For those who don't know about or aren't informed about the proposed mitigation and impact fee plan for Sequim, you must understand that the collected funds can only be used for new capital projects and cannot be spent to maintain the project once it is complete or to pay for associated administrative costs.

It doesn't take a genius to calculate where the maintenance and administrative support money is going to come from.

I am not accustomed to facing a problem without first having some sort of solution. It's my belief that if I'm not part of the solution then I am the problem and have no right to complain or comment. So ... forward I go.



Lead creatively

I challenge the city council to think outside the political box of digging deeper into already shallow pockets, become the leaders our community voted for by doing what other politicians don't have the brain power or creativity to perform.

It's easy to raise taxes or to find other legal avenues to take our last penny. It's harder to stop the current process because you don't have a plan for restarting.

I've only had a week or two to figure out an alternative to activating this "impact fee" plan. I have not conducted an area feasibility study of my plan and, quite frankly, I'm not even sure if my ideas are feasible in this area. I'm not trying to convince anyone my ideas are Sequim's answer.

I'm just trying to get the community and primarily our city politicians to think differently, to find positive solutions, to escape the political taxation box you fear to abandon. You might be amazed at where your creativity can take you once the boundaries are lifted.



Manure: an inspiration

Last year I wrote a grant for a biorefinery facility because manure and a pitchfork were my only resources to build on. Although I was researching potentials for my individual

residence, the smallest furnace I could find required a minimum of 4,800 pounds of manure per day to operate at minimum capacity.

No matter how much I feed them, my two horses could not produce 4,800 pounds of manure per month.

Finding that Anchorage had a horrible manure disposal problem as well as an excess of woody debris in the municipal woodlot, my mind kicked into overdrive and, once the idea got started, I became so intrigued with the idea that I devoted all my spare time to finding solutions.



Seeking self-sufficiency

This plan, using Alaskan calculations, had the potential to become a $5 million annual industry. I am willing to donate my plan to the city of Sequim.

From what I understand from the newspapers, the annual estimated income from impact fees is roughly $2.7 million. If we built a biomass biorefinery in the Sequim area, this plan has a potential to double that amount, create employment, reconnect our area heritage, become a high-percentage green community, qualify for state and federal grants, and give a reason for people to move to and remain in Sequim.

In order for a community to be strong, it must be capable of self-sufficiency and must come together as a unit in order to survive these difficult times.



Labor and leadership

We must generate our own economy to include supporting a strong labor workforce. We must have a plan with a solid sense of direction and the leaders to take us there. This impact fee plan does not cover any of those topics.

There are alternatives to taxes and digging deeper into our pockets. All I had for resources to start my plan was a pitchfork and a really big pile of horse poo. Just think, if the community and city government can get as creative as I did, our community possibilities and prosperity would be endless.



Rebecca "Markley" Metcalfe is a fourth-generation Sequim resident. A Realtor, her career background is corporate and commercial project management with emphasis on financial risk analysis and cost control and reporting.