More details needed | LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Published 7:03 am Monday, July 26, 2010

To the editor:

Over the next year South Whidbey voters may be asked to consider three ballot measures affecting their tax bills: the increase in Island County property taxes, the South Whidbey School District bond and very likely a Whidbey General Hospital bond.

The South Whidbey Record has done a good job discussing the county and school-district situations and their proposed tax and bond measures, but this newspaper acts as if Whidbey General Hospital does not exist.

The hospital district commissioners are elected officials just as the county commissioners and the school district board, and they deserve the same news coverage as these other officials. The bond issue is an ongoing topic at hospital board meetings, but this draws no coverage from your paper. Yet every detail of the issues for the county and school measures has been reported.

I don’t know if the hospital bond is something I would support at the ballot, but I’d hope that the South Whidbey Record would encourage public discussion of the issue by providing news coverage.

Tom Leahy

Freeland