Once upon a time… a small boy, actually a 2 week old baby, took his first airplane flight, flying on a pre-jet era piston engine airliner to California and then shortly after taking a long series of flights halfway around the world to where his parents had been posted in India. And so began a long fascination with airplanes and airports. He went on to almost become an air traffic controller and he eventually became a certified A and P mechanic and private pilot. He learned to fly when he was 16 and 17 years old, completing his college degree in Aviation Maintenance by the time he was 22. He worked as an airplane mechanic and then he changed paths and went to medical school. He now works part time in aviation as an FAA designated medical examiner, performing flight physicals for pilots, doing his small part to keep the airspace safe.
So my whole life I have been in training for this Port of Skagit Commissioner position. In addition I have years of experience in commercial property management and leasing. And while I am far from a boating expert I have had many patients with all sizes and kinds of boats and have learned a lot from them over my 29 years of working here in Skagit County.
But most of all I believe in keeping government involvement in people’s lives to a minimum. We as citizens have given up or had taken away from us far too much influence on our activities, our property and our day to day lives. The Port of Skagit is not a big offender when it comes to government regulation and control but the temptation is always there and I intend to guard against that as your representative on the port commission. This limit on what our government can make us do and take away from us needs to start somewhere, so it might as well be here in this election next month.
The forward facing areas of the port, the direct contact with pilots, boaters and business owners, the services that are used and consumed by its customers need to be paid for by the users. The marina and the airport and the lease holders should all be paying 100% of their share of the yearly costs to maintain and use those services. The everyday citizen who has only indirect benefit from the marina, the airport and the other parts of the port should not be subsidizing the daily cost of those users. The users of one portion of the port should not be subsidizing the users of any other part of the port. We should not be allowing the loudest voices, the wealthiest, the oldest, the youngest or the most insistent and eloquent speakers to impose their costs on anyone else.
One time capital improvement costs are something else entirely. One time improvements and projects that each voter could indirectly benefit from are different and I will look at each of those projects individually and carefully as your port commissioner.
I support partnering with Skagit Valley College or some other private or public education program to base an A and P(Aviation Mechanic) school on our port campus. Aircraft repair and manufacturing, Boat repair and manufacturing, both of them thriving industries in our area need to continue to attract bright and capable high school graduates who will be a source of renewal for our local aviation and other port businesses. We need to do our part to replace the workers who age out and retire each year.
I support increasing the port commission to a 5 person board. This will allow more voices to be heard and more ideas to develop into projects that can add to the accomplishments that our 3 person board has given us over the years.
And finally as one of the pop singers from my youth used to sing, “I don’t know much, but I know I love you, and that may be all I need to know.” I don’t know it all but I know that I love aviation, and I know that I like all the other small and large projects that the port runs and while that is not all I need to know it is certainly a good starting point to serve as your next elected commissioner for the port of Skagit.
Contact:
360-708-9753
PO Box 1211, Burlington, WA 98233
