Sounder editorials

Shannon fails to heal the bad feelings on Lopez

Jon Shannon had the perfect chance to begin healing the rift that exists between many on Lopez and the county’s Solid Waste Division, which he heads.

Shannon could have scored points with the more than one hundred people who attended the meeting at Lopez Center March 28 by admitting that things were not handled well during the deliberations leading up to the commissioners’ decision to contract with Waste Management for hauling the county’s garbage and recyclables. He could have done even better by stating that the Tom Huse era is over at Public Works, and that, from now on, things will be different. Shannon could then have vowed that he will take public input more seriously and treat all citizens respectfully.

In fairness to Shannon, he did reach out somewhat to local citizens. The Solid Waste Division manager said he welcomed public input, and he expressed the hope that local people will actively participate in the upcoming discussions when the county rewrites its Solid Waste Management Plan later this year.

Otherwise, however, Shannon came up short. When Lopez businessman Ake Stroede asked Shannon to support an independent evaluation of a plan he developed from hundreds of hours of research, the Solid Waste Division manager turned him down. Stroede’s study offered the prospect of solving the Solid Waste department’s financial problems without requiring it to turn to Waste Management. It deserved an evaluation, and Shannon should have supported it.

But Shannon’s biggest mistake was throwing out what we believe were some grossly inflated numbers about the amount of support he has heard regarding the Waste Management contract. When confronted by the fact that there is widespread opposition on Lopez, Shannon could have acknowledged the problem. Instead, he engaged in a game of one-upsmanship by contending that “thousands of people on San Juan” had told him how wonderful the deal was. Thousands? Get real!

As The Sounder stated last week, our main hope now is that the commissioners will hire a successor to Huse who is a good listener and a consensus builder. We also hope that the new Public Works director, whoever he or she may be, will have a little chat with Shannon about the need to heal the adversarial relationship that now exists between a public agency and a large portion of its constituents.

We believe that people on Lopez have good reason to feel they are being disrespected and not taken seriously. Many, but not all, of those attitudes can be changed by a kinder and gentler attitude coming from Shannon. We say this, knowing that there will always be some hard-core people who will never be happy unless they get their own way.

Finally, The Sounder would be hard-pressed to recall the last time people weren’t fighting about solid waste. The battle lines have been drawn for years and, quite frankly, we’re sick of it.

Library takes risks to better serve the Orcas community

Regardless of how one feels about the library’s effort to purchase the old fire hall, you’ve got to give these folks a hearty round of applause for continually trying to make our lives richer and better.

The Orcas Island Library is one of our most respected institutions, and it would be so easy for the board, staff and Friends to put the system on automatic pilot and leave things exactly the way they are. Everybody connected with the library would get a good night’s sleep, and the community would never complain.

But a couple years ago, a long-range planning committee comprised of many of this community’s best-respected people identified lifelong learning as one of the library’s top priorities. Board members, staff and Friends took it from there, and when an opportunity arose earlier this year for the library to try to buy the old fire hall, they gave it their best shot. Most importantly, they did it with dignity and class, inviting the community to comment about their proposal, and assuring that no tax dollars would be used for the purchase. Their point always was — we’ll buy it only if the community wants it.

This is the second time that those connected with the library have stuck their necks out to try and solve a problem needing to be addressed. Last year, when the school was having trouble finding a librarian, the public library put forward a plan to take on the project. As things turned out, the school found its librarian, and the public library’s plan was rejected.

The public library deserved kudos back then for making the attempt, just as they now deserve a hearty round of applause for trying to expand lifelong learning opportunities to the entire Orcas Island community.

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