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We're just audio and audio.

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We're just audio and audio here at WSAC.

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Welcome to County Connection,

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the official podcast of the Washington State Association

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of Counties, where we dive into the legislative issues

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shaping the future of our communities.

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From budgets to public safety, infrastructure to elections,

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we'll break down what's happening in Olympia

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and how it impacts counties from across the Evergreen State.

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Stay informed, stay engaged, and join us

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as we amplify the voice of Washington's 39 counties.

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Well, welcome everybody to the inaugural episode

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of the County Connection podcast.

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I'm Paul Jewell, government relations director

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with the Washington State Association of Counties,

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and I'm here with Mitch Schnetzer,

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who's our communications director.

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How you doing, Mitch?

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Good, thanks for having me.

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Yeah, thanks for being here in our inaugural episode

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on Inauguration Day here in Olympia.

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It's thematic.

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It is thematic.

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Yeah, there's definitely a theme going there.

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I like that.

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Mitch, why don't you tell us what the purpose is

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of these podcasts as we get started?

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Yeah, so in previous years,

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we've done a newsletter every week,

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and then a couple years back,

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we switched to doing live meetings,

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and then every other week doing a legislative bulletin.

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Well, we're always trying to do new things

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and push things forward

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and make things more accessible for our members.

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So with that, we decided let's try out a podcast.

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So yeah, with a podcast, we can have things more timely

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and get things out quicker,

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and people can have it automatically downloaded

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to their phone, and they can listen

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while they're driving somewhere,

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instead of having to wait and get back

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and read an email or anything like that,

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while they're walking or doing anything up on the hill,

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they can just pop their headphones in

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and listen to podcasts. So super convenient, right?

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Super convenient.

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So just like they get information through podcasts now,

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they're gonna be able to get the same thing from us.

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They can listen to it whenever they want to, et cetera.

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Pretty easy.

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You're not gonna have to worry about,

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is your phone charged or is your computer on

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or are you in the right place?

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You can really do it anytime, any place.

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Anytime, any place.

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And what's nice is a lot of these episodes,

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they're gonna be, we talked themes before,

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but next episode coming out will be on public health.

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So if you have an interest

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or want to learn more about public health,

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you can listen in on that,

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or if you're wanting to learn more

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about different issues going on,

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you'll be able to listen to those specific episodes too.

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Now we recommend you listen to them all

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because everyone should know everything, obviously.

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Well, and kind of government just by its nature

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is super interesting.

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You're gonna, trust me folks,

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you're gonna wanna listen to them all.

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But what you're saying is,

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we're gonna actually have them as different categories.

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So if I just wanna listen to,

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or maybe I just have 10 minutes or 20 minutes

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and I don't have time to listen to them all,

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even though I'm gonna go back and listen to them all later,

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right now, yeah, of course.

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The most important one,

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or I really want information on public health,

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like you said, I could just click on the public health one

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and just get that information?

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Yeah, so I mean, they'll all be in the same feed,

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so you'll get them all,

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but you can ignore the ones that you don't want,

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delete them, or you can save them for later.

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And when you have time for those other topics,

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you can go back and listen to them.

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Cool, so other topics like say transportation

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or land use or behavioral health, public safety,

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my favorite, taxes and finance, right?

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So we're trying to make it super easy.

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We're modernizing our system.

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So we're not gonna do the written ones anymore.

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So these are gonna replace the written ones.

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How often are these gonna come out?

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Do you have an idea on how many times

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we're gonna be pushing out new podcasts during the session?

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So I know our goal is to do every other week.

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And that's what you can expect is every other week.

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Now, what's great about this is we can do things

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in a more timely manner.

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So if something is breaking news or we need to get

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some information out between episodes,

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we can push those out.

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So expect at least every other week,

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but you can more than likely,

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you'll probably get episodes dropped

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between those every other weeks too.

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Okay, so at least every two weeks,

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we should have some fresh new content,

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might be an opportunity to have something in between.

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How would I know?

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How can I get access to these?

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Do I have to go, are they gonna be posted on a website

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and I have to go get them?

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Do I have to check that constantly?

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Or is there some other way that I can get access

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to these podcasts?

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That's the great thing about podcasts.

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You don't have to know, they just happen.

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So once you are subscribed,

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you can then just let it download to whatever device

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you're subscribed through.

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So if you're listening to this first episode,

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so you must have found it through one of our newsletters

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or social media, or you randomly stumbled across it,

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but once you're subscribed, it'll automatically download.

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So first things first, you follow this first link

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and whatever you use for your preferred podcast app.

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So personally, I use like a app called Downcast,

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but whatever you're using through Apple or Android

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or whatever you're on with your tablet,

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whatever your app is, you can use, take and paste this feed

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in there, you can search it,

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and you can subscribe right then and there.

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You'll be able to use any of the major platforms,

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Spotify, Amazon, Music, all of those things.

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You'll be able to find us there.

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So you're gonna be able to find Wasack podcasts

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on Spotify, on Apple podcasts, the whole ball of wax.

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Any of those places just, what do you search for, Wasack?

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You'll be able to search for Wasack,

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Washington State Association of Counties.

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You can search for the County Connections podcast,

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all those kinds of things.

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Best way to ensure, if you can't find it,

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you can just go to our website, wassack.org,

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and we will have, every time there's a new episode,

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we will push that out through a short news article too.

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So you can find it that way.

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Now, imagine if you're on the hub

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and you're using the Wasack hub,

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you're gonna be able to find them there too, is that right?

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Yep. Okay.

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So when you say subscribe,

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the old school person in me,

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when someone says subscribe,

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that sounds to me like they're trying

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to get money out of me.

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Well, we do need your social security number

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and your date of birth and hometown.

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What about my DNA?

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Do you need DNA?

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We get that through other means.

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Oh, we've already got that?

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Yeah. Good to know.

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But seriously, when we're talking about subscribing here,

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what we're talking about is signing up

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to get automatic downloads.

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It actually, it doesn't cost anything, right?

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There's no cost, yeah.

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This is all free to really anyone.

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So it's just like any other podcast

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that you can reach out and grab.

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What it does is it just puts those new episodes

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pretty much in your library, right?

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In your queue.

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So when you go to whatever platform it is

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that you normally like to listen to podcasts from,

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it's already there and waiting for you.

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Exactly.

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That's perfect.

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Well, that's super convenient.

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Super convenient.

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Great, great.

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Well, I'm excited about this, Mitch.

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I'm really excited to get started on these.

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I'm super happy that you joined us

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or joined me for our inaugural episode

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so we can kind of explain to people

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what to expect as we move forward.

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And I think we're gonna have a lot of fun doing this.

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So thanks for coming on today and we'll see you next time.

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Thank you.

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All right, Mitch, take care.

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Take care.

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Thanks for tuning in to County Connection.

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Stay in the loop by subscribing to us

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through your preferred podcasting app

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and following us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

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And don't forget to join the Hub,

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your go-to source for the latest news and updates

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from the Washington State Association of Counties.

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Until next time, stay connected and stay informed.