PORT TOWNSEND — The Jefferson County Economic Development Council is seeking comments on the agency’s strategic plan, a blueprint for guiding the county’s future economic development.
“I think there is a definite need of going to the community to get comment,” council Executive Director Tamer Kirac said following a Friday board meeting where he presented plan, which he called a “live and fluid document that is monitored continually and updated periodically.”
Kirac said public comments on the document would be accepted during the next two weeks.
Kirac said that the plan should guide the county in solving the overriding issue — job creation.
“We have only about 50 percent of the jobs we will need in the next 35 years,” Kirac told the Development Council’s board.
Job-generating goals need to be identified and “quantified in tangible figures.”
“We know where we are,” said Kirac.
“We need to answer where do we go and how fast to get there.
“In order for us to succeed you have to tell me and agree that this county has a major problem with wage and salary generation.”
Kirac said figures show the county’s average annual family wage is $23,378, only 60 percent of the state average.
Kirac said Jefferson County has a steady stream of “well-off” retirees moving here.
“Incomes are one of the highest while wage and salaries are one of the lowest,” Kirac said, comparing Jefferson County with the rest of Washington.
Development Council Board President Mark Jochems said many residents in the county are only making $15,000 to $16,000 a year.
Ex-officio Board Director David Sullivan, a Democratic Jefferson County commissioner from Cape George, said the strategic plan should report just how many families in the county need to earn living-wage jobs.