 By William Tatsuda August 09, 2005
VOTE NO, NO, NO! In response to Thomas Ferry's viewpoint, I would like to point out that this is the first chance the voters will have to express any opinion on the proposed cruise ship docks. Thomas stated that, "Since the Southerners lost out to the Northerners there are a lot of sore folks that won't reap a windfall." Herein lies the underlying problem. The choice of dock location had more to do with there being more Northerners than Southerners, rather than what is best for Ketchikan. The fact remains that only 4 ships will be able to dock as opposed to 5, the floating docks are an inferior choice and less convenient to visitors, waterfront views are blocked out past the Lutheran Church, and traffic will be screwed up all the way out to the Plaza. Our City's professional consultants recommended the Thomas Basin Breakwater location because it costs less, provides for more ships, requires very little land acquisition, and does not mess up traffic and resident views. Unfortunately, property owners North of the Tunnel ("Northerners") wanted their property values to go up and were able to convince the City Council to scrap all professional proposals and hastily throw together the current plan. Now the best argument the proponents of the current plan have is that time is running out and we need more docks even if we get less for more cost. If we proceed with the current plan we will only be able to dock 4 ships as opposed to 5. Then we will have to build more docks later and it will end up costing us a lot more than $70 million to get there. I say slow down and do it right the first time! VOTE NO! William Tatsuda Ps. There really is no free
lunch. The citizens will have to pay for the docks one way or
another.
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