 By Bob Allen August 18, 2005
Read the Sitnews police blotter and see how many alcohol related crimes there are, how many teens are being cited for minor in consumption, not 1 time, but a number of times. Also take a look at how young they are. 15, 15 years old! Are the parents in denial? Are the kids led to drink by lack of things to do? Fishing, drinking, hunting and hiking are not the only things in life. Especially when more then 3/4 of the year the weather won't permit most of those activities. If you read the police blotters, Ketchikan begins to look a lot like a "lower 48" city with its drug arrests, alcohol problems, and domestic charges. Yet there are those in town who have the nerve to say, "ohhh there is so much crime down south." Per Capita, I bet we are right up there. The only thing we don't yet have is gang members shooting each other. Our local political leaders should start taking money they use for advertising and promoting ideas that apparently majority of citizens don't care for and maybe use it to clean up Ketchikan. To those on the outside sure Ketchikan is a pretty Alaska town, and it is very much eye candy; until they get into town and discover the drunk guy at 10 am making a ruckus on the corner by the movie theater. We who live in Ketchikan, we know there are some problems with our town. Maybe it does not help having leaders who themselves have alcohol incidents or who have been fired in other states. Maybe these are not the people who should be examples. Let's take that money that the Borough is going to pay to Seley and use that for social improvements. I mean what the heck do we owe Seley? A road, we are paying him for a road? A road that he uses for his own profits? Who does that guy have in his pocket? What the heck are the local citizens of Ketchikan going to do with Seley's road? Give me a break. We are paying him for a road from the airport to his working area. You have to be joking me! And let's not forget our soon to be 8th wonder of the new world, our Ketchikan bridge. Really what do we need that for? So Seley can get to work? So the 50 residents who chose to live there can get back and forth? Did they not know when they moved there it was going to be a trip by boat back and forth? Do we have enough use of the airport that so many cars will be going over? I ride the airport ferry, how many cars do you see on that? Ketchikan residents this is your town, don't you think it is time to stand up and make it into a place we portray to the rest of the country? Congrats on Nixing that dock proposal. Yet the city manager sounds like there will be another attempt to get their way. Remember, these guys are using your tax paid money for their own desires. That is not something I care for, we pay it and it should be used for all of us, not the select few cronies. Bob Allen
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