Q&A/County codes debunk myths about rural life
Last December, Chelan County, Wash., followed the lead of several of its neighbors in adopting the Code of the West, which encourages residents to use self-reliance to guide their decisions and actions. The original code was created by Larimer County, Colo., in 1996. Like Larimer County, Chelan County has had many new residents and retirees move from nearby urban areas to rural areas in the county. Attracted to the landscape and tranquility of remote areas, the new residents often are unprepared to live far away from others and to deal with limited county services. Chelan County distributes the code to potential residents to prepare them for what they might find (and what they might not find) when they move to the county. Commissioner Buell Hawkins helped prepare the code for Chelan County.
Q: Why did Chelan County need a Code of the West?
Hawkins: We just felt it was a way of serving [new residents’] best interests, plus serving the best interests of the county employees who are required to serve them. The last thing we want is to have somebody go through buyer’s remorse.
Q: What makes the code particularly western?
A: I think it really tries to impart to the person going into a rural or remote area the idea of self-reliance. Some of the things that other folks provide for you in an urban setting, if you go out to a rural or remote setting, you’re going to have to provide those things for yourself.
Q: Are some of the items in the code common issues faced by a lot of rural counties?
A: I think so. Sewer issues, snow removal issues, access to services are all things that other counties are dealing with. I think this document certainly has things that would be applicable to virtually any county in the United States that has a significant rural component to it.
Q: What problems do residents from urban areas typically have in remote areas of Chelan County?
A: They’ll buy 10 acres at the end of what is now a primitive road. They put a building on that — their dream home — and then they become disenchanted with the road that they have to travel to get to their dream house. So then, since they put the money into that investment, they feel that they are paying taxes to the county, so the county ought to be responsible for improving that road to something they were used to in their former residence. The county doesn’t have the resources to be able to do that. Also, I don’t believe that that’s fair to the rest of the county residents, because they’re asking the rest of those residents to pay for infrastructure that will be benefiting a relatively few number of people.
We’ve had people move to be where the apple blossoms are because they’re so beautiful. During the spring, when the temperature drops, an orchardist will use wind machines to mix the air [to keep frost off the blossoms]. So all of a sudden, [residents are] in their house, and, at two in the morning, they think there’s a helicopter taking off next door to them. One of the associated byproducts of being next to an area where you have beautiful apple blossoms in the spring is the fact that the wind machines are going to go on at night.
Q: It seems funny that the county would actually write down some of the items in the code. Is there any one item that stands out to you as a bit funny?
A: [The code] wasn’t really designed to be funny. [Item 5.5 reads,] “Animals and their manure can cause objectionable odors. What else can we say?” I guess people have laughed at that, but this is a checklist. [We want] people to look through all of these things and see what types of factors might relate to the property that they’re going to be occupying. If you live next to a feed lot or a dairy, there’s certain things characteristic of that.
Q: What kind of response have you gotten from residents of the county?
A: We’ve had people say, “This is great. You lay it out so people understand what to expect.” [Some are concerned] that people and businesses will think that [the county is] really backward and remote. That’s not the case. We have plenty of infrastructure in the urban growth areas and in the cities and townships where businesses would be relocating.