I don’t live in Friday Harbor anymore but I’ve been following the mayor’s race.

I’m leaning toward Carrie Lacher, simply because of her experience on the council and knowledge of the local government. I’ve read Mr. Low’s comments and I’m not impressed; his explanation of the process for purchasing this fire engine to me shows that he’s not in tune with the simple process of government. If he hasn’t taken the time to learn the process, he shouldn’t be running for mayor.

He insinuates that the council and the mayor were in some kind of plot to deceive the townspeople by pushing it through without consideration of the financial burden. On the town’s Web site, I found this explanation by the mayor which makes perfect sense to me — www.fridayharbor.org/whats%20new/press_release.htm. Read it for yourselves.

In Mr. Low’s other article criticizing the decision, he writes “It’s important that the council and mayor know the facts about ANY issue that directly affects those that live here. The council and the Mayor must be responsible not only to themselves but to the people of Friday Harbor and to make decisions of this magnitude fairly, responsibly, and accurately.” It sounds to me like he should take his own advice.

Then in another article he has the audacity to question the integrity of our Mayor, our Council and Mr. Fitch, all who have served our community with extreme integrity and dedication. And Mr. Low has also exposed the chip on his shoulder in the King Fitch article.

In this hour of economic gloom, we don’t need someone who feels he needs to clean house in a house that doesn’t need cleaning. We need experience and knowledge changing the players at this point would put the town at a serious deficit and I don’t believe Mr. Low has that experience.

I get a kick out of his quote about how he wants to be mayor because he owes the community a lot; apparently a lot of Mr. Low’s fire career can be attributed to the townspeople’s tax dollars. Friday Harbor paid to train him as a firefighter, paid for the education to acquire the position as fire chief, town fire marshal and arson investigator, and what did we get out of it? A county fire marshal. That doesn’t sound like the dedication the town needs right now.

The dedicated people we need to get us through this are already in place and with Carrie as mayor I would sleep better at night.

Stephenie Falls
Grand Prairie, Texas