Reject late ferry recommendation

As a resident of Skagit County, I am dismayed.

I am shocked that after two years of contentious deliberations over the late weeknight hours of the Guemes Island Ferry, it has come down to one ridiculous sentence from the Public Works Department:

“The Skagit County Public Works Department proposes a non-project action making the current temporary ferry run schedule for the Guemes Island Ferry permanent, effective January 1, 2009.”

Does Skagit County have so little regard for its residents that this is all we get in the form of an explanation?

How is this possible, when the county is running a seven-figure deficit that is made significantly worse by the losses from the late weeknight ferry runs?

How is this possible when the county has not yet demonstrated that the late weeknight runs will not have a damaging impact on the island’s fragile ecosystem? Its response to a court order provided not one shred of new data for this important decision.

How is this possible when numerous requests by Friends of Guemes Island for meetings about the information upon which a reasoned decision about the late runs might be made have been consistently ignored?

Is this a government of, by and for the people? Or is this a small collection of individuals who have decided unilaterally that the processes of government and the respect for citizens are irrelevant?

I am so very disappointed. The failure of the Public Works Department to communicate with the people that it serves is outrageous behavior by public servants.

Our commissioners should listen to their constituents, consider the fiscally and environmentally responsible course of action, and proceed accordingly. This has not happened.

The commissioners should reject the recommendation from their own Public Works and be sensible, fiscally prudent stewards.

David Wertheimer
Anacortes

Property tax assessment inflated

Concerning the article in the paper on the property tax value:

I received my assessed value in the mail this weekend. I own a 5-acre parcel in Sedro-Woolley that is supposedly really hard to find. I couldn’t believe how much it was raised, but what really surprised me was how it was done. The total value was raised $38,000. What I don’t understand is that $31,000 of that is from our 10-year-old mobile home

It seems funny to me that they can justify this when mobile homes depreciate in value, especially with the market fluctuation. The land is what was supposed to be in demand and that didn’t go up nearly as much. I certainly do not believe I could sell my mobile home for what they are saying it is worth now.

You can purchase one for less than what they claim mine is worth. I would like to know if the mobile homes in town went up. I intend to appeal this assessed value, and I suggest anyone else with acreage or a value that jumped up high do the same thing!

Let’s send them a message! We are not happy!

Tamie Cartwright
Sedro-Woolley

Media skewed election coverage

I have been a veterans counselor for nearing 20 years. I have heard untold stories of heroism, sacrifice and of the ultimate sacrifice people pay for their country. While I love my country, I am ashamed as to what America has been becoming.

Whether someone was for McCain or Obama is immaterial, but some of the things that were permitted during the election were reprehensible. Shows such as “Oprah” and “The View” openly and unashamedly were bigoted, biased and directly humiliating toward a gentleman who honorably served and suffered for his country.

This has nothing to do with politics but everything to do with respect. Much of the media removed itself from its job to educate and inform and went to blatant indoctrination. It is getting to where people do not elect the president, the media does. Our nation’s decision-making capital is no longer in Washington, D.C., but rather in Hollywood.

Hollywood and TV demigods, who have no concept of common people’s realities, lay on pressure over issues they don’t really understand. People who probably spend $150,000 on a daily basis were able to make Palin’s wardrobe headline news.

America is surrendering its right to think over to the media elite. There is a simple law of nature that states that what you do not use, you will lose.

Robert Baize
Sedro-Woolley