Meet the Candidates – Mark Solitto (Incumbent)
Published 12:27 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
The biggest challenges facing North Bend today are securing water rights, solving traffic problems and developing our recreational character. As your most experienced elected representative, I will push our mayor and council to “make it happen.”
I have made a career out of making things happen, honoring the valuable investment you made when you elected me to the North Bend City Council. I helped save Tollgate and created lucrative careers there. I protected Maloney Grove. Two new traffic signals are going in downtown next year. I successfully earmarked $275,000 for Exit 31 safety improvements. The North Bend Way and Bendigo signal was upgraded this year.
I have been working quietly to solve water rights at the state and regional levels – experience delivers results. I have consistently brought positive solutions to complex problems like water rights by pushing for consensus among divergent opinions.
Saving our precious small-town quality of life will be our biggest challenge. I will lead us into a future of graceful growth, building a vibrant community that protects our children, our families, our neighborhoods. I will partner with business to produce benefits for everyone. We must achieve these goals and build a strong North Bend while resisting the low road of becoming another Issaquah. I will fight hard to build a strong North Bend. Stay on the high road with me.
The historic district is the heart of North Bend, our living room. It benefits all of us.
I will continue to lead its revitalization. I will continue to support the historic district by funding the facade assistance program and enforcing the minimum maintenance ordinance on blighted properties. City sponsored incentives downtown have generated $5 million in private investment since 1999 and increased sales tax revenues by 27 percent. This record demonstrates my ongoing commitment to downtown revitalization and our progressive business owners who share my vision.
I will work to eliminate the blight of several downtown properties. Stimulating business requires knowledge of Washington state systems and processes. Understanding these systems, I will lead a review of sewer and water general facility charges (hook up fees) in 2004. I will support a reduction in fees for historic district properties to retain existing business and stimulate new investment. However, landowners must agree to restore building facades to their original condition within one year and then maintain them.
We must promote our recreational character to benefit the entire city.
The massive network of recreational land in and around North Bend, plus our location on I-90, are distinctive assets. They represent an economic opportunity to separate ourselves from the suburban landscapes to the west.
The national forest, Mount Si, Snoqualmie River, Rattlesnake Mountain, Snoqualmie Pass plus Meadowbrook and the Tollgate Farms must become economic magnets. I will push an aggressive strategy that invites the residents of Puget Sound to bike, climb, hike, kayak, ski and play ball here. In my 25-year professional career and as your city councilman, I have established positive relationships with key public and corporate partners to achieve it. We must development “green fields” at Tollgate and a hop festival at the Meadowbrook Farm. I will push to create a Cascade mountain film festival here with world-class climber and North Bend businessman Martin Volken.
As your most experienced council member, I will bring leadership and positive solutions to benefit all of North Bend.
