Mill Creek View Volume XXIII - Issue 16 August 2020 A 3
City News
by Mayor Pam Pruitt
This column is written by mayor Pam Pruitt. It contains her thoughts, opinions and editorial on city and regional matters.
Pam Pruitt
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Letters
All Letters to the Editor for publication must contain the writers name, address and telephone number. The opinions in such, are strictly those of the writer.
We live in Pioneer Trails and enjoy reading the Mill Creek View News- paper. The articles are professionally written, cover timely events and are fair. A big thank you to Zach Palmer, our newspaper carrier. He walks his route along with his dad and is friend- ly, kind and will go far in his life. Good job Zach! Larry Kimball Everett
We enjoy reading your paper
From the Front Page
Ron Higgins candidate for Washington State Supt. of Public Instruction. A silent observer who wandered throughout the event. Beth Daranciang candidate for State Representative 46th District. Dr. Art Coday candidate for State Senate 1st District Tim Eyman candidate for Governor. Vic Bishop candidate for House of Representatives in 48th District. Mike Nykreim, candidate for State Senate 41st District. Jeffrey Beeler candidate for U.S. Congress District 1.
Joshua Freed Candi- date for Governor.
Marty McClendon can- didate for Lt. Governor. Ann Davison Sattler can- didate for Lt. Governor. Phil Fortunato candidate for Governor.
Some of the candidates who spoke at the Eastside Republican Club annual picnic
Photo by Fred Fillbrook
I am writing this letter to thank you for the wonderful articles which appeared on the front page of the July issue #15 of the Mill Creek View. The story Local man produced his story, giving back by Courtney OKeefe was such an encouraging story about Sonu Chand buying boxes of produce from struggling farms in Yakima and then donating them to lo- cal food banks, hospitals, shelters and police and fire departments here in Snohomish County. This act of kindness is so encour- aging in this discouraging time of Covid lock down. (This wasnt just a one time project either. He plans to make several more trips. I applaud his generous heart and I applaud the MCV for printing such a positive story
Thanks for the encouraging articles
in this negative time. Also on the front page was the positive article, The Blue Rally by Nola Fillbrook. Im so thankful for our policemen and women. It was su-
per that our Vince Cavaleri was one
of the rally speakers-to show gratitude and thanks in support of our law en- forcement. We have a super police force here in Mill Creek. So proud that Vince Cavaleri is a Snohomish County deputy sheriff. Thank you MCV for giving us a ray of positive hope in this hard time. Such a great job, especially because you gave these positive notes on the front page of the paper. Dee M. Foreman Douglas Fir The article on the front page of the Heralds Sunday (July26) issue about Mill Creek was not a news item. It was an opinion piece with the intent to push an anti-city message on behalf of disgruntled employees. All cities and states are having bud- get issues and Mill Creek is in a better position than most due to the efforts of the new city manager. I am tired of this newspaper not printing facts, but engaging in propaganda. It is hard enough to run this beau- tiful city without outside agitation. Next time, focus on hard news where the real crimes are, like in Seattle and Everett. N. Fillbrook Mill Creek
Focus on hard news
Letter to the Herald which they did not publish
Virus Update
As of the time I am writing this, the Mill Creek area has 95 cases and 57 recovered. Our case numbers, like those throughout Snohomish County, continue to rise. 50.6% of the new cas- es are in the 0 - 39 age groups. Only 11.7% of the cases are in the 60+ age groups. Information is available from the Snohomish Health District at www. snohd.org. A larger data dump for the state dashboard is available on Friday afternoons.
City council
In order for the staff to catch up, council will not meet in August. Its a lot of work to prepare packets for council meetings. All the information the council sees is on the city website. We are very transparent. Public works staff is overseeing capital projects. Given how the Covid-19 numbers are growing, we may be stuck doing remote meetings until the end of the year. The county, other cities and large tech companies have already an- nounced their staff will be working re- motely until the end of the 2020. Our city manager, Michael Ciaravino, has not made any announcements yet. Personally, I prefer to meet in person, but not if we cant do it safely for the staff, public and council. We are look- ing at updating our meeting software to be more user friendly for the public.
Budget
We are still coping with the loss of revenue in 2020. Mill Creek is not defunding our police. Public works is still handling all the maintenance to keep our city beautiful. In September, we will begin mov- ing very quickly to prepare our 2021- 2022 budget. We will be starting with a projected $3 million budget hole. Michael is looking for operational efficiencies and other options to bal- ance our budget. We hope we will not need additional layoffs. We hope rev- enues will return to normal soon but its not looking good. For instance, passports generate near- ly $500,000 per year in revenue. Right now, with the virus rampant, we are bringing in zero dollars for passports. I will keep you posted as we move through the process. Please share your thoughts about your budget preferenc- es with the council.
Lets try a little kindness
With the virus, a collapsing econ- omy and millions out of work, there seems to be a surplus of negativity in the air. Thats not helping anyone or our community. Please try to understand some peo- ple are hurtingreally hurting. That pain may cause them to say something unnecessarily harsh or inaccurate or lash out. Lets try a little kindness with a dash of compassion. Surely we can agree on that.
Good news
Did you know 138,000 people have already signed up to partici- pate in our vaccine trials? Thats an astounding number of people willing to risk their health to help produce a vaccine for the rest of us. Thank you to each and every one of these generous volunteers!
Mill Creek completed handing out 4,800 masks for low income residents. The face coverings were provided by Snohomish County. More face cover- ings are expected to be available in the coming weeks. I am an older person and have read several newspapers from all over the country. I also subscribe to many local newspapers. The Mill Creek View is one of the best small town newspapers I have ever read. Mary Martin Marysville
Best small town newspaper
Killers that travel in packs
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