January 2019 Meeting

The Area Council will hold its next regular monthly meeting on Monday, January 7, 2019, from 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM at the KCFD #43 (now part of the Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority) Maple Valley Fire & Life Safety Station #81 public conference room (22225 SE 231st Street, Maple Valley, WA 98038 — SE corner of intersection of SE 231st St & SR-169 (Renton-Maple Valley-Black Diamond Road SE)).

This will be a business meeting with the election of officers, swearing-in of any new members, and setting the agenda for future meetings.  In addition, the Council will be briefed by representatives of the Lumber House and Four Horsemen breweries regarding developments related to the KC Council’s consideration of Code changes affecting breweries, wineries, and distilleries located in the rural area of King County.  Please see our Upcoming Important Events webpage for more detailed information.

The GMVUAC will hear from citizens in attendance and conduct business regarding and relating to current and future issues of concern to area residents.  Keep watch on this space for any special guest speakers and/or new issues to be presented and discussed at this meeting.  All members of the public are invited to attend. During the Public Comment period at the start of each meeting, members of the public can address the Area Council on any local issue.

You are invited to visit our various Committee webpages and read about other topics of interest to you via the dropdown menus along the top of our Home webpage, in the Current Issues box, and in the important notices and information posted directly on our Home webpage.  Get to know the Council by reading a short biography of each current Council member: GMVUAC Member Bios_10 10 2018 .

View the presentation made by Tahoma School District Superintendent, Tony Giurado, to the GMVUAC at our December 3, 2018, meeting: Tony Giurado-GMVUAC Presentation-Final-12 03 2018 .  Read a summary of the recent joinder of Fire District #43 /  Maple Valley Fire & Life Safety with the Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority: FD43_MVFLS_PSRFA_Overview .  In addition, read important information on Burn Bans and contacts: MVFLS_Burn Ban Guidelines .

Farm King County recently launched its Food Systems Data Center, which combines an interactive mapping platform with information and data on local agriculture to tell the story of King County’s farm and food system. Farm King County is a one stop resource for information and assistance for farm operations, and this data will be useful to better understand, analyze, and measure the healthy and viability of our food system. The major components of the data center include the King County Farm and Food System Map and food system indicator progress metrics.  Read KC DNRP’s Local Food blog post about the launch here.

Future Council Meetings and Planned Topics/Guest Speakers:

February 4:  John Taylor, Director of the newly created Department of Local Services .
March 4:  WaDOE’s Tim O’Connor and Alan Noell will present and discuss an update to the Reserve Silica Mine Site MTCA Cleanup project.  In addition, WaDOE’s Jerome Cruz and Brad Petrovich will present a PowerPoint discussion and update on the Landsburg Mine Site MTCA Cleanup project.  See our Current Issues Box for links to more detailed information.

Future meetings are intended to include representatives from the Wa Department of Ecology and the Center for Environmental Law & Policy present and discuss with us the progress on implementing the legislative fix to the Hirst decision and what it means to each of us in the Rural Area dependent on private exempt wells for our home water supply.  Periodically we will also have representatives from the Department of Ecology give us progress reports on the cleanup of the Reserve Silica and Landsburg mine sites.  We plan on having Chief Aaron Tyerman, FD#43/MVF&LS/PSRFA, back to present an update to us regarding fire and life safety services.  We also plan to invite back Tony Giurado, Superintendent of the Tahoma School District, to discuss with us funding issues and other matters of importance to our community.  As guests and topics are confirmed, we will promptly post information here.  At any time, for detailed information on any issue the GMVUAC is involved with at this time, please visit our various webpages listed in the Current Issues Box or in the Committee dropdown menu on our Homepage.