Dear Editor:

Regarding the fate of our beautiful Port Townsend golf course, no ‘third option’ lacking a hybrid golf course is acceptable. Mayor Faber is quoted as saying, “If we were given this land today, there is no way we would even consider  making it into a golf course.”

Who is the ‘we’ in this statement? It isn’t me or many other long-time, tax-paying PT citizens. We absolutely do want our Golf Course and it will break hearts to have it taken away.

Our Mayor dismisses the importance of the Course’s 100-year history as though our Victorian town does not bank on the respect and preservation of our historical aspects. Why not promote tourism for this lovely old course with its clean air and fabulous views? Local golfers love the course for year-round healthy outdoor activity, friendship, and fundraising tournaments for charities.

Our loyal PT golfers are generous to agree to a hybrid option, giving up half the course to yet another among twenty-some PT parks with the huge Kah Tai Lagoon park only a half-mile away. How many parks do we need and how many parks, trails and wetlands can the city actually maintain?

I ride my bike all through Port Townsend and see that the city cannot keep up with overgrowth in parks, trails, and streetsides. The golf course looks nice now thanks to a team of volunteers who help keep it so. Close their course and the volunteers will be gone, then the city will be in charge of a huge field of fast-growing grass that’s backed by uncontrolled berry brush, dotted with hemlock and inhabited by a pack of coyotes.

Will we then have a stunning Central Park or a huge mid-city eyesore? Stay the course, as is or hybrid?

A 45-year PT resident,

Julie Deen