What Was He Thinking?

I received a couple of pieces of information today (one on Point Interface) from Ron Hughes, a guy who is perhaps a solo operation or perhaps has other supporters in his opposition to the bond levy to repair the Community Center.  Only his name appears, so maybe it's just him.  (The other info was a comment on the previous blog post: see here for his meanderings.)

In any case, he has ginned up a ton of words in opposition, none of which makes much sense.  E.g., he likes to say that the Park and Recreation Dept. has "given" the Julius Fire Hall to the Friends of the Point Roberts Library rather than kept its ownership of this worthy property asset.  As someone who has been working near fulltime for almost 2 years to raise funds to renovate that building for the Park and Recreation District, so that said District can put the library in that building and reclaim the space in the Community Center, I find this mighty irritating.  When the Friends of the P.R. Library complete the fund raising, the Julius Firehall will be turned into a much more valuable building and it will be owned not by the Friends of the P.R. Library, nor by the Whatcom County Librarty Services: it will continue to be owned by the Park and Recreation District.

He seems convinced that the only problem of concern at the Community Center is the roof.  That is just flat wrong; the building has been and may still be standing in water; there is rot; there is mold.

In addition to being irritated by Mr. Hughes' misstatements, I am amused by his language.  Thus, he has named his group "The Con Committee."  I am astonished that neither he nor the committees' other members, if there are any, noticed the primary meaning of that name: This, apparently, is a committee that intends to con local voters.  Well, it's truth in advertising at a new level.  Thanks for your honesty, Mr. Hughes!

As to his substantive comments that aren't entirely confused, well...  His major claim is that the Park and Recreation Commissioners (one of whom is his wife) need to take a longer term view.  Repairing the Community Center for the next 30 years is not long enough for him?  What in the world does he have in mind?  The new library when done, will be good for probably 50 years.  Not long-term enough for him?

It's possible that he is one of that odd coterie of folks around here who think if only we tried harder Point Roberts might be more like Carmel, California, or one of those other charming, crowded, touristy towns with expensive shoppes where the tourists will buy, buy, buy, and residents will grow rich on entrepreneurship.  Or if we tried even harder, maybe it would be like some tiny New York City.  I don't think so.  And who here (besides Mr. Hughes, perhaps) would want to live in a tiny New York City, or Carmel with or without a difficult border?  So crowded; parking problems; noise; urban difficulties: and all in 5 square miles PLUS a border.  Perhaps he longs for shoppes on that second floor of the Community Center that he'd like to see built?

Vote YES on the levy, please.  We need to repair the Community Center.