Forks City Council news - 8/12/03
Forks
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Forks, WA - A special retreat session of the Forks City Council took
place on A August 4 in order for the council to take care of business
in a more relaxed manner. The Council enjoyed a pizza dinner while
reviewing the city’s budget from this last year and taking a look
at what next year’s budget will bring us.
Overall, as City Clerk Dan Leinan explained the numbers, things appeared
to be looking good and next year should be a little better showing
some optimism in the direction of city proceedings.
Patricia Soderlind, events coordinator for the city got the chance
to explain to the council what exactly she’s been doing for the last
year and a half in her position. Without much effort she proved both
the value of having such a position for the city and her tireless
efforts as an employee. The city unanimously passed a new resolution
voicing it’s support for keeping Events Coordinator as an official
job title and thanking Pat for all her hard and amazing work.
Before wrapping up to executive session, Dave Zeller and Leinan also
spoke a bit about the shorthanded problems facing different areas
around City Hall and the possibility of creating some new positions.
An exciting new venture was the topic of discussion at this past week’s
city council meeting.
Xylon Biotechnologies out of Canada has been interested for quite
sometime in our town of Forks for bringing it’s manufacturing plants
to the area. As explained by Dr. David Jones, founder of the company
and creator of the new technologies that are in use by the company,
Xylon’s mission is to go into the coastal forests here in North America
and look for chemicals, natural chemicals that have usable purposes.
Jones further explained that in the same fashion that aspirin was
originally derived from a willow tree, he has found some 130 different
compounds in our western red cedar trees that can be harvested and
used to create other consumable products. Xylon would like to bring
their manufacturing here to our area and in the west instead of it
going to other places like the East Coast and overseas. They figure
if the products derived from their technologies are going to be sold
in America, they should be manufactured in America too. The council
was very interested in the possibilities that this company might bring
to our economy and what other valuable resources that a venture with
Xylon might hold for our future.
The council approved a request by Diane Schostak of the Chamber of
Commerce to help provide the funds necessary to reprint the Forks
color brochure. The brochure costs approximately $10,000 to print
enough to distribute for 3 years, but because of tourist interest
in our area we’ve gone through that amount in about 19 months. The
brochure contains many beautiful pictures of the West End and helpful
information for those interested in our unique area.
The council also approved an internship program to start in the near
future for three areas of City Hall. City of Forks internships will
be aimed mostly at college age students, but open to responsible and
interested high school students as well. For more information you
can contact Molly Sarrazin at 374-5412.
The final report came from Pat Soderlind, Events Coordinator, who
said that overall the Feast of Forks was well attended, especially
drawing in many tourists passing through the area. Interested parties
can contact Soderlind at City Hall to either be a member of the planning
committee or to get information for next year’s event. Hopefully there
will be more citywide participation and support for this growing tradition
As always, you can do your part as a good citizen and stay up to speed
on current city events by attending city council meetings every second
and forth Monday of the month at 7:30 p.m. at Forks City Hall.