Recently I was driving on the Middlefork Road and saw all the

signs that said, “Weyerhaeuser, listen to the people.” I thought to myself, I

wonder what people they were supposed to listen to. The people who work in

Seattle, Bellevue, Issaquah, Redmond, Kirkland and everywhere else out

of the Valley, or the people who have raised their children, working

for Weyerhaeuser, and fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, as

well as the mothers, grandmothers and maybe great-grandmothers who

also raised their families while working for Weyerhaeuser here in the Valley?

They maybe don’t realize it, but they are the ones who are causing

traffic jams. If everyone who works out of the Valley had to live where

they work, there would be no problem.

The elk and deer would still have a place to live without development

encroaching on them from all sides. And the roads would be safe to drive

on again, free of congestion and road rage. People would live in their

high-rise apartments and condos and walk to work.

If new jobs came into the Valley, as gravel pits reopen, or sawmills,

computer makers or whatever else moves in, there would still be

some growth, but the people who work here would live here, and the traffic

would be no problem.

Maybe it would be cheaper to buy out all the houses that people who

do not work in the Valley live in and remove their houses, preferably with

a D-9 Cat, and replant it with trees that once grew there than spend billions

of dollars on new highways for them to get to work.

I say our property taxes, gasoline taxes, sales taxes and all the rest

of the taxes have gone up enough, and if people choose to live in our

beautiful Valley and commute, then they should be the ones to foot most of the

bill. The gravel pit was there before almost anyone lived in that area. Come

on now, you commuters are the problem.

Larry L. Anderson

Fall City