I find myself compelled to respond to Mr. Ken Pickard’s negative and demeaning “Sound Off” column (News-Times, Sept. 8) titled “Town needs regime change.”

At first I wanted to laugh at such negative juvenile comments directed at the present Coupeville Town administration by one who considers himself guardian community pioneer stock. Finding myself reading his article over several times brought me to a different response.

The “ruination of Front Street” as Mr. Pickard describes it can also be viewed as an attempt by the present town administration to reverse business stagnation through in-filling vacant property on Front Street, thus creating increasing tax revenue for the town. The town’s administration’s attempt to find another interpretation to state laws is not a crime and Mr. Pickard as a lawyer by trade knows that or at least should. But then no two cowpokes view the landscape the same.

Miriam’s rezone is another community saga that Mr. Pickard tries to color to his own perceptions. Ask yourself why a town administration would invest public money for a public park next to an elementary school that has all the amenities of a park in-place to begin with?

Mr. Pickard’s article is at best putting lipstick on pigs that he had a hand in raising and at worst I’ll leave to your imagination. But I do find his comments in a contrary way, an endorsement of the present Coupeville town administration and its incumbents in the forthcoming election.

Thomas F. Strang

Coupeville