Letters to the editor

The following are letters to the editor that appeared in the Aug. 19 print edition of The Peninsula Gateway. To submit a letter, e-mail gatewayeditor@gateline.com. Please keep letters submissions to 250 words.

Gig Harbor Rocks event a success for participating businesses

I’m relatively new to the Harbor area having been here just over a year.

I want to make the statement that the independent spirit of the downtown retail and eatery merchants is just rearing its vital head.

No community can be vibrant and healthy without a dominant emphasis put on retail.

Having a good retail base makes the tourist want to visit and or stay in a community.

I was part of the Gig Harbor Rocks group.

We garnered together 19 merchants who truly care about their business and those others striving to make a go in these tough times.

Those 19 merchants paid a little over $100 each to bring all that happened into an actual good time event.

Why were we successful in such a short time?

It is because we did not play politics, we did not expect someone to carry the ball.

We know the other organizations are working hard but there is too much red tape and too many people that are not in any way connected with retail to pull such an event off.

My hat is off to those who care enough about downtown Gig Harbor to work together, without outside influences, to see that they can do it on their own.

I should add that every merchant in that restrictive area was invited to participate, and of those 31 contacted, 19 chose to step up to the plate and pulled it off.

We proved that Gig Harbor does indeed rock.

Art Britton, Gig Harbor

Taxes are too big of a burden on businesses; no B&O tax, please

Why is it that when a budget deficit is incurred the answer seems to be to raise taxes on the business people of the community? We all have had to tighten our belts, why does government feel they are exempt from this process?

My business has suffered but I can not raise fees — I have to cut back or look for additional clients.

The City of Gig Harbor has an existing client (Fred Meyer) that wants to expand.

What is wrong with that? Are you at the city asleep at the switch? Businesses in Gig Harbor provide jobs which generate revenue.

I am a small business owner with a small staff. Taxes are a huge burden already and I do not want an additional B&O tax.

Are you nuts? Or do you just want to drive businesses out of Gig Harbor?

Monte R. Robinson, Gig Harbor

Naughty latte stands need to be covered up, are disgusting

To the naughty latte stands:

I feel this is one of the most disgusting ways to sell coffee I have ever seen.

To the new stand in Purdy that have the girls wearing next to nothing to sell coffee: Is your coffee really that bad that you have to hire an 18-year-old young lady and have her wear barely anything to make money?

As a parent of two girls I would forbid my daughters to work in an establishment like that.

My girls will have the knowledge that there are better ways of making money.

If selling coffee is what they want to do, I will support them, but work for a company like Starbucks that provides benefits and stock options!

CC Hammel, Gig Harbor

Clarification needed regarding Key Pen Parks board candidate

There was some miscommunication between your writer and myself regarding my candidacy for the position of Key Peninsula Metropolitan Park District Commissioner, and I would like to set the record straight.

I replaced Ross Bischoff in July of 2008, not October.

Regarding the Park Master Plan, I was a member of the committee that selected the contractor to write the Master Plan.

There is no Master Plan yet.

The first Master Plan meeting is in September, 2009.

The dog park was presented as the kind of idea that might come from the community meetings that will be part of the master-planning process.

The community did not ask for a Frisbee golf course. The present commissioners and park staff decided a Frisbee golf-course might be an inexpensive, easy to accomplish, user-friendly addition to Volunteer Park.

I am the Chairman of the Land and Facilities Committee.

Before I took that position I created the budgeting process the Park District uses for budgeting and tracking expenses.

I don’t think the department’s focus should be on acquiring more land.

We already focused on acquiring more land.

That’s how we added 400 acres to our existing 30 or so acre inventory.

Now we need a master plan with ample citizen input on how to use the land.

The future of KeyPenParks is very bright.

Please visit our website at www.keypenparks.com.

Bill Trandum, Commissioner at large, Key Pen Parks