Buying land in time of furloughs?

Published 3:45 pm Monday, March 1, 2010

In regard to Friday’s article, “County interested in taking control of Reiter Foothills,” you have to give Executive Reardon and County Parks Director Teigen credit. They’ve either got a lot of guts or they are masters at PR.

Last year they wanted to take over every state park in Snohomish County (Wallace Falls, Forks of the Sky, Mt. Pilchuck and Wenberg) and this year they want to take over 10,000 acres of state DNR trust land in the Reiter Foothills.

Apparently Wenberg was not enough. You would think the county Parks Department must be flush with cash. But when you look at the county budget or the newspaper you read about budget cuts. How can the county afford this? Apparently even people in county government are wondering that. But don’t worry, “financing might be possible” (hmm … day use fees like other county parks?) and after all, these type of “wilderness sites” don’t cost much anyway. Nobody ever dumps garbage or does anything unlawful. They pretty much take care of themselves right? Oh, yeah, we tried that.

Shawn Tobin

Gold Bar