Do elected officials know what’s going on?

It saddens me to learn that, after a presentation by a Granite Falls city councilman regarding the city-choking impact of an estimated 1,000 gravel trucks rumbling through Granite Falls on a daily basis, Department of Transportation Secretary Douglas McDonald, was “stunned” and uttered, “This is a tough one.” It wasn’t so tough for a seemingly deaf but grinning Snohomish county Council to OK the massive CSR gravel quarry, even though 2,000 to 3,000 signatures were collected in opposition.

Many groups, most notably Bruce Barnbaum’s Stilliguamish Citizens Alliance, worked long and hard to either prevent or scale down this project, but to no avail. Why is it that the local citizenry, rather than the elected officials, can foresee the crippling effects of such a massive project? Do the elected officials know what’s going on or really care? Yes, Secretary McDonald is stunned, and I am saddened.

Lake Stevens