Council, mayor ignoring pleas

Published 1:05 am Friday, October 3, 2008

In a part of the country that gets more gray days than sunny days during the winter months, it would seem an act of complete indifference by the mayor and City Council, and a lack of concern for the happiness and health of all its citizens, to not be vitally interested in alleviating a situation when it is in your power to do so. Letters and a plea from several of us living in the Park Place Townhouses at the rear of the post office have produced no positive action to our complaint.

It seems there is an ordinance made several years ago that a 6-foot fence plus 6-foot evergreen trees be planted between a business and residences. They were to create a “visual, as well as sound, barrier.” The fence was built when the townhouses were built 12 years ago. The fence was already a visual barrier when the post office was built six years ago.

The post office was required to plant the trees, but they are really a hazard – to them as well as us. The employees park their cars along this area where the fence and trees are planted. The high winds we get in North Bend caused one tree to lean so badly, the post office had to have it removed last summer. Then this past December, one-third of another tree blew down. They could blow over onto and damage the fence belonging to the townhouse association.

Our problem is the height of these trees. They were fast-growing cedars and are now towering to such a height (and still growing) that they are creating a visual barrier to us of the sun, light and our previous view of Mount Si and the mountains to the east – views all of which we had prior to the growth of these trees.

Supposedly the trees were to deaden any business noises – so the “experts” claim. Buy they do not do so. If they did, we would not be experiencing the sleep-disturbing noises at 3 a.m., six days of the week when the mail is delivered from Seattle. This problem is being worked on by the post office.

The solution to the tree problem is to restore them to a 6-foot height as stipulated in the ordinance, remove them entirely (as they do not accomplish their purpose) or change the ordinance to accommodate extenuating circumstances such as ours.

Government is supposed to be “for the people.” It is to serve the best interests of the citizens, not to deprive them of their well-being. Our first-floor living quarters face north and have only one source of natural light, a sliding-glass door facing the fence with the trees now towering in back of it.

We ask you to please restore what we have had taken away, for no really effective reason – that which we have lost. The only compensation we ask is permission to regain the views of the sun, sky and our mountain. We are willing to accept the cost of their removal or restoration to the original 6-foot requirement.

Mary Lou McKibben

North Bend