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Thank you, Jacques. The giving of all this time to your community is more than commendable.

Towns of any size are not easy to manage. Council members are challenged every day to do their due diligence and make the best decisions they can. Some are extremely challenging, while others are easy, or at least somewhat so. Your concern about the ring dike is completely justified. We are the lowest lying town around, so without this dike we could realistically get washed into the slough.

Yeah, I appreciate your tenacity.

It is not an easy subject to discuss.

Many of us are new to the area and do not really understand the risk.

Nope, nobody alive remembers the last time the river raged this way, but it did in 1918 and I am sure it was a gnarly thing.

The thing is, the last time hardly any of our nearby dikes were much bigger than a berm.

Now, most of them are much more stout, leaving some of us to fret and pout about our missing section of this important infrastructure.

It is not a sexy subject for sure; a new library, a lost ball field, new businesses in town, new construction on the slough, a new slough side park, it is these that catch the attention, not a much-needed dike.

Yeah, all the dike work of the past has been an expensive proposition for all involved.

We are supposedly one of the coolest towns in the whole dang country, complete with painters, quilters, reclusive authors and eccentrics of all sorts. Famous athletes, students, musicians and movie makers all make their home in the area, most of them are on higher ground. Nope, not many of us think about how close we really are to being a part of the Salish Sea.

I salute you as you take your leave Jacque, at least some of us have heeded your pleas. Some of us understand how precarious our position is. The flood insurance premiums to Lloyds of London put some of us to our knees. Every year they get a wad of our cash, coming mostly from a meager stash.

Rumor has it that a new dike design is floating around, pardon the pun. It is supposed to be really cool; it pays for itself while making money for our town and schools. Nope, the inventor ain’t no fool, even if you see him drool, as he sits contemplating on a stoop or stool. Yeah, he has made his living from the nearby silty clay, has a vested interest in getting it to stay right where it is, not washed into the channel and Skagit Bay.

Even though I don’t know you well, I wish you well on your future travels. Perhaps you’ll return with wonderful tales to tell.

Sincerely,

Glen S Johnson

Skagit Valley