These notes were taken by an Okanogan County Watch volunteer. Every attempt is made to be accurate. Notes are verbatim when possible, and otherwise summarized or paraphrased.
Note takers comments or clarifications are in italics. These notes are not the official county record of the meeting. For officially approved minutes, which are normally published at a later time, CLICK HERE.
The time stamps refer to the times on the AV Capture archive of the meeting on this date at the County livestream archive. To locate items in real time, the clock on the wall in the AV Capture screen can be helpful.
05.19.2025 Mon AM BOCC
Meeting Highlights:
· Possible changes to how the EMS districts in the Methow Valley area structure (regarding the towns of Twisp and Winthrop) to simplify the accounting.
· Public Comment: No public comments.
· FAC update: Changes are being made to the Fair Queen handbook to add Princesses – language will need to be changed to the more generic term of “royalty”.
· OCSO Update: Construction is on schedule and on budget for new morgue/sheriff storage building; installation of new communications equipment planned for later this year.
· Fairgrounds update: BOCC votes to fully waive rental fees for bible study group; well drilling is successful; lengthy detailed discussion of the water system at the fairgrounds.
· Planning Dept update: Catholic Charities requests that the County be the responsible NEPA reporting entity for their project in Twisp; reminder about the planning and permitting presentation in Winthrop on the 21st; code will be updated to reflect recent changes.
· Emergency Management update: planning for fire season is underway; watching volcano off coast of Oregon; flood risk is low; working on improvements to communication system; report on fatal climbing accident in Mazama.
· Cannabis code discussion: lengthy discussion about current code and what to do about non-compliance.