Letters to the editor for Dec. 30
Flying under the radar
The Port of Olympia will soon be making one of its most important decisions as Port Commissioners determine the future quality of life in beautiful Thurston County. Flying under the radar, obscured by the uproar over the proposed mega airport site in Central Thurston County, is the Master Plan Update (MPU) of the existing Olympia Regional Airport which Port Commissioners will vote on in February.
Port staff say the “revised preferred alternative” in the MPU is not an expansion because the size of the airport will not change. But plans for infrastructure revision would support an increase of up to 315 takeoffs and 315 landings per day. (Currently there are approximately 100.) With the addition of more commercial services, the FAA would probably be in charge of the flight numbers, types of planes, and times of operation. Thurston County residents would have no say.
Over the decades, the Port has incrementally lengthened and strengthened runways for larger jets that can carry cargo or 100 passengers. Recently, permit applications have been submitted for building 3.3 million square feet of warehousing near the Olympia Airport. This doesn’t seem like a coincidence; cargo is expected.
Welcome to the new Renton. Goodbye to clean air and quiet neighborhoods, rural lands, and farmland. Goodbye to years of efforts to protect endangered species in our parks and wildlife preserves.
To protect Thurston County, Port Commissioners must work to assure limitations on airport capacity-enhancing projects and reject the MPU’s “preferred alternative.”
Sue Danver, Olympia
Former mayor in favor of RFA
A recent article in The Olympian characterized my testimony as questioning the RFA. Far from it, I am totally in favor of the RFA for several reasons.
The merging the two departments will not affect how firefighters and medics respond to calls in our communities. Tumwater and Olympia fire departments are already very integrated and operate in much the same way. The RFA will improve large fire response because more equipment and personal will be on duty at any given time to respond. Olympia currently maintains Tumwater’s fire trucks and Tumwater and Olympia fire departments train at the same facility in Olympia. The RFA will actually eliminate some administrative costs by having everything under one umbrella organization.
Maintaining fire and medical services around the clock is expensive. Because of the lack of national health care, our fire departments have become the local doctor for many people in our community. The amount of property tax homeowners pay will not change under the RFA. The new fire benefit charge, which is based on the level of fire risk, will help cover increasing costs and add new services. The addition of a “Cares” unit to respond to calls that are not life threatening, and a new transport unit to take less critical patients to the hospital, will reduce response costs and help reduce the response time to other calls.
For all these reasons and more, I am strongly in favor of the RFA and encourage everyone in Tumwater and Olympia to vote yes.
Pete Kmet, Tumwater
Port needs a new mission
The Port has failed in its fiduciary responsibilities to Thurston taxpayers and failed to protect us from environmental hazards.
The current Port mission and leadership has given us: a money-losing fuel dock, a tax levy increase of about $1 million, multiple warehouses, a loss of 95 acres of forest, a high-water-usage bottling plant and a proposed increase in air traffic with plenty of noise and pollution.
On a scale from 1 to 5, the 2021 Green Marine Performance Report gives the Port of Olympia a score of 2 for environmental leadership; the Port of Seattle scores a 5.
“The mission of the Port of Olympia is to create economic opportunities by connecting Thurston County to the world by air, land and sea.”
The Port of Seattle’s mission is to promote economic opportunities and quality of life in the region by advancing trade, travel, commerce and job creation in an equitable, accountable and environmentally responsible manner.
The Port of Olympia has a proven disregard for public opinion and places questionable economic gain over environmental pain.
We need new leadership and a new mission to guide us into a sustainable future!
Madeline Bishop, Olympia