Now I want to start this week by saying something I do not say often enough — and my editor, who reads this column every week without ever once calling me, can note this in his records — sometimes the people making decisions around here get something right. Thurston County securing $2.4 million to protect the Lower Skookumchuck and the Chehalis rivers is, and I will say this plainly, the right thing to do. Two hundred and sixty million gallons of water going back to the rivers where it belongs instead of being siphoned off for — well, you know what it's being siphoned off for, and I wrote about that last month and the month before — that is something worth celebrating. I remember when you could walk along the Skookumchuck in late summer and the water was moving the way water is supposed to move, and I will not pretend that has always been the case in recent years. So good. Good job. I mean it.
Now — and this is where I circle back around to something that has been sitting with me — the county also says these water rights will help support new residential development in the region, and I just want everyone to notice that those two things are in the same sentence. Protecting the river AND building more houses. I am not saying those goals cancel each other out, I am just saying I am watching. The people who actually live here have been watching a lot of things get described as balancing acts lately, and sometimes the scale is tipping in a direction that does not feel like balance so much as momentum. But I am choosing to lead with the good news this week and I am leaving that thought right there like a coat on a chair.
On a completely separate note, and I know this is not the main topic but I have been thinking about it since Tuesday — whatever happened to hardware stores that stayed open past four o'clock? There used to be a place on Capitol Way, I will not name names but the people who actually live here for thirty years or more know exactly which one I mean, and you could walk in at six in the evening and a man named something like Gerald would help you find exactly the right screw. I bring this up because I had a lamp that needed a repair this week and I could not find the part, and that brings me — naturally, I think — to the Fix-It Fair happening April 15th at the Lacey MakerSpace, which is a free event where volunteers will fix your bike, your clothing, your small appliances, and apparently your lamp. And I have to say, I am genuinely moved by this, and also a little bit sad that we have arrived at a place where lamp repair is a special occasion you put on your calendar. But I will be there. I will be bringing the lamp. And I will be bringing the attitude that this is wonderful AND it is also a little bit of an indictment of something broader, which I will write about another time.
Also, North Thurston Public Schools wants your kindergartners registered by May 1st, and if you do it in time you are entered to win a prize — I do not know what the prize is, but the prize is that your child gets to go to school, which is the real prize, and I think we all knew that — and there is a Special Education Community Café on April 14th for families who want to learn more about what the district offers. These are good things. The people who actually live here and are raising children here deserve schools that are actively reaching out, actively saying come on in, we see you. Register your children, take them to the café, and if you see the folks at NTPS, tell them Traicy said they are doing it right this week. They can keep trying to earn that next week too.
That's all for this week. You know where to find me.