June 30, 2010
Wednesday

An inaccessible rock pit? Would that be the one with the broad paved two-lane road sweeping past it? As opposed to an inaccessible cliff top requiring construction of an extremely expensive elevator, the realigning of two steep, narrow streets, and the elimination of the parking which local jurors depend on to keep from being loaded with overtime parking tickets as they do their civic duty down at the bottom of the hill? And that so that we can provide tourists with access to our library?

Sorry, Mr. Bergeron. I'm tired of waiting in line for help from our harassed librarians, who are too busy to assist local library patrons because they are explaining hundreds of times a day to befuddled visitors when the next bus will come to take them to the totem park and where to catch it, or how to get to Creek Street, or why the smelly salmon aren't cleaned out of the creek regularly, and finally, why tourists can't use every single one of our library computers for free so they can check their email. The library does designate one computer for use by these folks during the tourist season, or they did the last time I checked, which removes a computer from use by locals whose property taxes support the library, and which also competes with private enterprise whose owners rely on tourist dollars to support their internet cafes.

I know how much Ketchikan relies on tourism, but putting our library in a place where tourists can use it should have lower priority than putting it in a place where locals can use it.

Suzan Thompson
Ketchikan, AK

Received June 29, 2010 - Published June 30, 2010

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No Friend of the Taxpayers By Sam Bergeron

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