Vote yes for our parks in April

Published 1:51 pm Tuesday, March 24, 2015

The kind of parks we have and how we take care of them says a lot about us. They’re a living statement about what we value as a community.

Parks exist because we choose to have them, and every few years, we vote to tax ourselves to pay for them. The last Vashon Park District levy election was almost six years ago, and a lot has happened to the district since then. From the ongoing spending for VES Fields construction, the state auditor’s findings about the VPD’s financial condition, the problems with the drain field at the swimming pool and the VPD’s failure to resolve its issues regarding the pool lease with the school district and the problems with the Tramp Harbor dock, the past few years have been difficult for the VPD.

Although I’ve often been disappointed in the VPD’s board of commissioners’ performance during this time, I’m still voting yes for this levy, and I hope you will, too. Executive Director Elaine Ott, Maintenance Supervisor Jason Acosta and the rest of the hard-working staff deserve the support of the community for what they’ve been able to accomplish in the past two-plus years as they rebuild the VPD from the ground up. This process of recovery has been slow and sometimes painful, but it is occurring, and we should keep building on this momentum, not interrupt it.

George Washington said, “We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.” We can learn from the lessons of the past and apply them to our future endeavors if we’re willing to acknowledge them.

So let’s not confuse our disappointment in our elected officials’ performance with our support for a healthy, well-functioning operation. Our parks, and the employees who care for them, deserve our votes on April 28 — even if some commissioners may not in November.

— CC Stone