Dear editor,
So, after decades spent wrangling, fighting, spreading fear and disinformation, being offered solutions that were voted down time and again, and wanting something for nothing (i.e. free sewers from Kensington), we are at yet another crossroad. It’s an offer of 60 per cent off or deferred for a lifetime (free). Not bad.
This community has become unfriendly and divided. The shouting, threatening environment of any public meeting has certainly deterred me from showing up in person.
The over-the-top volume of “vote no” signs are a good example of being surrounded by pressure from the few toward the many. Volunteers in any service capacity in Union Bay have become so discouraged or stressed that they have become ill and/or chosen to move away from here.
Now, I know that our property’s septic system will fail. Sometime. They all do. If I have to borrow $40,000 from a bank, pay $400 interest a month and perhaps $500 principal, I need to come up with nearly $1,000 per month to pay for my new system. Instead, for sewers, I am more than willing to pay $150 per month, have the debt attached to my property instead of to me personally, amortized at a low interest rate for my lifetime. No pumping. No worry. If I want to stay here.
On the one hand, we could defeat the sewer motions, wait for costs to double yet again, try to fund the total with our own money (no grants, no investments), and watch our ground water and ocean water become ever more polluted. On the other hand, we could use kind intentions and vision to clean up Union Bay with a permanent solution. We could cool down, take the long view, bite the bullet, be responsible and vote “yes.” We can vote “yes” and work together. We can vote “yes” and believe in something greater than ourselves. Vote “yes” and let’s get on with it. At last.
K. Clark
Union Bay