Lawmakers delivered for flood victims

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• Published March 18, 2008

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Fraser points with pride to an additional $6 million in authorized funding for the Heritage Center which will house the archive and visitor information aspects of state government. For the first time visitors to the Capitol Campus can find a place to start their tour and get a history of the state, not just a lesson on where the marble in the Legislative Building comes from.

There's money in the budget for a new child care center for the kids of state employees. And historic Bigelow House now will be operated by the state parks department.

The one place where Fraser stumbled was on her unwillingness to deliver dollars for a water project at Woodland Creek Park that would have helped mitigate Lacey's water problems, making good use of reclaimed water. The $1 million proposal was a priority for Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater, but not a priority for Fraser. She let her constituents down on that one.

Hunt gets credit for helping to secure the flooding money and is quick to note that although his Republican colleagues in the 20th District of Thurston County — Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, and Reps. Gary Alexander, R-Olympia, and Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis — want to take credit for the flooding dollars, all three voted against the budget that contained the money.

Williams defended numerous South Sound road improvement projects — such as funding for the sound-reducing walls on Interstate 5 near Tanglewilde and Thompson Place — and scored a major victory by forcing the State Patrol to continue investigating accidents in rural Thurston County. That saves Sheriff Dan Kimball a significant amount of manpower and money.

There's not sufficient space to list every project or budget line item benefiting South Sound residents, but suffice it to say 22nd District lawmakers delivered for their constituents.