Lawmaker tries to prod Olympia east of Cascades

OLYMPIA – Years ago, we’re told, state lawmakers and legislative staff would annually trek from Olympia and Puget Sound into the wilds of Eastern Washington for a days-long round of hearings and meetings.

It’s time to return to that, says Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup. Last year, he promised a delegation from the dry side of the Cascades that he’d visit Eastern Washington. So he did. He went to Yakima, the Tri-Cities and Spokane on several trips. He concluded that lawmakers need to be more accessible and to communicate more with Eastern Washingtonians.

Hence SCR 8416, which would move the September 2006 legislative assembly to a yet-to-be-determined “location east of the Cascade Mountains.”

“Many of them cannot travel this distance (to Olympia),” Kastama told lawmakers at a hearing this week. “I think it would be a very concrete reminder that in fact we’re one state. … I think it would be helpful if we got out behind the bubble of Olympia.”

Other lawmakers’ impressions of the region:

“Very good roads going nowhere,” said Sen. Darlene Fairley, D-Lake Forest Park, noting Eastern Washington’s economic difficulties. “They’ve got extremely good roads over there, going to places that are all boarded up.”

Sen. Jean Berkey, D-Everett, said she worries about the cost of shipping staff, records and lawmakers to Eastern Washington for several days.

Sen. Bob McCaslin, R-Spokane Valley, urged lawmakers to at least pass the bill out of committee, which they did. After all, he said, the full Senate and then the House of Representatives would also have to agree before anyone starts reserving hotel rooms.

“It could be 10 to 20 years down the road before they make a decision,” McCaslin said.

Welcome to Olympia

Even in a town used to political showdowns, it’s rare to see the kind of full-on shriek-a-thon that took place around 1 p.m. on the sidewalk near a local sub shop.

Two middle-aged men were walking downtown after an annual anti-abortion rally at the Capitol. One held a “United for Life” placard; the other was carrying a wooden cross.

Coming toward them on the sidewalk was a well-dressed woman in her late 20s or early 30s, with latte in hand. She apparently took offense at the sign and cross.

“You’re not welcome here!” she yelled at the startled men.

She was sick of their kind, she told them, cursing. She backpedaled to keep up as they tried to dodge her on the sidewalk. If the men tried to respond, it was drowned out.

“Get out! Get out of my city!” she screamed at them, adding a vulgar profanity to her demands.

She stormed off. The dumbfounded men tried to pretend that they weren’t, as people gawked at them out the window of the sub shop.

Everyone took something away from this moment. The men can regale their fellow churchgoers with what it was like at the center of state government. The woman can feel good about confronting the enemy face to face.

But we’re betting the person who will remember the incident the longest was the terrified toddler who happened to be walking hand-in-hand with a parent a few feet away.

Island without a home

Whoops. It turns out that Oregon territorial lawmakers and, later, Washington state’s, missed a little island when drawing up county boundaries in the 1800s. So Washington has 39 counties – and one island that’s not in any of ‘em.

Strawberry Island, a four-acre island off the coast of Whidbey Island, has been assumed to be part of Island County for decades. But an Oak Harbor man named Roger Sherman, researching maritime history, discovered that Strawberry Island is apparently an island unto itself. It’s owned by the state and used as a wildlife reserve. (There is also a Strawberry Island that’s part of Skagit County.)

“We’ve essentially had a ‘lost’ island which has never been designated by Washington law to be in a county,” said Rep. Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor. She’s sponsoring a bill to officially declare the island part of Island County.

Actual bills on file

SB6295, by Sen. Jerome Delvin, R-Richland: would allow on-duty police to carry a “spring blade knife,” a weapon also referred to as a “switchblade.”

SB 6287, by Sen. Darlene Fairley, D-Lake Forest Park: would allow special parking privileges for the legally blind.