Editor,

I can only speak for myself, but the recent announcement regarding a pending increase for utilities expense to Oak Harbor city residents as a result of the bones fiasco infuriates me.

Having retired from careers in both the military and law enforcement, accountability has always been a large factor in my life and I would like to think it would be for those in local government as well.

The downtown project that resulted in the fiasco was embattled from the beginning and was viewed by many as too much for too little gain and could have been avoided with only a small amount of due diligence on the part of those in charge.

I am aware that this chapter is now closed and most of those involved in the administration at that time have moved on, leaving us, the citizens of Oak Harbor, holding the bag.

Our current city administration is negotiating for an improved sewage treatment plant to go along with our beautifully restored and renovated downtown.

However, rather than improving the one bright spot in our city, “beautiful Windjammer Park,” by removing the sewage treatment plant from the middle of our picnic area thereby making it a complement to our beautiful downtown and possibly attracting a few more tourist dollars, they plan to leave it where it is.

I am not an engineer but it would seem to me that, at some point in the future, Oak Harbor will have increased its population and need to scale up it treatment facility again.

That would be much easier to do if the facility were in a remote location and not in the middle of our beautiful waterfront park next to our beautifully restored downtown.

After thinking about this I realized that, by the time any of this comes to pass, our current city administration will have moved on and will no longer be accountable for their decisions.

We, the citizens, though, will again be insulted with an enormous increase in our utility bills to pay for the next fiasco.

Robert E. Clark

Oak Harbor