July 31, 2006
Monday

My last letter on consolidation prompted a few people to tell me why they did not want it - mostly because they did not want the building inspectors and city engineers complicating things. I do agree it is a supper pain in the butt to have to deal with them most times. They make everything more complicated than it needs to be sometimes. But they are still good advice givers if we were not so frustrated when dealing with them. I wonder if they ever wonder why so few ever build inside of town any more. I never read the paper work to see what is written for controlling this in the plan. Could someone fill us in on this?

Personally I only think the building inspector should only be concerned with commercial buildings that take in the public for our safety. Private homes should be under the responsibility of the one putting out the money - such as the banks. We already need zoning permits by the borough before we build. Storm water is handled by the E.P.A. Wetland permits by the Army core of Engineers. Sewer permits by the D.E.C. Wouldn't it be nice to just submit one plan to one department and then let it be taken care of in one easy step? Sure that will never happen but wouldn't it be real nice.

If the government can take your home when you don't pay your property tax it should be up to them to take care of getting us set up with one permit. After all we really never own our land we just rent it from the K.G.B. and we pay for all the improvements.

In my opinion, I feel it is or should be easier to deal with one government rather than two that are not working against one another.

If we can change for the better with consolidation, let's do it. Nothing good comes easy.

In other cities people may live in one town and work in another. But not here. We live here, we work here - basically we all are the community of Ketchikan Alaska. We should be one. Besides the city can just annex you as they did the Shoreline Drive area.

Saxman, why would you not want to be part of the city? It would only better your community. You use everything inside the city too. What if the city starts taxing your profits from tourist because they get off the boat in Ketchikan and they are putting up the money to get all these people to come here?

Consolidation may not be the perfect plan, but like everything else we have to change to keep up with the world. If we can fine tune and are willing to keep up with change, we well survive.

And last, some of you cheap sloppy builders need help doing things better. Rules are there to protect us all - at least i hope so. But I also understand it's your home. If you chose to live in a junk-heap you can. It's your life but it's our community. All of us as one.

Robert McRoberts
Ketchikan AK - USA

About: A local business owner and long-time resident.

 

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