in the gardens, all the wet, long day. We’ve been working in the gardens, just to give produce away. Women’s shelters and our food banks, gain from all our toil…”
By then, the audience had joined in.
“Council won’t you keep, council won’t you keep, council won’t you keep this program going?”
Master Gardeners also gave each councilman a packet of seeds: Forget-me-nots.
Take two: Speaking of Master Gardeners, the County Council offices were abuzz over a card sent to council members asking for their continued support of the program. The card featured a color photo of the “Everett Garden Gypsies,” seven women clad in the colorful costumes of belly dancers.
Checks in the mail: To the state, that is. The county has canceled hundreds of warrants, a paper promise to pay, to people who are owed money by the county but have never collected.
State law says warrants more than a year old must be canceled and the money sent to the state Department of Revenue.
The list of people and businesses in Snohomish County that never collected money they were owed fills 10 pages. Most of the people, more than 260, never picked up their payments for jury duty and mileage.
There’s still a chance to cash in. Every year, the state buys newspaper space to print the names of people who never collected. The most recent list is also on the state Department of Revenue Web site, dor.wa.gov, under “Unclaimed property.”
Claim of the week: A Seattle woman wants the county to pay her medical bills after she broke her right big toe and lost her toenail. The woman said the toilets were overflowing during a visit to a restroom at the county fair, and she slipped and hit her toe on a partition.
Coming up: The County Council plans two public hearings on the proposed 2005 county budget on Nov. 10. The first starts at 1:30 p.m., the second is at 6:30 p.m.
How you can get involved: Hearings will be in the Jackson Boardroom on the sixth floor of the County Administration Building.
Reporter Brian Kelly covers county government for the Herald. He can be reached at 425-339-3422; kelly@heraldnet.com.
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