VAN DE WEGE HOLDS TOWN HALL MEETING IN FORKS

By Chris Cook - Forks Forum editor

State Rep. Kevin Van de Wege (D-24th District Clallam, Jefferson, sections of Grays Harbor counties) held an informal town hall meeting Saturday morning at the ICN Building on N. Spartan Ave.
Van de Wege:
• discussed the Legislature’s special session held last week to reinstate the 1 percent property tax cap;
• addressed veterans’ issues including the proposal to construct an interim housing facility for returning vets known as Sarge’s House.
• detailed key issues he’s working on for the upcoming session of the Legislature slated to open in January.

City Attorney/Planner Rod Fleck described the plight of veterans on the West End who often give up on applying for benefits from the Veterans Administration (VA).

Fleck and others at the meeting said there used to be two full-time VA representatives traveling to Forks. Now there is only one, and that person comes only once a week.

Support for the installation of co-generation plants that burn wood to heat steam that turns electrical turbines will be a focus for Van de Wege in 2008, he said.

In turn, this might help bring a co-generation plant to Forks that would heat Forks High School and other buildings.
Fleck suggested helping the project along by reallocating some of the funds the state deducts for their support of local schools that is taken once state Department of Land and Resources funds come into school coffers.
Making sure that Department of Social and Health Services officers aren’t relocated to Port Angeles following the recent destruction of the agency’s building in Forks was another topic of discussion. Patti Doyle told Van de Wege the office was almost moved out of Forks about four years ago.

The West End is home to a disproportionate number of homelessness people, and local social service offices are a necessity, the state representative was told.