 By Steve Ripley March 02, 2006
Like you, I was born here and have lived my whole life here. I don't have a problem with tourist; I just have a problem with the amount of tourists on any given day throughout the summer months. I would say that 2000 to 5000 extra people a day would be ok. But when you add 7,000 to 15,000 people a day that is over-kill on our town making it so most locals don't want to go or drive in the downtown area. I'm also not against senior citizens, it won't be long and I will be one. Taxes... well, in the sixties when there was one or two boats in a week I don't even think we had a garbage pick up tax. So now that we have all these large ships here let's see, we have garbage collection fees, water fees, fire protection fees, EMS fees, sludge fees and property taxes have gone up. So where are all savings from the large number of tourist? I know people fall on hard times at times and need the assistance of a lot of our non-profit agencies and public assistance, but maybe we should say you have to have been a resident of Ketchikan before you can accuse them. The reason I say that is I believe that quite a few years ago Oregon was buying people one way tickets to Ketchikan to get them off of their assistance programs which over strains our resources. Steve Ripley
Related Viewpoint:
and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Sitnews.
|
