Off-leash park is a nuisance
The off-leash dog park at French Lake Park is a nuisance.
The Federal Way City Council refuses to do anything for the property owners living around the park who have no control over the noise, danger and destruction in our neighborhood. Why can’t we find a compromise and either build a buffer between the houses’ fence line and the barking dogs and their noisy owners, or better yet, find a more suitable location for an off-leash dog park, away from residential properties?
The homeowners group around French Lake Park has written and called as well as attended city council meetings many times over the past three years, but nothing has changed. All we ask is a reasonable compromise between dog owners and property owners.
Lakewood and other cites in the state have used much better judgment and decision-making before creating a nuisance like this off-leash park right next to residential properties.
I ask the city council members to go walk in the park, especially on the weekends, and see the destruction that has taken place because of the dogs. The grounds are beaten down to basically mud, dog feces is all over the place, the water in the ponds is contaminated, the dog owners don’t care if their dogs disturb everyone else around the park fences and certainly don’t abide by any reasonable hours.
This is insanity and it needs to stop.
Please work with us, the property owners around the park, to find a workable resolution to this problem.
Tom Neils
Federal Way
I-1000 and the right to die
Several years ago my oldest son, Dave, 23, had a growth on his head.
It was biopsied and turned out to be melanoma. They tried to save him with medication and finally cut off a large section of his head. There was nothing more they could do. He was on morphine but still hurt. He suffered for one and a half years. He wanted to save pills and someday go to sleep peacefully. Everybody loved Dave. He went to Federal Way High School, and then worked at Peoples Dept. Store. How would you feel if this had been you, or your child, or brother?
Please vote yes on I-1000.
Nancy Ozanich Combs
Federal Way
Skip Priest’s party lines
State Rep. Skip Priest’s latest mailing tells Federal Way voters about his track record of reaching across party lines.
Well, I’d sure like to know when that happened. Because his voting record doesn’t quite tell the same story.
Skip wants people to think of Skip the regular local guy, rather than Skip the Republican. But the fact is, Skip has voted with his party line on the majority of major policy bills before the state House in the past few years.
He voted against SB 6809, which would have given a tax exemption to working families. That would have no doubt come in handy for families currently hit by the nationwide economic turmoil (brought to you by his fellow Republicans in power). He also voted against SB 6272, which would have provided “financial literacy” for homeowners and new homebuyers, ensuring that they were fully informed about their options, which no doubt would have helped stem the rash of predatory mortgages, of the sort that continue to fall into foreclosure, not just nationwide but in our own state.
Skip wants you to believe he is a supporter of schools, and backs it up with a file photo of him speaking at a PTA meeting, and he enjoys some support from some school administrator and technical education groups. But his record on education is less than stellar. He voted against HB 1484, which would have increased school funding and improved teacher salaries, in a time where schools, particularly Federal Way’s, have had to get by with outdated resources and serve a growing population. He also voted against SB 5297, to ensure that our state’s young adults receive comprehensive and medically accurate sexual education in schools. This would no doubt be helpful in an area like South King County, which has one of the state’s highest teen pregnancy rates.
The list of Skip’s party-line votes on important legislation across the policy spectrum goes on. Voting against domestic partnership rights, twice. Voting against health care liability reform that focused on patient safety. Voting against a bill to help small business employees afford health insurance.
Each of these bills passed the House, no thanks to Skip, despite his legendary party-bridging efforts.
It seems the only policy area in which Skip has “crossed the aisle” in the past few years has been the environment. Is being pro-environment really the best example of party-line-crossing Skip can offer? Come on. Being pro-environment in Washington is like being pro-gun in Texas. An anti-environment legislator in Washington wouldn’t last long. Those bills on which Skip has bravely broken party ranks have in fact passed by overwhelming majorities, including broad House Republican support. Frankly, it doesn’t make Skip much of a party-line-breaking maverick, if a large part of the rest of his party did the same.
Skip likes to tout his support from a few choice local unions, but the broader Washington State Labor Council gives him a paltry 40 percent rating, and the Washington Public Employees Association gives him an even 50 percent. And lest you think perhaps that Skip Priest was something other than a conservative Republican, on social issues, women’s rights group NARAL gives him a big fat zero. And the LGBT rights group Seattle Metropolitan Elections Committee gives him the less-than-shining “passively sympathetic” rating.
Like governor candidate Dino Rossi, Skip might not want people to associate him with his party. But it’s the party he’s run in for all his congressional campaigns, the party from which he has received campaign contributions, and the party whose policy line he has consistently voted along. In addition to the Republican Party, he’s received support from conservative backers ranging from the National Rifle Association, developers’ lobby BUILD PAC, tobacco giant Phillip Morris, oil giants ConocoPhillips and BP and the WA Oil Marketers Association, and the WA Association of Realtors.
While Skip Priest wants you to think of him as a party-bridging, nonpartisan uniter, his voting record and financial backing tell a different story; one in which he has stayed true to a Republican party line that promotes large industries and a conservative social agenda.
Keith Tyler
Federal Way
