An open letter to Laura Jean Schneider: When I first read your Guest Viewpoint in the Feb. 16 issue (“Knowing when it’s time to walk away”), I dismissed it as wine from sour grapes. But on second reading, I felt your hurt.

I’m sorry you had to leave, which you attribute to the area’s high living costs, though there were probably other personal and professional issues as well.

Know that your bylined articles mattered, especially those about fire-decimated Protection Island and profiles about yet another talented local artist. The paper already named a successor.

Locals can make snide comments about the paper and its price (some while sipping expensive coffee or tea). But when they need information about local issues, they rely on The Leader. This strong weekly lives up to its name – local radio and the woefully understaffed Jefferson County bureau of the Peninsula Daily News can only follow. Editor Brian Kelly and staff wrote 22 articles so far about troubles with Fort Worden Public Development Authority. Now the paper drives community discussion, reflected in letters to the editor, about status of the poplars astride Sims Way.

May you continue writing in some form, and, over time, your memories about Port Townsend become good ones.

John Kendall
PORT ANGELES