JKT Has My Vote
Dear Editor: While the state House’s proposed $2 billion giveaway to oil companies grabbed headlines this past spring, another equally troubling bill rolled through the Legislature. This bill gave $2 million in free plane tickets to spectators attending the Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage.
Troublingly, the sponsor of that bill, Bill Thomas of Haines, is now running to represent Sitka in the State House.
I’m not the only one who’s been stunned by the recklessness of this spending. Dermot Cole of the Fairbanks Newsminer dubbed it a “good example of what’s wrong with the capital budget in Alaska.” The Anchorage Daily Planet (a conservative website) summarized the bill by saying: “There are bad ideas, really bad ideas and then this.”
Why Bill Thomas decided to authorize such a wasteful expenditure for a weekend basketball tournament, when more money needs to be directed towards college scholarships and hiring teachers, is beyond me. In addition, Mr. Thomas also voted twice for the $2B oil tax cut that would leave Alaska with a $651M deficit.
Thankfully, we do have a great choice in this election, and his name is Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins. Jonathan is bright, deliberative, and incredibly hardworking. He’s made fiscal responsibility a hallmark of his campaign, and I have full confidence that he’ll be a careful steward of taxpayer dollars in Juneau.
Please look beyond Mr. Thomas’ campaign magnified role in the finance committee and consider the track record when casting your ballot on Nov. 6.
Paul Columb, Sitka
DDF Meet
Dear Editor: I want to take a minute to express my deep gratitude to all of the community members who came to Sitka High School this weekend to act as judges in the Sitka High School Drama, Debate and Forensics meet. Our community happily volunteered a couple of hours of their weekend to watch and give feedback on speeches, drama pieces, and debates. The students from around Southeast Alaska were thrilled to have gotten such thoughtful, thorough feedback from you all.
Hosting a meet requires a huge number of community volunteers, and Sitka was more than generous. We managed to fill all of the 100-plus required volunteer slots and each of you volunteers came with a great attitude. I cannot imagine a better community to call home; you all make Sitka a pretty magical place to live.
Thank you for your continued support of our kids.
Stefanie Ask for the
Sitka High School DDF Team
Dog Ordinance
Dear Editor: We have a dog ordinance, everybody has seen the signs posted in every neighborhood, street, park, harbor, playground and ball fields, leash law and clean up after your pet.
The new proposed changes to the ordinance ban all dogs from all city developed ball fields, of which there are 11 of, including Moller and Kimsham. This doesn’t mean if you don’t clean up after your pet; it means if you are on a field with your dog you can be fined $300 no matter if you are responsible or not. It doesn’t matter.
No more can families throw a ball or Frisbee to their pet on a field. How many people walk their dog around Moller track, it’s a ball field. You better watch your children, don’t let them take the family dog out and let it get on a field.
There are women’s groups which meet mornings to exercise their pets, get some fresh air and socialize. They also clean up trash and are keeping watch on the area.
There are no safe, fenced areas in Sitka to let your dog run. There is a small dog park at the Turnaround, and it is amazingly used in spite of the fact that you can’t throw a ball, because it’s too small, it also is a muddy swamp, cold and rocky.
No one questions that some people do not respect the ball fields. They leave trash. Don’t clean up after pets, etc. But the changes to the dog ordinance only divide the community’s user groups.
Enforcement is also an issue. the administrator wants to hire a police dog enforcer. this will cost the city about $70,000 per year. Can we afford this? Do we want this? Seems not too long ago we were trying to squeeze seniors’ tax money to pay for city government.
I believe Sitkans have the ability to work through this issue with education and cooperation.
Ken Corson, Sitka
House Race
Dear Editor: Growing up in Sitka, it was hard to not know Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins. Jonathan was everywhere – involved, committed, and working on anything he could possibly be a part of. As an excellent musician, an amazing athlete, and leader in both student council and the debate team, among other things, Jonathan was the Renaissance man of Sitka High. Johnny also organized and motivated our high school to recycle, something new to SHS and difficult to implement among highschoolers, though now it seems second nature.
Jonathan is driven by a passion for knowledge that I have not seen anywhere else. I discovered this early on when I found Jonathan had written a 30-plus page paper on feminism in high school. Jonathan carried this energy with him through college and since his return has applied it to building a better Sitka – by creating programs like Bulldogs on Baranof and Sitka Fellows, a national arts fellowship.
Jonathan does his homework when it comes to understanding the issues our community faces, and he follows through with determined action. His desire to learn has driven him to knock on the majority of doors in our district.
Jonathan is not only a creative leader who fights for the future of this community, he also works to energize people, young and old, to invest in local issues. Even while away at college I’ve been inspired to volunteer for his campaign – as has my grandmother, Pauline Fredrickson, who has been making weekly phone calls for the campaign back home.
I also believe that Jonathan, with his knowledge, energy, and persistence will be the best candidate for strengthening this region’s economy and, in turn, making the community more accessible for others like me, who hope to return after school to find a life and future. Jonathan is a long-term thinker – a visionary with the diligence and practicality to execute his ideas. I’ve already cast my absentee ballot for him, and I hope you’ll join me on Nov. 6.
Taylor White,
Whitman College 2013,
Walla Walla Wash
Local Leadership
Dear Editor: Six times already, we have voted for an “experienced” representative in the House who “had the seniority to bring in state dollars.” She was a mediocre leader whose real focus was never in Sitka except for electoral purposes, and Bill Thomas would be more of the same.
Sitka is too important and has too many talented leaders to be in the periphery of Haines. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins is one of those talented leaders, and when we elect him we will get more than a long-term bench-warmer who comes here every few months to cultivate votes: we will get thoughtful, energetic local leadership that will stay in Sitka through thick and thin and redistricting plans.
Paul Norwood, Sitka
Yes to Kreiss-Tomkins
Dear Editor: The past few weeks, we’ve seen countless expensive ads appearing in the Sentinel touting Bill Thomas’ credentials as an “experienced legislator.” These ads suggest that if we want to keep state funds moving into Sitka, we’ve got to re-elect Bill Thomas to the state House.
If you look at the facts, this makes zero sense.
During Thomas’s last term in the state House, he voted twice to give oil companies $2 billion without asking for anything in return. He then went ahead and sponsored a bill to buy sports fans $2.5 million of free airplane tickets to fly to Anchorage to watch the Great Alaska Shooutout in Anchorage.
Thomas is an example of precisely the type of person we don’t want representing us – someone who’s a reckless spender, someone who will have zero credibility when it comes to funding the projects that actually matter.
We need to build a sustainable economy here in Sitka, and that takes long-term vision, hard work, and fiscal responsibility. Voting for legislators like Bill Thomas is a vote against that future. As a community, I think we can do far better.
Adam Andis, Sitka
