August 12, 2004
Thursday

I am a resident of South Tongass. I live across from Buggie's Beach. On Monday August 9 there was a loud party going on over at the beach. It was going on when I got home from work at 5pm and was still going strong at 9pm. I let it go until I heard fighting and things breaking. We called the troopers at 9:30pm to come and assess the situation. My husband, brother, sister and a friend and I hung out in my yard waiting for the Troopers to arrive. The party grew louder and louder and they were smashing beer bottles all over the ground. The troopers were called again and my husband was told that they were expediting the Troopers to the area. An hour went by before the Trooper finally showed up. By then the party had broken up.

I was not impressed that it took an hour for the Trooper to show up. That is when I found out that the troopers are not on duty after about 8pm. They are on call only. I just thank GOD that this wasn't some big emergency and that no one got hurt! I do not understand why we cannot have Troopers on duty 24 hrs a day?

We ended up searching the beach and found broken beer bottles all over the beach and the playground, garbage all over the place and the new bathrooms were damaged. I keep thinking that if the Trooper had arrived when we called, the beach wouldn't look like it did. Most of the damage and the bottles breaking happened in that hour we were waiting for the Troopers to arrive. I was upset over this! There was no way anyone could go to that area of the beach or even the playground until all the glass was cleaned up. That is all I am going to say for now.

My letter is for 2 purposes. The first one is to let people be aware that after 8pm there are no Troopers on duty. And, 2nd of all, I want to tell people that it is not ok to destroy our public beaches! I have a 7 year old who loves to go to the beach. How can I let him when the beach is covered in broken glass?

Be considerate people. Think of others instead of yourself.


Heidi Ellis
Ketchikan, AK - USA

 

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