Bothell folks

are appreciated

This is a “thank you” to the city of Bothell and its employees and residents.

Last year, when our son, Doug, died in an accident, among the first at our house to offer condolences and any help they were capable of were Brian Wirt, Doug’s colleague, and Nik Stroup, his boss. Adam Fletcher honored Doug by being a pall bearer. All the Parks and Recreation/Public Works Department staff members have made this past year easier to bear. We had the mayor and City Council declare a day of mourning. How often does an entire department get the day off and all calls go elsewhere so that a funeral may be attended by all? The Human Resources Department staff members were not only helpful, but their compassion was on their sleeves as they helped us through the maze of paperwork that we had to deal with. Receptionists, people at the Police Department (as well as the officers) all had a good word to tell me about Doug whenever I had reason to come in contact with them. It became easy to see why Doug enjoyed his job and the people he worked with.

The Public Works people at the “shop” and around town were never too busy to wave or stop what they were doing to see how things were going with us. I spent a lot of time walking in the different parks that Doug had been responsible for and they made sure any flowers I left stayed where they were until I came and picked them up. When the idea came up to name something after Doug, we were overwhelmed.

The project that this idea became is what it is because of all the wonderful people that we got to work with. They let us be involved from the planning stages to actual labor in building the planter and walkway and planting the garden. The Doug Allen Sportsfields entrance now says, “Come on in!” I have had more people make comments about how great the dog carving looks. Thank you Mick, your talent is unmatchable.

The Allen family and April Northrup thank you all from the bottom of our hearts and then some. Words don’t describe it. If I tried to name everybody, I would miss someone. That doesn’t mean you are forgotten or unappreciated. The turnout at the Doug Allen Sportsfields dedication shows that we are truly living in a special place. Thank you.

Steve and Joanne

Allen family

April Northrup

and family

Is it a success

or a failure?

The Reporter’s story saying “success stories can come from the unlikeliest places” (Sept. 24) may have identified a local “failure.”

A failure to understand that population growth exacerbates every “growth management” problem we have, whether it involves social and educational services, traffic congestion or a too-rapidly-increasing community “population footprint.”

Terrie Battuello, Bothell assistant city manager, was given an award for renovating Park Royal Apartments that had been serving mostly Mexican legal and illegal immigrants. This apartment constitutes one of numerous lures this area has provided for ever-increasing numbers of immigrants to move here. Immigrants and their children who arrived in this country after 1970 constitute more than 90 percent of its growth.

The failure of so-called “growth management” is not understanding how lures like these apartments (and the social services) creates unsustainable trends in this community.

Richard Pelto

Kenmore

Phonathon

on the horizon

The state of Washington does not provide funding for textbooks or other classroom materials. With more than $17 million per year in unfunded mandates, Northshore schools have not been able to fund a complete textbook adoption in more than a decade. Changing educational standards mean many textbooks are outdated or simply worn out.

The Northshore Public Education Foundation (NPEF) is focusing its November phonathon campaign on raising $1 million for updates to textbooks and classroom teaching materials. While that may seem like a very ambitious goal, it represents just $50 for each student in the district.

NPEF is focused on enhancing educational opportunities for ALL Northshore students. We do this in a variety of ways: funding new textbooks and teaching materials, as well as providing classroom teacher grants, science kits, teacher training and much more.

At a time when it may be difficult to know how each of us can make a real difference in promoting excellence in education, NPEF is offering a way to do that through our fall phonathon campaign. The campaign runs Nov. 11-17. Join us in our efforts to put new textbooks in our students’ hands and new teaching materials in our classrooms. For more information, visit www.npefoundation.org. Thanks for your support.

Ed Todd

Executive director,

Northshore Public

Education Foundation

Gregoire vs. Rossi

I watched the debate recently between Gov. Chris Gregoire and Dino Rossi, and what surprised me the most is that Gregoire seems to actually believe that she has taken major steps toward fixing our transportation mess. I understand that for many, like her, who have spent most of their lives in government committee hearings, they actually start to believe that reading a report from a task-force subcommittee is “doing something.”

What Gregoire has done over the past four years is spend hundreds of millions of dollars of your money on consultants and task forces, without any real improvement in transportation. If someone was watching the debate but didn’t live in the state, it might sound like she has accomplished many things with the 9.5-cent gas-tax hike. Hopefully, a majority of voters (both legal and illegal) in Washington actually reside in-state and know that we need Rossi, that we need someone who is more concerned about results for the people of the state than in funneling funds to more of her consultant friends on an unnecessary task force as Gregoire has done.

Apollo Fuhriman

Bothell