February 12, 2013
Tuesday PM

The reverberations of the Sitnews' latest issue, it is quite annoying if we dissect these issues per se: John Kimmel's Cruise Ship Wastewater Legislation, the only pro among the cons. patting the back of cruise ships to have enough treatment before discharging them; Bruce Dixon's Dumping in Southeast Waters; Geord Kleinschmidt Drug Testing of contractors and their crews; Dave Timmerman as a citizen in the school board; and the tandem of David Haley and James Sullivan Dumping of contaminants as fecal coliform, ammonia and dissolved metals like copper, zinc, and nickel dropped in the Inside Passage waters. To all of these, its not only a cause for migraines, but probably Flu, and troubling for an average cruise ship to discharge 800 cubic meters which equals to 634 million gallons per season at par equivalent to 19 million bathtubs - WOW, our dear Sitnews Mary Kauffman, might well be commended to keep cool, I guess.
 
Dave Timmerman is a good friend of mine, even if he calls me a constructive kind of whiner during my stint with Ports and Harbors, as his view on the school board is as important as the schools' kids protection, and as a parent himself.
 
Geord Kleinschmidt drug testing to be a must not only for contractors and their crews, but to the fish processing companies must also be considered at least, helping our local enforcements to make surveillance and possibly giving a scare for drug agents and users an escape route to our local jail.
 
So gentlemen, let's work it out this time. Our good Mayor Lew Williams III has spruced up concreting our Ports for the facial attraction of incoming tourists, although he forgot to cover potholes along the corner of Washington and Tongass, plus the never ending zigzagging of vehicles due to an even larger potholes at the local McDonalds, the continuous parking of the government area at Washington visited only once a day for over the 2 hour limit signages, ahhhh ..... perhaps the City of Ketchikan should use volunteers from the private group of senior citizens for this matter.

Let this pass and help our City truly called as Alaska's Gateway City, and the Salmon Capital of the World......

Joey Garcia
Ketchikan, AK

Representations of fact and opinions in letters are solely those of the author.
The opinions of the author do not represent the opinions of Sitnews.