Letters to the editor for Oct. 20, 2019, in The Olympian

Re-elect Neil McClanahan to Tumwater council

Tumwater is a good place to live because of its leadership and the commitment of its leaders. One of the best examples of public service commitment is the work of City Councilman Neil McClanahan. Neil exemplifies public service by not only serving on the Tumwater City Council for more than fifteen years, but also serving throughout our entire South Sound Community. He chairs the Thurston County Housing Authority, is on the boards of the Thurston County Economic Trade and Development Council and the Alliance for a Healthy South Sound, and is active in many other current and former organizations’ leadership positions, including many years as Thurston County’s Undersheriff. Neil’s entire adult life speaks of public service. Neil wants to preserve Tumwater’s heritage, quality of life, and keep its history alive, as well as looking toward the future.

Last year Neil went the extra mile as a Councilmember when he helped procure funding for the new Salmon Catchment Facility at Tumwater Falls Park by working with the Governor’s Office. He continues to support the construction of a new, state-of-the-art salmon hatchery slated for Tumwater’s Pioneer Park. The proposed hatchery will produce much needed salmon for the seriously depleted Puget Sound salmon population and, in addition, will help provide an important food source for the endangered Orca population.

For these reasons and many more, Neil McClanahan is the obvious choice to be re-elected to the Tumwater City Council. Please vote for Neil McClanahan.

Time to act to fend off climate change

Climate change is real. In the Pacific Northwest we see it in record-breaking wildfires, in threats to our water, and in threats from sea level rise. These and other terrifying consequences are all happening because of human actions to produce greenhouse gases (GHG), forecast to rise to levels not seen in millions of years.

Governments are still doing more talking than acting. Worse, the Trump White House is reversing the beginning efforts of the Obama Administration to combat climate change, and Trump is doing other things very much to hurt instead of to help. It’s up, therefore, to local municipalities and us, the private citizens, to act.

The good news is that some local organizations are doing much more than just talking. The Thurston Regional Planning Council (TRPC), created in 1966 by the Thurston County Commission, and its offshoot, the Thurston Climate Action Team (TCAT), have been working with the county and the cities of Lacey, Olympia and Tumwater to implement specific, concrete measures to reduce GHG – making buildings green, expanding solar power use, incentivizing electric vehicle use, and closing loopholes to make energy use more efficient, to name only three major fronts for action.

Olympian readers should know they can make the crucial difference. Contact the TRPC (https://www.trpc.org). Tell the County and the three cities that you support the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan. Reach out to the Thurston Climate Action Team (https://www.thurstonclimateaction.org).

Our lives – life, itself – depends on what we do now.

This story was originally published October 18, 2019 at 1:42 PM with the headline "Letters to the editor for Oct. 20, 2019, in The Olympian."