Editor,

I apologize in advance that this letter may be almost as disjointed as the decisions coming out of Oak Harbor City Council on the issue of the waste water treatment plant, but I will try to be as clear as possible.

I will start by addressing remarks made by Chris Skinner during the citizen’s comments time at the April 5 council meeting. He accused those of us who are questioning the decisions being made concerning the project as people being motivated by someone else. “So for someone motivating people in town to come here and question the decision based on the assumption that this is going to be an eyesore is a mistake.”

We are quite capable of using our minds and thoughts and ideas, and I for one resent the idea that we are thought of as somebody’s puppet. What is motivating us, sir, is a concern for what these plans will be doing to what is arguably our city’s best tourist attraction. What is motivating us are the expanding costs. What is motivating us are future plans for things like street expansion, e.g., Bayshore Drive, and the effect the location of the WWTP will have on those plans. And, sir, for the record, some of us would have loved to have given our input five years ago, but we did not live here five years ago, or four years ago or three years ago. But we do live here now, and we will be heard.

We have been told by members of City Council that the exact design of the facility has not yet been decided and that we will have ample opportunity to make inputs into the form the building will take. However, it is my understanding that there is a design charrette (an intensive design and planning meeting) scheduled for May 6.

This meeting is open to the public; however, the only persons who may actively take part in the design charrette are those who have been invited to do so. At the conclusion of the meeting, there will be a vote to select one of the plans. It will be submitted to the City Council for a vote on June 16. So where exactly do we the citizens get to input any ideas we might have?

It is my understanding that the “final design” will be complete by the end of the year.

However, groundbreaking for “early sitework construction” is to take place in May when the design is 60 percent complete. Maybe I am missing something that is common practice, but until that is explained, I feel that this is a rush that could be very expensive. I, for one, would not start construction on a home if the design were only 60 percent complete.

It is my understanding that this facility is expected to last 50 or more years. In light of that, there is a saying: “When you are up to your neck in alligators, it is hard to remember that your original intent was simply to drain the swamp.”

I urge the City Council and the Oak Harbor community to carefully consider the decisions they are making because, unfortunately, if we make the wrong one, it will be our children and our children’s children who will be dealing with the alligators. Yes, it might cost more to delay, but isn’t it more important to get it right for future generations?

I am not trying to be difficult or cause problems; I am trying to understand the reasoning behind the choices that have been and are being made and to suggest some possible alternatives.

William Christian

Oak Harbor