Please vote ‘Yes’ for the Road Levy – Proposition 1. The San Juan County road fund lacks sufficient funding to repair critical infrastructure in San Juan County. Your ‘Yes’ vote will address:

1) over a dozen marine facilities,

2) hundreds of culverts under roads or in side ditches, and

3) safer road shoulders along busy arterials.

The infrastructure of roads and marine facilities depends on sound management for a healthy economy, for our safety and for our quality of life. Sound management demands long-term planning with stable funding to repair all structures efficiently. The 1% annual increase to the road levy allowed by state law can no longer keep up. It takes a sensible plan looking decades ahead to make the best use of tax dollars to maintain this vital infrastructure. A “Yes’ vote will allow that.

Costs are higher today, the use of roads is greater with different vehicles and electric bicycles and pedestrians. More severe weather damages roads and marine facilities which forces emergency repairs, the most expensive repairs. Hundreds of old undersized or broken culverts are a good example of the challenge facing SJ County. There is no ‘quick fix’ for such a costly challenge – only a sound maintenance plan can avoid more road washouts or damage to intersecting driveways.

Let’s not end up like the ferry system which has failed to address an aging fleet and the unnecessary repairs and delays that hurt us and the local economy. Vote “Yes” for the Road Levy.

David Zeretzke

San Juan Island