I’m more confounded and confused with every issue of The Leader I read.

Somewhere in the mix we buy 30 acres at more than $600,000 for a homeless encampment that has no running water or real bathroom facilities, and then want to spend millions of dollars to cut down perfectly good trees that actually provide a stately corridor into our beautiful town. 

I’m going to point out that there are no electrical wires along the lagoon side of the road. 

Instead of decimating the 60-year-old poplars into downtown at a ridiculous cost, what if we just took out every third tree and replanted it with something native and did that over a 10-year period? 

What if instead of buying 30 acres for a homeless encampment that’s going to allow a handful of people in, we spent that money on providing actual housing for those people at $600,000 instead of acreage that will sit unused? 

I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone here. No priorities for money spent on things that actually matter. 

We put that strange little parklet coming into town that nobody uses for another million or so and yet the Carmel Street building that could house eight to 12 families sits abandoned still.

Common sense is sadly uncommon. 

I’m begging the leaders of this town to stop spending money on things that don’t involve housing people either affordably or for the homeless. It’s outrageous and completely maddening.

Lynne Stryker
PORT TOWNSEND