Derailing Wrong

The other night after a meeting in Tillicum on the Point Defiance Bypass Project, an elderly gentleman approached and asked if I still thought I wanted to serve on the Lakewood City Council.

“After all,” he said, “you’re going to be putting up with this kind of thing.”

He had asked a very good question. 

While on Lakewood's campaign trail, I have been asked numerous questions and heard many opinions, but no one has directly asked me if I am willing to confront issues like the Point Defiance Bypass Project. 

Yes, I am.

I am committed to this city, its citizens and – in this particular instance – to derailing the Amtrak project.

Lakewood is not a piñata to be batted around because the WSDOT and Amtrak want to/have to spend federal dollars that bring nothing to Lakewood.

Which brings me back to the gentleman who was talking with me.

He went on to say that he and his wife would soon sell their home and move.

“This project will destroy my property value,” he said.

Losing property value in a section of Lakewood that already feels ignored because Amtrak wants to reroute its tracks is wrong.

I think the City of Lakewood can derail the Point Defiance Project.   I don’t suppose for a moment this will be easy, but I do believe firmly it can be done.

The City and its elected officials should engage in protracted legal proceedings that “run out the clock” to where the money set aside for the project is finally withdrawn.

This elderly Tillicum resident should not have to move from a place he and his wife have called “home” for years because larger entities think Lakewood can be “batted” around.

I will work with all concerned to derail Amtrak’s project, and for that I ask for your support.