Due to an oversight two decades ago, the streets adjacent to the public gym had no signage to instruct where it was or was not legal to park. When the problem was previously brought to the attention of our city officials it was not considered important. Our new mayor Becky Erickson, when told of the problem, told us who to see on her staff.

Andrezej Kasniak, assistant Public Works director, listened to our concerns and jumped in our car and walked the neighborhood with us so he could see for himself the issues. He concurred with the problems. People in the community were parking over the sidewalks and utility access strips, parking in no parking areas and in the street, blocking emergency vehicle access. This is all because proper signage and enforcement was not implemented. The signage was installed (in a timely manner), a pamphlet telling residents the proper and legal way to park was passed out (the next day) and over the following weeks leaflets were placed on the windshields of offenders who did not park correctly as a warning. The whole process was to not impact the residents negatively but to enforce the laws.

As a taxpayer and resident in Poulsbo I appreciate the way the whole affair has been handled by the caring staff of our mayor and the open-door policy of our present mayor in action. Now the disabled, children and elders in our community are not forced into the street with the traffic and can use the sidewalks for what they were designed for. I would like to thank voters in Poulsbo for installing a caring mayor.

I would also like to acknowledge the prompt action of the director of Public Works who, after a phone call asking if we could get some paint from him to paint the fire hydrants in our community, sent over his crew and painted all the fire hydrants on our side of town. It sure makes the whole town look better.

Ron Savage

Poulsbo