Bus vandalism

Team steps up to cover costs

I would like to commend the McMurray girls basketball team and its coaches, Rochelle Wolf and Kevin Linnell. Several weeks ago there was some vandalism on a team bus off-Island. When confronted with the damage, Rochelle and Kevin took immediate responsibility — even though the damage could not be directly attributed to their team — and the girls had a bake sale to cover the cost of the repairs.

We are very fortunate to have such fine coaches on Vashon who not only promote good skills and sportsmanship but also promote these kinds of ethics. We are also lucky to have great students who follow the examples of these coaches.

Thanks again, McMurray girls basketball team.

Ann Murray

Army Corps

Corps should take the long view

People say the future is impossible to predict with absolute certainty. All we know for certain is what has happened in the past: “Maury Island is a small island in Puget Sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is connected to Vashon Island by an isthmus built by the United States Army Corps of Engineers,” Wikipedia states.

The construction of this isthmus in 1916 was a pragmatic solution to the obvious problem: how to get vehicles between Vashon and Maury Islands.

Before the construction of the isthmus, the tides used to flow between the islands and effectively flushed inner Quartermaster Harbor (between Vashon and Maury) twice a day.

When the isthmus was built this flushing action stopped.

More than 90 years have passed, and the inner harbor has filled with sediment and pollution, making it warmer and more stagnant then it once was and thereby causing it to be plagued by frequent red tides and low oxygen levels. In the summer the most prevalent forms of marine life are jellyfish and crabs, which are rendered inedible by the pollution and red tides.

This is the same harbor the natives say teemed with so many salmon that you could hear their spring runs from shore.

In hindsight a better solution might have been a bridge, but it’s too late now. A pragmatic, short-term solution has become a long-term nightmare.

No one is asking the Army Corps of Engineers to solve this problem now or to apologize. What we are asking is that they learn from their past mistakes and not repeat them in the future.

It behooves the Corps to take the long view because what they decide will be with the Island forever.

The future is predictable if you make it so.

Maurice Carpenter

Speeding

Four cats and a dog have been hit

How many cats do I have to lose before people begin to drive slower on S.W. 280th St.? So far I have had four cats hit (three killed outright). The fourth cat’s recovery seems to be going OK but is still in limbo. I have one cat left that has not been hit.

My neighbor’s granddaughter has a dog that was hit, and it took most of the woman’s monthly income to pay the vet bills.

I do not know how many more animals will die before everyone stops driving so fast here. Perhaps the next time it will be a child. Is that really what it will take?

I hope not!

Pennie Campbell