Guemes Island Planning Advisory Committee

November 6th 2023

Meeting Called to Order 6:35pm

Board Members Present: Michael Brown, Allen Bush, Steve Orsini, Kathy Malley, Gabe Murphy, Jep Burdock, Patty Rose

Members of the Public Present: Barb Ohms

November Meeting Agenda: Approved

Public Comment: Barb Ohms expressed her concern that the October minutes did not adequately cover the GIPAC finances discussed at the October meeting. Gabe explained that he had followed the existing and current practice of recording the monthly bank account balances given by the treasurer. Barb explained that since there were other financial topics discussed at the October meeting, that those should be included as well. She explained that since GICCA provides a complete financial report monthly that GIPAC should do the same. Gabe explained that per the GIPAC bylaws, we would give a more detailed financial accounting at our annual meeting on November 19th.

Following the public comment discussion, the October Minutes were Approved as dratfed.

Treasurer’s Report:

GIPAC General Fund = $6219.26

ROZ Glasser Fund: A check was written to the Skagit Land Trust in the amount of $ 9129.10 per the agreement with Joan Palmer and GIPAC that the Roz Glasser Fund should be transferred to them.

Updates/New Business:

Well drilling code revision update - Steve

• Code amendment language that was crafted has been codified, proposed changes have to go to Planning Commission

• Steve thanked Planning Commission for taking up code amendment

• Steve wrote letter on behalf of GIPAC supporting 23C-1

Annual meeting planning

• USGS

  • Guemes Island water budget?

  • Patty questions:

    •  How does the supply of water in our aquifer compare to the supply at the     the time of the last study?

    • How does our water quality ie seawater intrusion compare?

    • Are there obvious recharge areas on the island which we should try to protect?

    • How does the online report work? Could you please walk us through how to access the information?

  • Allen to ask USGS ^

  • # of wells in 1991, # of wells in 2023

  • Want public to get a clear picture of island water situation

  • Key takeaways/executive summary

• Zoom Link: On poster, on GICCA, on Linetime

• Room setup

• Election: probably first

• USGS @ 3 pm maybe bump them up to sooner

• Young’s Park storage update/resolution.

• Rainwater catchment success stories: permitted systems are possible now, years of working with commissioners, staff to make catchment happen, hired new staff.

• Hope is to get to a templated approach vs. an individually engineered approach, county has not adopted it yet.

• WWU template is in use in San Juan County. How many projects have used it?

Proposed projects for next year:

• Get Skagit County Keith Higgman out to Guemes.

• Work with county to work with well drillers

• Rainwater education

• Variance issue

• Air-BnB?

• Young’s Park Follow-up

Meeting Adjourned

Minutes taken by Gabe Murphy