I’ve lived in North Bend for 50 years, and that’s not half the age of the Tollgate farmhouse.

If you wanted to go to Snoqualmie Pass at the turn of the century, you paid a toll at the farm. This building was given to the city for preservation. The city had all kinds of regulations for historical buildings, but apparently the farm isn’t historical enough to apply the rules. A while back, I saw a new, shiny asphalt roof go on, and thought that would help preserve the building until the city got enough money to put on a more expensive shake roof. The next improvement was to tear off the original porch and install a shiny set of aluminum handrails.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. I figured the next improvement would be a new aluminum screen door and windows!

Tell the city to provide me with an approved, engineered drawing for a set of wood handrails, and I’ll be happy to install them free, and return the aluminum rails to be installed on some other historic building.

Maybe we can get a few donations from the Valley and buy some wood shakes for the roof.

I really hate to see what the city is doing to this historic building. I know it’s small, but most things start out that way.

With a little luck, blackberries are soon going to cover that building, and nobody will know what the city’s done with it.

Andre Lavigueure

North Bend