Pull the plug on the Shaw boondoggle

The editorial cartoon in your July 16 issue (“Future Home of a County Public Works Development (whether local residents like it or not”), referring to Public Works’ plan to create an industrial site in the middle of Shaw, really isn’t very funny to those of us who live on Shaw.

The rationale for Public Works’ proposal contradicts its own environmental checklist, is ridiculous on its face for an island with just 12 miles or roads and already has cost county taxpayers more than $1 million for a residence and hot tub.

Worse, though, is it would drive a stake through the Shaw subarea land-use plan by placing a rural-industrial designation in

the middle of what for 40-plus years has been rural residential zone. The limits of the Shaw subarea plan were designed by

islanders to account for Shaw’s lack of public infrastructure: no law enforcement and limited ferry service topping that list.

It is past time for the County Council to pull the plug on this boondoggle.

Alex MacLeod,

Shaw Island