Moral dilemma in cars and about sewers

George Le Masurier

of the Gateway

Dear Readers: It’s your lucky day. Today’s column gives you two thoughts for the price of one.

Thought No. 1: Do you find yourself sitting in a car, wrestling with a moral dilemma? If that hasn’t happened to you since you were a teenager, then you probably don’t take the Purdy exit off state Route 16 between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on most weekdays.

For some time now, drivers caught in the daily backlog of vehicles trying to get to Purdy and the great expanse of the Key Peninsula beyond have wondered what they’re doing there.

“There” is pulled over to the side of the freeway, inside the solid white line that vehicles are not supposed to cross.

But commuters regularly pull into this not-a-lane to avoid stopping traffic in the right-hand lane of the freeway and incurring the wrath of commuters heading to homes farther north.

And nary a ticket from the state patrol, which is letting drivers determine the most safe maneuver for them.

In a short period of time, it has become customary to break the law in favor of maintaining a social order.

And therein lies the dilemma.

A driver who follows the law strictly would remain in the freeway lane, exiting properly where the road divides for the Purdy exit, thus cutting in front of all those politically correct drivers creeping along the shoulder.

Imagine the outcry! Imagine the road rage! Imagine the number of fender-benders causing even longer lineups!

If there is a right way and a wrong way to exit the freeway at Purdy, perhaps WSDOT could help us out. A sign giving directions to motorists — something like, “OK to break the law between here and Purdy” — could help motorists feel better about being law-abiding citizens without becoming social outcasts.

Thought No. 2: In 2003, the City of Gig Harbor ran out of water rights. In 2005, it ran out of roads for the future traffic expected in Gig Harbor North (an oversimplification, but it makes the point.)

And, in another problem from the past coming to haunt us in the present, the city has now placed a moratorium on sewer connections while it upgrades the treatment plant.

This latest stoppage has brought commercial development within the city to a grinding halt. Without a sewer certificate, no commercial project can get past an initial review stage, and that means all work will effectively stop until the new expanded sewer plant opens and city staff can work through the piled up stack of applications.

It could mean a two-year delay.

But architect David Freeman has a solution, and most of the city council agreed to try it.

Freeman proposed an ordinance that would allow commercial projects to install temporary septic storage tanks, even though they may never be used. While he hopes the city will be granting sewer certificates again by the time any of these planned developments reach completion, the ordinance would allow work to continue.

That means jobs and continued economic activity.

Two council members who opposed directing staff to draft such an ordinance did so out of concern for the time it would take and the distraction it would cause. But council choose wisely to ask for such an ordinance, mitigating the city’s slowness in anticipating basic infrastructure needs in the past.

Bonus thought: A loyal reader wrote in to ask why the YMCA, which has about doubled its expected membership numbers, doesn’t proceed with Phase II and expand the new Gig Harbor facility?

It’s a good question.