Alaska Marine Highway
Dear Editor: The Alaska State Legislature says we must put our two fast ferries and the Taku in dry dock.
Please put your right hand over your heart and repeat after me:
‘‘I promise/ not to vote/ for any like-minded legislator/ into office again.’’
Thank you for your support of our Alaska Marine Highway System.
Doris Smith, Sitka
Assembly Election
Dear Editors: I would like to thank those who voted for me in the recent election for Assembly. I also want to ask everyone to support Matt Hunter and Bob Potrzuski in the difficult years ahead. They and the other Assembly members will be facing tough issues, requiring unpopular responses.
During the election forums and by correspondence with Matt and Bob, I learned that these are persons of high capacity and integrity. The unlikelihood of my candidacy aside, I could not consider myself their opponent. I found myself running beside them, rather than against them. As these two fine Assembly persons join with their colleagues in handling the complex heavy lifting of containing city expenses, while building revenues, we the citizens will be getting the very best leadership and quality of deliberations. I am very appreciative of the opportunity to know these Assembly members better, as well as to meet and dialogue with a much wider circle of folks around town, as the election process advanced.
John Welsh, Sitka
Gun Control
Dear Editor: No one in their right mind should want to allow the federal government to outlaw the sale of handguns in America. The RIGHT to bear arms was a right Americans granted themselves, it was not a privilege the federal government allowed us to have. “The right to bear arms” was so citizens could not only protect their families, neighbors, and towns from criminals, but also defend their state from a federal government with a paid standing army looking to impose kingly powers on them. They would think twice about invading a state to impose their will when everyone living there was the armed force they would encounter.
If Obama really felt guns were the problem with this country rather than the breakdown of our moral values the White House would be a gun free zone.
Clyde Bright, Sitka
Monastery Street Repair
Dear Editor: I am writing in response to the letter from Shirley Howard in Friday’s Sentinel. I am a homeowner on Monastery Street, and I attended each of the meetings the city held for Baranof and Monastery street residents to inform us of the work that needed to be done and to involve us in the decision-making process.
The water and sewer lines under Monastery Street were so old they were at the end of their life, and I am very appreciative that they have now been successfully replaced. We didn’t have to deal with the ruptured pipes and unexpected floods that some other neighborhoods have had to contend with. The re-paving is sort of the bonus from the pipes being replaced.
There are rules and regulations based on safety and accessibility that dictate sidewalk and street dimensions, and we residents voted to have the street become one-way because a two-way street would have required road-widening and many property owners had already given up land twice before when the road was widened.
As for the cost, the city was able to get funding from outside sources (i.e. state funds and grants) for much of the work that was done. The construction company, which I think did a good job, is not the decision-maker in this project. If Ms. Howard had attended any of the meetings, or spoken with people who did, her opinions would have become part of the final plan just as ours did.
Karen Parker, Sitka
