Our Community

A funny thing happened earlier this month.  I was at the Park and Rec Board monthly meeting where they were discussing a current problem.  Puget Sound Energy needed to have an enclosure with a container where they could store equipment they needed to have readily available in case of power outages.  (We need them to have that, certainly.)  They build such an enclosure and provided such a container on land that belongs to Park and Rec.  After they built it, they agreed to plant some trees to do some screening of said enclosure.

That's good all round, right?  But, there is no water faucet belonging to Park and Rec near the site of the three, newly planted trees.  And the trees need to be watered regularly for the first year or so.  What to do?  Well, about 20 feet away from the Park and Rec site is the Fire District's main building.  And the building has a hose bib.  So maybe they could put a hose from the Fire District's hose bib to the trees?  So, they decided to ask the Fire District whether that could be done.

Then later that week, I was at the Fire District meeting and the issue of the hose and the trees came up.  There was considerable concern on the part of two of the Commissioners that Park and Rec was inappropriately (and perhaps illegally) expecting that the Fire District should pay for water for the Park and Rec's three trees.  This was not thought to be acceptable.  But then the Chairman pointed out that he had checked with the Water District's Dan Bourks and Bourks had offered to put a special meter on the Fire District's hose bib so that Park and Rec could use the water for its trees without the Fire District being charged for the water. And somehow, the Water District would arrange for the bill to be sent to Park and Rec.  And that was the resolution that was approved.

But I was thinking...Park and Rec helped out Puget Sound Energy with a space because the community needs to have power outages promptly restored.  PSE helped out the community by planting the trees.  The Fire District helped out the community by letting their hose bib provide water for the trees.  And the Water District helped out the community by installing a special hose bib meter.  All this stuff was for the community.

Surely the simplest solution was for the fire district to allow a hose to be attached to its hose bib and for the water to just water the trees.  But, somehow, this got translated into Park and Rec's trees and the Fire District's water bill.  But all of it is for us.  If we'd had an election, I'm guessing everybody would have voted to have the Fire District do that and skip the special meter installation, which may cost more than water does.  But, instead we get a complex solution.  Which is the way we live now, I guess.