Letter to the Editor: There Are Serious Ramifications of the District 1 County Commissioner’s Race

Posted

Our communities were devastated by floods in 1990, 1996 and 2007. In the 13 years since the catastrophic flood of 2007, Edna Fund in her role as a Centralia City councilor and then as a subsequent Lewis County commissioner, has been a key player in promoting a basin-wide solution to flood control. 

Edna is integrally involved in the complex process that pursuit of that solution has become. I have been first-hand witness to her involvement as I chair several committees adjunct to agencies involved in developing such a solution. Her dedication, energy and passion regarding flood control and aquatic species restoration are unquestionable.

All of this sounds like something any dedicated elected official could duplicate but that is totally incorrect. Edna’s depth of knowledge, experience with the process and relationships with others working on this subject can’t be replaced with simple enthusiasm. The course of developing a workable basin-wide solution to both flooding and fish restoration has involved literally thousands of hours of meetings, study of engineering and hydrology data, and public presentations. 

She is serving on three critical councils: The Chehalis River Basin Authority, The Office of the Chehalis River Basin, and the Lewis County Flood Zone District. All of these entities are essential and are not overlapping in their purpose.

It has taken enormous time and patience to solidify relationships of trust that Edna has established with members of all three groups. This is a vital achievement given the vast diversity of people and the agendas they bring with them. That will be lost if Edna is replaced.

It is a matter of timing! Never has the work of flood control progressed to the critical point we are now experiencing. Extremely major decisions are within months of being made that will make or break the work of the last thirteen years. Now is not the time to change our primary player in this critical work.

No challenger has the capacity to absorb and understand the thousands of pages of technical data that engineers, hydrologists, environmentalists, wildlife scientists, geomorphologists and others have produced in time to be prepared for upcoming deadlines. Even more important, no other person could step in with the human relationships already established by her to represent us effectively when key decisions are made next Spring.



Dad taught me, “Son, you don’t change horses when you are in the middle of a swift river.” We can’t afford to lose our best advocate in this effort. If we lose Edna Fund as our commissioner now we will not be able to replace what she has become — our most effective advocate for flood control at this critical time.

Retain Edna Fund for the next four years until her work is completed. 

 

Dr. John Henricksen

Centralia