[Justan]

Well this is a small thing but it is a first for me. I sent an email to KC regarding a serious problem on hiway 410. I did this on a Sunday morning. Shortly after sending the email I decided to call the County as the problem was serious, and I though it not wise to wait until a weekday to notify someine. When I called I was told that since the roadway was a State road, that even though the road was in King County, KC policy required that I reported to the State and not the county. The operator was helpful, and I asked for a phone number. She looked in her references and said that she didn’t really have one. She gave me a phone number, her best guess. I thanked her and called the number I was given, and it lead me to a voice mail system. The voice mail system required that I have the name of a contact before I could leave a message for anyone. Huh?! I was amazed and not kind of appalled. After all, the County phone number i called states they are a group that handles support for roadway problems 24x7. How is it that they don’t have a number for issues they deem the State’s responsibility? I called the KC number back and explained what had happened when I called the phone number they’d given me. The operator (same as the first time I called) suggested that I dial 511. I tried this and found that again, there was no way to report a road problem at the 511 number. After that I gave up on KC and called the State Patrol in Enumclaw. The officer I spoke with gave me the number of the local roadway engineering manager, and he (the officer) was helpful enough to send the person a memo regarding my call, and the problem. The next day I got a call from a roadway engineer in Enumclaw, who shared with me the nature of the recurrent problem – that the roadway crosses an active fault line – and that they had a plan to patch the roadway in the next two days. He added that they'd intended to patch it the previous week but ran into a delay due to a broken tool. After that phone call I wrote the event off and promptly forgot about the whole affair. A few days later I got an email back from a supervisor in the department I’d called originally, acknowledging my letter and echoing the comments from the roadway engineer. I wrote back and vented my frustration at the impasse I’d encountered. My response prompted a phone call from the supervisor to me. She left a message, and was entirely professional. I called back a few days later and had what I thought was a useful conversation. She explained the problems and agreed to investigate on my behalf. I heard back from her yesterday, and here’s the big change I inspired -- she said that the State DOT agreed to permit the County operators to disclose a phone number when they deemed a problem to be a State issue. Formerly the particular number was supposed to be a private contact. I haven't responded to this latest letter but will send my sincere thanks and also ask if the supervisor can press the state to provide an email contact for the State DOT for events similar to the one that started this discourse. My opinion is that since everything dealing with the State ends up in writing anyway, they will only help themselves by creating a more direct means for public reporting of roadway problems to take place. Anyway, I've never perused trying to get any government agency to be more responsive to their mission. I feel nicely empowered by the outcome, and wanted to share.

[seawallrunner]

hi Justan, reading your note I see that you went through a lot of trouble to notify authorities of a situation that needed their attention. And thanks to your trouble, you also changed policy - congratulations on your good deed and on your perseverance !!

[Justan]

Thank you for your kind words! In truth the folks at the County simply responded to me, and that was enough to keep the pursuit alive. Well that and clearly their approach was an obstacle to an effective solution.

[Quark]

You're a martyr to go through such ccraziness for everyone. Thanks. Most martyrs are/were crazy; this is why.

[Justan]

I can see that the checks I've been sending out have started to show up in mail boxes. Thanks for the kind words!

[ActionBetty]

Thanks for having the patience to go through the govt phone obstacle course. I have a hell of a time with the "pass the buck" practices these folks like to play. Way to go Justan