Setting it straight

Last week the Beacon ran a letter to the editor twice, once signed by Nancy Hopper, once by Barbara Mercer. The letter, titled “Keep the pool AS IS” was written by Barbara Mercer. Our apologies for the error – Ed.


An Edmonds kind of hero

Editor:
Last week, driving my nieces home from swimming lessons at beautiful Yost Pool, we saw a mother duck with babies by the side of the road (212th/Main.)

Since one girl had not seen the duck family, I turned the car around to go back for another look.
This time we noticed fewer ducklings. I parked the car nearby and we pondered the situation.
While we were thinking, we saw another baby slip through a crack in the storm drain. We surmised that a duckling had fallen through earlier, and while the mother was trying to retrieve it, more were dropping.

The babies were swimming about three feet below, calling to their mother. She was calling back but didn't know how to get to them. Nor did we!

A truck pulled up, and a man got out. After we explained the situation to him he succeeded in lifting the cover off the storm drain, lying on his stomach on the road and pulling up balls of fluff, one by one.

My nieces took charge of keeping the rest of the family out of the road and I took charge of keeping cars coming up the hill from running over our hero.

After five ducklings had been successfully reunited with their mother, the mother crossed the road, paused at the opposite storm drain and then waddled off into the brush.

As we were congratulating ourselves for a job well done, we hear a plaintive quacking.
Apparently one more duckling was in need of rescue. It had swum under the road to a drain that was deeper than the man's arm.

I called the police, who kindly sent an officer.

In the meantime, we searched our trunks for scooping materials and ended up with a plastic basket hung from bungee cords. The mysterious duck rescuer once again retrieved a duckling!
We wrapped it in a towel and set off in search of the rest of the family.

The police officer congratulated us on our rescue, gave suggestions where to look for the duck family and returned to fight crime on the streets of Edmonds.

The man with the truck, who said he had daughters my nieces' age, drove off.
I'm sure his daughters would have been proud of him!

After an extensive but fruitless (duckless?) search, my nieces and I drove home with the duckling.

I called PAWS wild animal rescue, delivered the lost baby and was told there were several others there already (along with three bear cubs, but that is another story).

My nieces were sad that the duckling was separated from its family but glad to be a part of its rescue.

I wonder how often this situation occurs. Storm drains, with water underneath, must be appealing to ducks.

How hard would it be to put smaller grates on the covers and who could accomplish this?
   
Cathleen Draper

An open letter to Diane Buckshnis

Dear Councilor Buckshnis:
I was rather taken aback by your reference to “dictators” in the course of interviewing Carl Brecht for the vacant City Council position the evening of June 29, 2010.

I’m not sure what your experience in countries which have had dictators has to do with Edmonds city governance, but there seems to be an implication of dictatorial behavior on the part of our past mayors and in particular our most recent Mayor, Gary Haakenson, which I find rather difficult to believe.

Perhaps I have misinterpreted your intent and if so, I am not alone and clarification of your remarks would be in order. 

As a public official who made these remarks in a public setting, I think it is incumbent on you to explain the rationale for this reference to dictators when posing a question about strong mayor vs. city manager form of government. 

While understandably there are varying opinions about our former mayor, he is widely known as one of the more popular mayors we have had in Edmonds, with a reputation for being unusually responsive to citizen input and concerns.

While I would describe Mr. Haakenson as a strong leader, I would certainly not consider dictatorial an appropriate word for his leadership style.

The debate over the merits of a strong mayor versus a city manager form of government may well be one worth having, but I think it needs to be done on a somewhat higher plane than such remarks about “dictators” would imply.

D. Michael Denton
Owner/Publisher
Edmonds Hometown Values


Concerning the council manager issue

         Editor:
Opponents paint a very hopelessly negative picture.

The sky will fall if the Council allows their ignorant citizens to have the opportunity to choose a slightly different approach to our local government.

They fear the vote of the people.

They demand that the Council forbid the citizens from deciding this very important issue.

They attack the Council while urging them to ignore the wishes of the citizens and deprive them of a good old American vote on the Council/Manager issue
Contrary to this harsh assessment I suggest that the following reasons for the Council to properly put the issue on the ballot:

1. Over 50 percent of cities our size had adopted Council/Manager. There are several variations of it. Virtually all cities began with a Mayor/Council form.


2. It prevents the tug of war between the Council and the Mayor that sometimes occurs and has been a constant in the past ten years while draining a whole lot of energy and money.


3. Former Mayor Haakenson, to his credit now supports Council/Manager.


4. Council/Manager cities have a record of better control of their finances and also much better transparency of same for the citizens.


5. Blame for problems cannot be blamed on another such as the Mayor blaming the council and vice-versa. Failures will more clearly illuminate the real responsible elected official or officials who will then be held accountable at the next election.


6. Edmonds has a failed financial position. Yes, other cities are tight, yet our situation is comparatively much worse and has been caused by waste and bad decisions.

All but one of the Council members is in their first term while the financial crisis has been here far longer.

Mauri Moore made it her major issue yet was defeated by our “strong” Mayor who assured all that everything was under control and only a state initiative was making things difficult.
Its time to try a new approach to avoid the unnecessary political infighting.

Our new inexperienced yet highly qualified Council should have the opportunity to demonstrate without interference our financial recovery.

The council should place this issue on the ballot.

Ray Martin