| Friends
of Guemes Island June 13, 2006 Today the Friends of Guemes Island (FGI) filed legal documents seeking a Writ of Prohibition from Snohomish County Superior Court to stop the Skagit County Commissioners from implementing their resolution to extend the Guemes Island weekday ferry hours from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. The ferry schedule expansion is slated to begin July 1st. Notice of the legal action was also served personally to the Skagit County Commissioners. This legal action was necessary because the ferry schedule extension will have obvious and demonstrable environmental impacts to Guemes Island, whose residents depend on its sole-source aquifer for their drinking water. Despite evidence that ferry ridership has declined, and without documenting any need whatsoever for later hours, the Skagit County Commissioners chose to expand service. In so acting they ignored state environmental law, disregarded recommendations from studies they themselves commissioned, and dismissed survey results showing 75% of Guemes voters oppose hour expansion. FGI intends to pursue whatever legal and political actions are required to preserve the rural character and environmental integrity of Guemes Island, holding Skagit County government accountable to established law and answerable to the people it purports to serve. - Gary
Davis, President Document
filed in Superior Court [56k
PDF] |
