Editor,

Hopefully you will see fit to publish this letter from “the other side.” It is written in rebuttal to the vitriolic letter by Helen Price-Johnson supporter Barbara Brand, published March 20.

The county and/or Bob Pederson began harassing and fining the Emersons for building too near a wetland. This was after they began rebuilding a porch without a permit, but that’s a separate issue.

The wetland doesn’t exist, a fact certified by two real, licensed hydrogeologists on two separate occasions at the Emersons’ expense.

The original building permit was issued, approved and then held up in the Planning Department for years. It is the Emersons who tried time and again to get the issues settled with no response from Pederson. Fines were levied on a bogus claim of a wetland. This is government at its worst.

Barbara Strowbridge
Oak Harbor